High School QB Could Have Gone Pro if Not for Promising Law Career

FRANKLIN COUNTY, Ind. -- Former high school quarterback James Bahl "totally could have gone pro" if not for a career-ending interest in the law, bar-certified sources confirm.

"I remember just before my senior season started. I was eighteen, and I had just been called to jury duty for the first time." said Bahl, "I remember sitting in that jury box, watching the attorneys fight for their clients. I thought, 'hey I could do that, and I wouldn't need to get hit in the head every goddamn week of my life.' In that moment, I knew my football days were done."

Though Bahl's mind was set, several outside forces still fought to set him on the path towards athletic glory, including Don McKinley, a recruiter for the Ohio State University's football program.

"We fought like hell to sign James." said McKinley, "That senior season I was at every single game, watching him play. It was a little sad. He still had every bit of talent, but you could tell his mind and his heart were elsewhere. I remember later in the season I started seeing another recruiter in the stands: a younger guy from Columbia Law. James noticed him too, and after that, the two were inseparable. It's a shame to lose a good kid like that to the temptations of career stability."

McKinley wasn't the only one who was disappointed to see Bahl take a different path, as evidenced by Romesh Bahl, James's father.

"I told that boy a hundred times not to waste his god-given talent for American football, but does he ever listen to me?" said Romesh, "Now he's off defending clients in need of fair representation in the face of a corrupt and apathetic justice system, and I'm NOT sitting in a cozy club suite at Lucas Oil every Sunday. I swear I tried to steer my son straight, but some folks just won't listen to reason."

At press time, James's father is openly weeping in front of a custom-built trophy case, that now only holds James's several prestigious awards from the Indiana Bar Association.