Bleachers begins with the arrival of Neely Crenshaw, former Spartan football quarterback, to the small town of Messina. He parks his car at Rake Field, walking down the sideline as he approaches the bleachers. He remembers how they looked in the past: “ten thousand people once gathered on Friday nights to pour their emotions upon a high school football team” (4). It has been 15 years since Neely was number 19, the hero of the football team, and his return to Rake Field brings back a flood of vivid memories.

Neely recounts the reason Rake Field is considered “sacred turf” (4). Neely himself never lost a game in his time as a quarterback, but what really put Messina on the map, and Coach Eddie Rake in the position of town savior, was The Streak. The Streak was over a decade of wins—84 in a row—earning the team a national record. Ever since then, the town of Messina has an insatiable need to win. Neely passes a new, bronze statue of Rake that lists his incredible stats. Not far in the distance is Rake’s home, where his family is gathered around his death bed.