Red Zone Character Analysis

Imagine owning half of an entire NFL football team. Well this is what it is like to be Jack Molloy in Red Zone. I’m reading Red Zone by Mike Lupica, and I’m on page 212. In Red Zone, Jack Molloy just led the New York Hawks to a Super Bowl. Even though they didn’t win, offers are coming in from everywhere to purchase the team. Jack needs to decide what to do with his half of the team before the season begins. In the novel, three lessons that Jack learns are money can’t buy you everything, loyalty is worth more than money, and that you should think hard before you do something.

First of all, in the beginning of the novel Jack learns about how money can’t you everything. Jack is off on vacation after the Hawks just lost in the Super Bowl. While

Eventually, Jack made a deal with Dick Miles that he’d sell him his half of the New York Hawks. Jack and Dick both agreed that they would manage the team together, but once it was all laid out the situation didn’t look as pretty as it seemed. Jack and Dick have mixed opinions about some of the team decision-making. They seem to grow a rancor between each other. This makes Jack regret his decision of selling Dick half of his half of the team. As Jack and Billy are talking, Billy tells Jack: “You need to stay and fight. You can fight behind enemy lines, but it’s no better from where you are now” (Lupica 110). Billy is telling Jack that even though the deal is done he still needs to fight for the team. Now that neither Jack nor Dick were the omnipotent owners of the team they’d have to both agree on decisions, but Dick seems to take matters into his own hands. Both Jack and Billy know that Dick doesn’t have ownership of the team for the right reasons, but it is too late to take it back. Jack knows that he shouldn’t have sold any part of the team to Dick, but he just wasn’t thinking at the time. Later on, Jack takes more precaution when letting part of the team up for grabs. When there is something to be done for the team Jack is first to do it because he doesn’t want to things to get even worse. Now he makes sure to think deeply about all team related decisions and to keep Dick Miles under his radar.

Ultimately, the three lessons of money can’t buy you everything, loyalty is more important than money, and to think before you do something are all very significant to the plot of the novel. These three lessons are not only meaningful to the plot, but they are also meaningful to life in general. I hope Jack Molloy is able to get the team back in order and that he took just as much away from those lessons than I