Even though Tom realizes that he will never reach economic and occupational success as a quarterback, he continues to go to work each day and diligently complete the tasks assigned to him. This is most consistent with which form of adaptation in Merton's anomie theory.

Ritualism can be defined as the way in which a person continue to carryout a particular task by been consistent with it despite knowing or realizing that he would achieve greater things with the tasks. This type of person tend to continue with their tasks or work on a daily basis even though the person knows that he wont be able to achieve is goals or objective or be successful with it and this also happen because the individuals give up on trying to achieve his goals and objective but made up their mind in which they continlue to do the legitimate means by trying to follow the rules for their own sake.

Therefore according to the scenario it most consistent with the form of adaptation in Merton's anime thereof RITUALISM