Gauntlet 2.10 - The Wright Family

Gauntlet : The Wright Family
Genre : Sports / Drama
Showrunner: Antoine Fuqua
Writer : Matt Parker

Cast: William Fichtner, Josh Duhamel, Trevor Jackson, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Jared Keeso, William Sadler, Dana Delany and Jaimie Alexander

Plot: After a win over the Dallas Knights at home in Memphis, the Pharaohs celebrate in the locker room. Everyone that is except for Alex Wright (Patrick Schwarzenegger), who is agonizing over a pick-six he threw toward the end of the game to almost let the Knights back into the game. Tim Collins (Josh Duhamel) tells him to lighten up and not to worry about it. The most important thing is that the team won. Football is a team sport and winning is all that will ever matter. He tries to explain that winning will make every mistake forgotten, but Wright is tuning him out and already looking at the play on a tablet. Wright says that his form was off - he threw off his back foot.

Coach Ken Heath (William Fichtner), Offensive Coordinator Stan Swift (Jared Keeso), and Collins meet in Heath's office while the team is in the showers. Collins mentions his concerns that Wright is over analyzing. Swift tries to argue that there's no such thing as too much analysis. Collins sarcastically asks Swift what AFA team he was quarterback for. Collins says that quarterbacks need a short memory or else they'll be up in their heads too much and the mistakes will only spiral out from there. Swift doesn't think it's anything to worry about, but Heath shuts him down saying that it's something they should keep an eye on come practice on Tuesday.

Wright knocks on Coach Heath's office door, and Heath invites him in. Wright tells Heath that his parents are in town and he was wondering if Heath would be interested in meeting them. He says his mom keeps asking to meet his new coach, so he figured now might be a good time for it. Hoping that it could help ease his young quarterback's mind, he agrees to have dinner with his family Monday night. Wright thanks Heath for his time and leaves the office. Heath comments to Collins that in all his years of coaching he's never been asked such a thing.

As the team is leaving the stadium, Wright is approached by reporter Natalie Cornish (Jaimie Alexander) approaches him and asks if he'd be interested in doing a one on one interview with her. He says he would have to run it by the team first. She gives him her business card. Jefferson Thomas (Trevor Jackson) and Tim Collins encourage Wright to do the interview. Thomas says the worst case scenario is that he gets to spend a little one on one time with a beautiful woman AND gets free publicity. Collins agrees with Thomas' assessment. Wright runs after Natalie and tells her that he'd like to do the interview with her. She asks if he's free Monday morning. He says his parents are in town, but he can probably slip away for a couple hours.

Jefferson Thomas meets with Coach Heath where he tells his coach that now that he has a family on the way, he really wants to set down roots and tells his coach that he would be interested in working out an extension with the team. Heath says that Thomas still has another season left on his rookie contract, and the team's owner generally shies away from extending players early in case something doesn't pan out. Heath says that if Thomas wants an early extension, he'll have to really earn it out on the field over the next couple of games, then he could probably convince the owner to go for it. Thomas thanks Heath for his time and says he'll get out there and prove the owner wrong.

Alex Wright arrives at the studio and finds that the interview is really a one on one. There are just two cameras set up and no crew in sight. Natalie tells him that she has it set up that way to help lower the guard of her interview subjects. The interview starts out pretty standard, but as it goes on Natalie starts to become more flirtatious with Wright. After the interview, Wright asks Natalie if she acts that way during all her interviews. Natalie says she doesn't know what he means. Wright then decides to ask Natalie out on a date. Natalie accepts, and they plan a date for Tuesday night.

Monday night at dinner, Wright sees Coach Heath enter the restaurant and introduces him to his father Marvin Wright (William Sadler) and Trudy Wright (Dana Delany). Marvin tells Heath that he taught Alex everything he knows and even coached his high school team to a district championship. Heath says that explains Alex's knowledge of the game. Marvin then asks Heath what he thinks of Alex's late game pick six. Heath says that he and his coaches are still going over the tape and that any issues will be addressed during practice, but that he's not too worried about a play at the end of a winning game. Trudy tries to change the subject away from football and asks Alex if he's met any girls in Memphis yet. Alex is about to answer, but Marvin interrupts, telling Heath that he has already talked to Alex about the throwing off his back foot like he did. Alex excuses himself from the table and heads outside. He calls Natalie and says that he knows they already made plans for Tuesday, but asks what she's doing now.