*Prospect Profile: Saleem Spence - Wide Receiver

*Prospect Profile: Saleem Spence - Wide Receiver - Printable Version

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*Prospect Profile: Saleem Spence - Wide Receiver - StadiumGambler - 12-21-2020

As the end of Season 26 approaches, scouts in the ISFL and DSFL are already looking ahead to the next crop of young talent to re-stock their shelves, and one prospect is turning heads in Canadian University football: Wide Receiver Saleem Spence.

The Canadian youngster is currently tearing it up in his 3rd year of play for the University of Manitoba Bison, as the 5-1 team is being paced nicely by Spence's on-field production of 62 receptions for 870 yards and 12 touchdowns, all of which lead the Canadian college ranks. The 6'3 220lb. wideout has thrived in every area of the field this year and has been a terror to cornerbacks nationwide, with his surprising quickness, good hands, and intense determination to make tough catches in crowded areas. Spence is considered an outside candidate for the Hec Creighton Trophy (The Canadian university football equivalent of the Heisman), and is regarded by many insiders as the best young Wide Receiver in Canadian football at the moment.

Catching touchdowns isn't the hardest thing Spence has had to do in life though. Like many football players of urban descent that we, the overpaid parasitic media, decide to zero in on for tragic life stories to produce quick and easy clickbait, Spence has had to come up through life the hard way. Born in Cape Town, South Africa to his parents Malcolm and Jacinda, Saleem grew up in a relatively high-class neighbourhood at first, as his father Malcolm was a highly reputed and successful doctor, known for his caring attitude towards patients and quality work. Malcolm was nominated "Doctor Least Likely To Gouge The Shit Out Of You When They Send You The Bill" by the South African Medical Patients Association, and was considered an important fixture in his local community.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck when an early sprig of the controversial anti-vaxxer movement made its way to South Africa, and eventually targeted Dr. Malcolm Spence, who suffered many grievous abuses at the hands of what was pretty much a terrorist movement against him and his profession. After being subjected to heinous crimes such as office bombings, tire slashings, grand theft auto, grand theft property, arson, and the Spence's family dog being fed Burger King in an attempt to poison it, authorities finally managed to arrest the terrorists. However, anonymous threats over phone and attempted blackmail persisted, and Malcolm had had enough, uprooting his family from South Africa and setting search for a new fortune abroad.

After several miscommunications and some bad advice from the worst travel agent in South Africa, the Spence family ended up in a less than ideal place: Compton, California. Young Saleem Spence had just turned 8 at the time, and loved the urban locale, quickly being assimilated into the youth ranks of the local neighbourhood gangs, and playing various sports. However, after being told by the entirety of Compton that his old favourite sport soccer was for "pussies", Saleem found his new favourite sport: American football. Saleem took to the game like a dolphin to water, developing the fundamental skills he shows today at a very young age.

"I learned all my skills in route running from playing sandlot football in the Compton parks." said Saleem with a look of nostalgia on his face. "You had to be really careful out there drawing up post corner routes, otherwise you'd stumble on used syringes, discarded murder weapons, picket signs that say "Snitches get Stitches", dead bodies, all the usual stuff. So I learned to draw up a good route to take into account how badly I could burn my defender and what I needed to step around to burn him. It's the reason why I score any touchdowns today, was cause of all that route running I learned as a young'un."

While Saleem was finding success on the gridiron however, his father was having a hard time in the medical profession. Malcolm Spence was forced to set up an improvised medical clinic in the garage of his house, where he tended to the usual motley crew of shooting victims, abused dog-fighting dogs, abused cockfighting cocks, the occasional lost wandering white guy exploring the urban jungle, and injured rappers participating in underground fighting tournaments done under the AKI engine. Payments were thin and usually delayed, and daily dealings with bankruptcy legal officials in a vain attempt to squeeze blood from a stone were facts of life in the Spence household. Things got so bad that the Spence family had to pawn the rims off the family car and the PlayStation hooked up to their TV to meet the bills. Saleem got mocked and taunted at school regularly for his family declaring "hood bankruptcy" by doing such acts, but Saleem reached physical maturity quicker than his peers, and started learning how to take care of himself in a physical confrontation, an essential skill in Compton.

Unfortunately, things would escalate beyond the realm of physical confrontation for the Spence family. Malcolm Spence woke up one sunny June morning to find out that a hit had been put on him for his patch-up jobs from the night before: Malcolm had unknowingly tended the wounds of a Blood AND a Crip, and both gangs were a little out of sorts about it, sending several bullets through the Spence living room window in response.

This form of intimidation extended to young Saleem as well. On his way home from a middle school football game (one where Saleem had caught 15 passes for 152 yards and 3 touchdowns, including the game winner with 50 seconds left.), Saleem was suddenly targeted via drive-by shooting, with several Uzis firing at him from point blank range. Luckily, these gentlemen had Storm Trooper Aim Bot set to ON and proceeded to miss every shot, and were eventually themselves drive-byed upon by a rival gang. Then both gangs were drive-byed upon by another gang in a limousine Hummer. Eventually all three murder squads were rounded up by the LAPD, shot, and then sprinkled with crack cocaine in the traditional fashion, with Saleem managing to hide amidst the confusion.

The truly harrowing thing about these incidents, however, is that they happened more than once to Saleem, including the part where the drive-by shooters were then drive-byed on. Imagine that. It quickly became clear to the Spence family that life in Compton would not result in success. Thus, Saleem Spence said goodbye to his childhood and childhood friends, as the Spence family decamped to another city for the second time in his young life.

The Spence family had prioritized picking out a city that was nice and respectable to live in, a city that held promise, a city that held possibilities for success and personal growth. How the Spence family ended up living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada under that criteria is still a mystery to anyone involved. Nonetheless, the Spence family settled into a nice house in an older neighborhood in the fall of Spence's Grade 9 year, Malcolm quickly found a job at a reputable clinic, and young Saleem was promptly enrolled in Southside High School to start his new life.

Southside High School in Winnipeg is better known to sports fans nowadays as the starting point in the career of respected SBA journeyman guard Gerald Eddy of the Chicago Nightmare. Saleem quickly showed the kind of promise in football that the school legend Gerald Eddy showed in basketball, leading the Winnipeg high school league in receptions in all 4 years of play, and led in receiving touchdowns in his Grade 11 and 12 seasons. Saleem set a record unlikely to be broken anytime soon by a Winnipeg wideout, catching 20 passes for 311 yards in a resounding 69-3 blowout of Shit Creek Collegiate. In his Grade 12 year, Saleem caught an eye-popping 151 passes for 2231 yards in 11 games for the Southside High Raptors, leading them to a victory parade of a championship win in the Manitoba provincials.

Saleem also proved an able enough student to pass his classes with ease, and his academic record, combined with his far, far more important ability to catch touchdowns caught the eye of many Canadian and even a few American universities. However, Saleem made what some would consider the "easy choice" for his college career, as he elected to stay close to home and accept a full scholarship to play football for the University of Manitoba.

As Saleem revealed in later interviews, the full ride scholarship and being close to home to minimize expensive travel was a key factor in Saleem's decision to commit to Manitoba. Saleem had felt the need to earn some extra income for the Spence family during a tense layoff period for his father, and ended up taking a slew of dead end jobs to help make ends meet: Shoe shiner, food deliverer, sandwich artist, World Star Hip-Hop fight cameraman, and Manitoba Minister of Education. None of these awful jobs seemed to stick, however, so Saleem was grateful for the free ride to college to avoid paying a literal arm and a leg to textbook companies.

Saleem Spence burst onto the Canadian university football scene as a freshman, catching 49 passes for 630 yards and 4 touchdowns as a tertiary option for the Bison en route to a 5-3 record. The Bison bowed out in the Hardy Trophy Semifinals that year to the favoured Calgary Dinos 34-28, but Spence did turn some heads with a 50 yard touchdown reception, catching the ball on a curl route and trucking 4 defensive backs en route to the end zone.

Saleem Spence's sophomore season (hey, alliteration!) was a breakout campaign for the gritty wideout, as he caught 65 passes for 911 yards and 9 touchdowns over the 8 game season, leading the Bison to a 6-2 record. Spence saved his biggest games for the postseason however, catching 10 for 112 and 3 TDs against the Calgary Dinos in the Hardy Trophy Semifinal, before taking over the Hardy Trophy Finals against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, racking up a dozen receptions for 187 yards and 3 more scores en route to a 41-27 win for the Bison, sending them tot he Vanier Cup playoffs to compete for best in the nation.

Spence ended up being a non-factor in the Bison's eventual Vanier Cup win, only catching 6 passes in 2 games. However, Spence didn't receive a failing grade for his performances in either game: as Manitoba battled through a curtain of sleet to defeat both the Guelph Gryphons and the Laval Rouge et Or in low scoring games (13-7 and 9-6, respectively). Spence was instead praised for his toughness and ability to make a couple key first down receptions in tough coverage, while also showing some glimmers of blocking talent in the redzone.

With a Vanier Cup under his belt, Spence has come out confident and free of unease in his junior year, with the aforementioned 62 receptions for 870 yards and 12 touchdowns in just 6 games. Spence has progressed rapidly over his time in the college ranks, and is widely tipped to be dropping out of Manitoba's program after junior year to declare for the DSFL draft. With the eclectic backgrounds of the various players in the draft taken into account, Spence has as good a chance of being taken as anybody else at his position.

"Saleem Spence has the drawback of being Canadian instead of American, which means hes inferior to a lot of comparable talents from the get-go." said one anonymous DSFL scout. "But even if hes playing against inferior competition, those numbers and that level of production stand out. Spence could have a good shot in the dark at becoming a freak prodigy receiver for an ISFL team if he keeps working hard."

"Red Zone and Possession guys aren't always favoured by teams who want more speed in the modern game." said an anonymous ISFL scout. "But Spence could have upside comparable or better than a guy like Action Jackson or William Alexander. He could be a strong #2 option for a contending team, maybe even more than that."

Despite Spence's upside, there are rumoured downsides to the big man born in South Africa. Saleem Spence has been rumoured to be a bit of a hot headed, rash player at times, accumulating some unsportsmanlike conduct penalties. Saleem has claimed many times that this is a result of opposing DBs threatening to commit criminal activity upon his mother, and that being hot headed and emotional is good because he can channel it into his play. However in the ISFL, a league where professionalism is paramount (quit laughing back there I can hear you), it could be a black mark against a team's desire to take Spence in a draft.

Another worrying cause of concern, particularly for ISFL owners, is Saleem Spence's strong desire for justice. Spence has been outspoken on many issues affecting players in the college ranks, particularly in the realm of player pay, amateurism vs professionalism, and whether players are entitled to any money from endorsements. Spence got into a row with CIS officials over endorsement of the local Big Salami's Pizza Joint in Winnipeg, where Spence was told in no uncertain terms to tear up a $500 check for appearing in a radio ad, otherwise trained CIS officials would release the hounds on him. Spence made the argument on Twitter that sending dogs on someone for taking a check while they're poor and eating ramen in college was a little unnecessary, an opinion agreed upon by 101% of people.

Spence, not one known for backing down from a confrontation, then proceeded to make veiled threats and references to a pair of landmark lawsuits in college sports history that decimated NCAA basketball, where players from the UCLA Bruins won the right to profit from their likenesses in forms of media, namely video games. This was followed by a depth charge lawsuit where over 150 former collegiate players had terms breached on their scholarship funds, leading to said funds being invested by the NCAA into fitness and nutrition companies, instead spending it on player essentials such as food passes, a place to live, tuition fees, and school supplies. That lawsuit led to the creation of the SBDL as a development league to replace the purpose of the NCAA to the SBA, and clearly has CIS football worried. CIS officials were rumoured to be handing down a formal suspension to Saleem Spence for his actions, only to back off when the mind behind the NCAA lawsuits, lawyer Dr. Nguyen Van Foch, said in a press release that he would represent Spence in court if he were "suspended by the CIS for speaking truth."

(Skilled attorney Dr. Nguyen Van Foch has made a reputation off of representing athletes in court successfully.)

Spence is also rumoured to be at odds with the University of Manitoba coaching staff. After the Vanier Cup, retirements and departures for the greener pastures of American college football freed up a spot for a new offensive coordinator in Drake Letterman. The controversial Georgia coach, known for his spartan training methods, had a row with Spence on the first day of training camp, when Spence and 98% of the team refused the mandated Day 1 Oklahoma drills on the concrete of the U of Manitoba parking lot. Heated words were exchanged, and Letterman was rumoured to be considering major cuts to the squad before things were smoothed over. While the Bison have played well in Letterman's scheme, Letterman has been critical of Spence and several other offensive producers publicly, praising their numbers and touchdowns, but criticizing their lack of important fundamentals, such as the blindside crack block (a favourite play of Letterman's).

Regardless of these issues, however, Saleem Spence is one to watch for any teams lower in the DSFL standings that are already looking towards next year. Spence could very well be a foundational piece to a championship puzzle in the DSFL (and beyond) for any team in need of a gritty, physical wideout who can get the job done in key situations.

RE: Prospect Profile: Saleem Spence - Wide Receiver - Pat - 12-21-2020

Holy hell this is what an introduction post looks like. Welcome to the league!

RE: Prospect Profile: Saleem Spence - Wide Receiver - Asked Madden - 12-22-2020

Saleem Spencer - one to watch for sure.