Disbelief welled in Nelson Peterson's eyes as the referee on the jumbo flat-screen television announced that the ruling on the field would stand.
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The pass that Peterson's son and Oklahoma's superstar, Adrian, had missed, the one that Texas had recovered in the end zone, was indeed a lateral.
Touchdown.
Ballgame.
Even though there was still time in the fourth quarter, Peterson knew the game was over with the Longhorns leading 28-10, the eventual final score.
So, as he sat in Oklahoma City, a few hundred miles from the Cotton Bowl, his emotions got the better of him.
"Because I know how he's feeling," Peterson said of Adrian. "It's a mutual feeling, you know."
Nelson Peterson watched Adrian and the Sooners play on television like he has every other college football Saturday the past few years. That's because he's been incarcerated since 1998 when he pleaded guilty to laundering money from the distribution of crack cocaine.
He spent eight years in federal prison, then the past four months at a halfway house in Oklahoma City. He was released Thursday but can't leave the state for 30 days.
Had he opted to live at a halfway house in his native Texas, he would've been at the Cotton Bowl on Saturday.
Instead, Peterson watched the OU-Texas game from the Daiquiri Zone in Bricktown.
"I know he'll be watching on TV," Adrian said earlier this week.
Nelson Peterson always has.
Still, this Saturday was different. Not because it was OU-Texas. This was the first time Peterson has watched a game while he's been out of prison.
"After you've experienced what I've experienced over the past eight years, you learn to appreciate the small things," he said. "Just to be able to sit here and watch a game without somebody telling you, 'It's time to go count' or 'Go to your room.'"
Peterson never imagined he'd be so grateful for such simplicity. He had plans for so much more.
Born in Palestine, Texas, where Adrian was born a few decades later, Nelson played basketball and football, but with his long, muscular frame, he opted to play basketball. He went to Lon Morris Junior College in Jacksonville, Texas, for two years, then to Idaho State for another two. As a senior, he scored 603 points and had one of the best seasons in the school's history.
Peterson tried out for NBA teams, then CBA teams. He dreamed of a professional career and a posh lifestyle.
When a pro contract never materialized, he went back to Palestine and worked at a Wal-Mart warehouse.
He also began trafficking crack cocaine in the early '90s. Peterson says no one thing led him to deal.
The downward spiral might have started when his brother accidentally shot him in the left leg while cleaning a rifle. A staph infection brought the possibility of amputation, and the injury left Peterson unable to work for the better part of two years.
Having 10 children who he was struggling to support caused further struggle.
"But I can't say that was it," Peterson said. "I think I had a little entitlement. Feeling like I could've kept pursuing my basketball career, and that was taken away from me with my injury." That's when he began dealing crack.
He thought his drug operation was low-key. He kept his job at Wal-Mart, after all. He coached his kids' little league teams -- even Adrian's football team. That's where Nelson taught him the mechanics that he still watches for now.
When the television replayed Adrian's 29-yard touchdown run -- which would end up being OU's only one -- Nelson watched with a look familiar to the Sooner Nation. The father has those wide, intense eyes just like the son.
"Put the ball in the right hand," Nelson said as Adrian broke tackles, darting down the left sideline before diving into the end zone.
His coaching endeared him to kids and adults alike in Palestine, yet he was not so popular with law enforcement. Authorities arrested him on Christmas Eve 1991, apprehending him with .25 grams of crack and more than $18,000 in cash. It was Peterson's first drug arrest.
Even though he thought he kept his dealings quiet, his behavior was all too loud. He made a $40,000 down payment on a house in cash. He bought a used Lexus in cash.
Warehouse workers making $8 an hour don't do such things.
When authorities busted the drug ring in 1998, they accused Peterson and 22 others of about $4 million in drug sales.
Peterson, who says that he never used crack, had more than $1 million at the time. He knew he couldn't fight the feds in court. With the possibility of life in prison, Peterson pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of money laundering. In 1999, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
His freedom wasn't the only thing he surrendered. Forfeited were three houses, three cars and about $205,000.
By far, though, the toughest thing was being separated from his kids. That's why he had all of them come for a visit when he found out earlier this year that his 10-year sentence would end early because of good behavior.
"What I did was I called the meeting of the minds," he said.
Peterson told them that he had to make a choice about where to go after his release. Palestine. Austin. Houston. Oklahoma City.
He wanted the kids to vote.
"I didn't want them to feel, 'He's running with Adrian because Adrian's doing good,'" Nelson said. "And everyone beside my baby girl ... wanted me to come to Oklahoma. They didn't want me to go back to Palestine. They said, 'Adrian's dealing with a lot of stuff. He needs you. And we think you should be there with him.'"
Adrian visited often during the summer, and even though his visits weren't as frequent once football started, father and son see each other as often as possible. They go to church on Sundays, and they have gone together to the barbershop.
"Just simple things," Nelson said. "That's what we missed out on."
After his release from the halfway house Thursday, Nelson went to Norman and ate at Chili's with Adrian.
"We could sit there and talk as long as we wanted."
Still, Peterson is not a free man. He must check in with his probation officer once a month, and may have to for three years.
"I look at it as a step in the process," he said.
He shrugged.
"I could be still in Texarkana."
Now, Nelson wants nothing more than to see his son play in person again. He was incarcerated long before Adrian played a high school game. All his requests to attend OU games were denied by the halfway house; he has yet to see his son as a Sooner.
That will change next week. Peterson is expected to attend OU's home game against Iowa State. For all the disappointment he felt Saturday, Nelson knows it will soon be replaced by a joy he's never known.
"It's all I've been thinking about."
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