The Big Game

Written by Barney Parmington

At least this time, the commute was worthwhile. For the past few months, I had been spending most of my time in Los Angeles to consult on a new TV show based on a Baltimore Detective. Being the premier Baltimore Detective, at least in my humble opinion, I was hoping that they would call the show “Uncle Buck” after me, but so far no luck. Still, they had chosen me for the honor of being the technical consultant. That had meant constant flights back and forth between Baltimore and LA. This week though, the return flight was worthwhile. This week my beloved Cleveland Browns were going to be playing the Baltimore Ravens.

For years since returning to the NFL, the Browns had struggled against all teams. This year was different though as suddenly the Browns were playing well. But in the NFL, when the calendar turns to November, the real football begins. That is crunch time when the winners keep winning and the others start to prepare for next year. For the first time in a long time, on this first weekend in November, the Browns were playing meaningful games. Best of all, I had 50 yard line tickets. I could not wait to get back to Baltimore.

As always, I was taking the redeye, leaving LA late Saturday night and arriving in Baltimore Sunday morning. Since most people never sleep much on these flights, everyone arrives with red eyes, thus the name. I however am different. I buckle my seat belt and fall asleep. Taking the plane like this saves me a day of travel time. I just hoped that wearing my Browns jersey on the plane was not going to cause the person next to me to want to chat all night.

We boarded the plane and I was relieved to see that the seat next to me was empty. I sat down, buckled my seatbelt and was fast asleep. The next thing I know, I am jolted awake as the plane lands in Baltimore. Just to make sure that no one could have remained asleep through the landing, the flight attendant announced in her ever cheerful voice, “Welcome to Baltimore where the local time is 7:35 am. Please remain in your seats as we taxi to the gate.” That did it, I was officially awake and in need of some coffee. As we taxied to the gate, I turned on my phone to check for messages. I was just setting my watch ahead two hours when my phone rang telling me I had a message marked urgent. The number was my buddy Mike, the director of security for the Ravens and the guy who got me the great seats for today’s game. Worried that he was going to tell me he could not get the tickets after all, I immediately called him back.

“Buck”, he said, “we have a major problem and I need your help.” I was relieved, as it did not sound like I was going to lose my tickets, so I asked, “What seems to be the problem?” “Someone stole the film of the Ravens’ last practice. It is the walk through in which they verify all the new plays, defenses, etc. for today’s game. Everyone is convinced the Browns did it. We need to find out what happened and fast.” I told him that I would meet him at the team office in 20 minutes.

Mike met me at the front door. After giving me a funny look for showing up at the Raven’s office in a Browns jersey, he quickly explained to me what happened. One of the assistant coaches went into the film room at 6:45 am to take one last look at the film and found that the film was gone. Mike was really upset that something like this could have happened. I told him to calm down and take me through what he knew.

The film room is at the end of a hallway. That hallway and two other hallways are covered by a 24-hour video camera. There are three security shifts, with each guard working an 8-hour shift. At the beginning of each shift, they put in a new blank 8-hour tape and it records the three monitors simultaneously. When their shift is over, the new guard takes the old tape out, puts in a new tape and stores the previous tape in order. Each monitor has a date/time stamp on it. The date and time come in off of the Internet, so there is no way that anyone can alter the time shown on the tape. The only person who has access to the video recorder is the security guard who is on duty; last night, that was Tom Barrett.

Mike said that they had watched the entire tape. Right at the beginning of the tape Chuck Jarrett, an assistant coach, was seen coming out of the film room. A little after midnight, Carli Antor, one of our interns, left the film room. No one else was in there until 6:45 in the morning when the film was found missing.

I suggested that we get everyone together and figure out what happened. Since Tom had stayed since the end of his shift, we started with him. I asked if anything unusual had happened that night. He told me no. As always he made his rounds and was relieved at the end of his shift. The only people he had seen were the two assistant coaches and the intern. I asked if any of them might have taken the film. He said that he had no idea.

Next we brought in Carli. She was looking a little nervous but still looked very nice for that early in the morning. I asked her what she was doing in the film room at midnight. “I was watching the film of the last practice to ensure that each player is doing what he is supposed to do with each new play. I have a checklist of each player and their assignments. I review all the new plays to make sure no last minute adjustments need to be made.” With that, she showed me the checklist on her clipboard. Just then, the day security guard walked by on his rounds, so I asked if we could talk with him. Mike introduced me to Rich Pender. Rich said that there was not much that he could say because the film was missing before he showed up for work at 7 am.

Since Chuck had not yet gotten in, I asked to take a look at the security tape myself. As Mike had said, Chuck left soon after the tape started. I fast-forwarded through empty tape until I saw Carli leave the film room at 12:43. I noticed that she had on a very tight fitting outfit and was carrying nothing but her clipboard. I fast-forwarded to the end of the tape. As I expected, the digital timer in the corner clicked off the time in order until 7:00 am when the tape ended.

Mike looked at me hopefully and asked if I needed to talk to the last two suspects. I told him that first I wanted to watch the tape again, so I rewound from 7 am back till Carli showed up at 12:43 am. I stopped the tape and was looking at Carli when Mike stuck his head in the room and said, “Two hours till game time. Let’s solve this later.” I told him no need to wait, I knew who did it.