Maria.

Her family is from Uruguay, but moved to America when she was 3. She is well known for winning Miss America as the representative from Missouri, and now she is moving on to acting.

I met Maria a few days after I was drafted to Kansas City. As the new “face of the franchise”, the Missouri Tourism Committee thought I would be perfect for their new ad campaign. There was me, along with one of each of the top young stars from each of the local pro teams, Kansas City’s own Don Cheadle, and Maria.

Maria was the toast of the city, even before her beauty made her world famous. As a child, she found herself in the national spotlight after winning the first ever-televised National Spelling Bee. From there, she went on to play field hockey for the University of Missouri, leading the team to a National Title (something even I couldn’t do at OSU). It wasn’t until after she graduated with her Bachelor’s in Theater and History that she was noticed by a talent agency, and thrown onto the pageantry circuit.

Me and Maria hit it off right at the photo shoot. Even the cameraman was enthralled with us, telling us how natural we looked in the photos he took of us together. You know, it’s pretty strange going on your first date, only to see a billboard of the two of you hanging above the restaurant. Anyway, our chemistry continued away from the cameras, and one date quickly became multiple. Things couldn’t have been better.

That is until I went and fucked it up. See, towards the end of my rookie season I blew out my knee, and was sidelined for the rest of the year. I was crushed as I not only established myself as a starter, but we had also worked our way into the Wild Card race. Sure enough, once I went down things started to fall to shit, and we eventually finished third in the division. I took things pretty hard, and one night after mixing my pain pills with a bottle of whiskey, I started a fight with Maria. I blacked out for most of it, but what I can tell you is what you probably already know. I was charged with domestic violence.

What followed was months of begging, crying and drinking. I damn near got cut from my contract because of the shape I was in at the beginning of the following year’s training camp. In the end, she took me back. But I couldn’t begin to tell you why.