January brought the specific grind that came with the middle of a long professional season — the excitement of October long since worn into routine, the visibility of a playoff spot still distant enough to feel uncertain, both Cole and Reese navigating what veteran players had warned them was the hardest stretch of any season, the long, gray middle where discipline mattered more than inspiration.
Reese's team hit a rough patch first — four straight losses in mid-January, the kind of skid that would have been unremarkable for an established franchise but felt, for a league still proving its own viability, like something closer to an existential threat. Sports radio hosts who'd praised the league's launch in October started asking pointed questions about sustainability, about whether the ea
