Player Piano

Doctor Harold Roseberry—the football coach and head of physical education at Cornell University—goes to the bar to meet a promising doctoral student, Buck Young. Roseberry has seen Buck play football and, because he’s so good, hopes to convince him to join the Cornell team. The football team has an astounding record, mostly because the university pays big money for its players—none of whom are actually students, since they’re not allowed to study and play sports at the same time. Roseberry has to keep up the team’s perfect record, but the university hasn’t bought him any good players in several years, which is why he wants to convince Buck to stop studying and start playing football.

At the bar, Roseberry tries to entice Buck with the prospect of a large salary. Buck asks if he could continue his studies if he played football, and Roseberry reminds him that there are “strict rules” against this. As Roseberry tries to convince Buck, a drunk young engineer stumbles over and says he has heard the entire conversation. His name is Ed Harrison, and he wants Buck to know the perils of working as an engineer: an injury on the football field will hurt less than becoming an engineer or manager. He adds that the corporate world is no place for anyone who can “recognize the ridiculous.” Roseberry sits back, realizing that Buck is only helping his case. 

Harrison tells Buck that what managers and engineers are doing isn’t good for the rest of the world. The prestigious people who get invited to the Meadows are nothing but “ten-year-olds at heart.” Everyone except Paul Proteus, who was fired. For this reason, Harrison has decided to move to the Everglades and find a place to hole up without any machines. When Buck asks why Harrison dislikes machines, the young engineer replies that machines are “slaves” who force people to compete with them. And “anybody that competes with slaves becomes a slave.”

After Harrison leaves, Roseberry and Buck make their way out of the bar to speak privately. On their way out, though, Doctor Halyard stops them to introduce himself. He is at Cornell to take the physical education test. Acting very friendly, Roseberry assures Halyard the test won’t take long. But then he takes a letter from his pocket and suggests that Halyard read it before the test. The letter is five years old, and Halyard realizes that he wrote it himself—it’s addressed to Cornell’s president, and it’s about Roseberry. Halyard explains in the letter that he saw Roseberry one evening and that his behavior was so off-putting that he should resign as head coach because he’s a disgrace to all students and alumni.

After Halyard skims the letter and awkwardly leaves, Roseberry turns to Buck and asks whether or not he’ll join the football team. When Buck hesitates, Roseberry throws out an even higher salary number, and Buck immediately accepts.