Back in March, when I was just a random new create who happened to stumble upon this league, I couldn’t picture myself having to make such tough decisions; nor did I expect them so soon, and it’s because I’ve placed myself in this situation. The last part is what really shocks me. Despite having no friends or external links to connect to this league, I have elevated myself to a valuable prospect. A quiet, often too quiet 7th round pick, courtesy of the London Royals (Thank you @Exilizer, @Highhaschdi, and @Modern_Duke).
I believe that no other locker room could match the fervor and camaraderie of London and that is the main reason I stayed around. This is not a slight to anyone else, thank you @mithrandir, @sakrosankt, @iStegosauruz, @thevoicelesscreator, @Blasoon, @Memento Mori, and Matty[sorry for not remembering the name] for reaching out to me. Everyone caught me at a bad time, but I plan to never make that mistake again. The work we accomplished in London has been beautiful, taking a second-year team to the Ultimini will probably be my best moment for a long time. We helped establish one of the best cultures not only in the DSFL, but in the ISFL as well. As our team grew, so did my competitiveness. I became stricken with addiction to be better until I can stand on equal footing with the legends, but then I learned another facet of this league: off-field contributions. After losing a pro-bowl spot to an inactive player, I wondered if I was doing enough around the league aside from crafting a decent player?
I started to write, started to craft my little research pieces, started to dabble in the sim(thank you Mori and @Amidships for helping me get started, thank you @Sylphreni and Duke for providing insight on how to utilize everything within) hoping that the more I contributed, the more my name would grow with respect around the league. But alas, I caught on too late and made a massive surge up the draft boards that put myself out of most teams’ reach unless they traded for me. The pre-draft scouting was probably the most fun I had, I received open and honest feedback about the positives and negatives about my career and my user up to that point. I would like to thank all the ISFL GM’s (NSFL at the time) from season 22 that valued my contributions. I would like to thank the three teams that did not scout me: Orange County, San Jose, and Baltimore for being honest about why they glossed over me in scouting. Those new perspectives kept a healthy balance in my expectations, especially when Baltimore became the lucky team to draft me.
@"Laser" and @ckroyal92, your respective responses were instrumental into keeping me around and maintaining an open mind. @Huskies311 and HighHasch, thank you for helping me believe that I can be myself whenever and not have to worry about putting on facades. I used to let words of others get me on edge, but now some of those players are gone, whether because they had low fatigue levels or they are in ISFL jail, and I’ve slowly learned that there are a lot of people here I don’t know, but we tend to like the same things(why else would we all be here? Haha). The Baltimore locker room may not be the loudest, most raucous, most chaotic, most attractive locker room, but I can say that they are the most spirited locker room. A great group of players dedicated to making the most out of their players. I was expecting a more toxic environment based on other horror stories I have heard about teams that suddenly implode, but huskies and @Dewalt27 kept the locker room upbeat. I was excited mainly because I got to be teammates with @Tonzy and Amid. Amid seemed like one of the coolest guys around after London picked up his brother-in-law, @Attopax, on waivers and we got to witness one of the best rivalries for a few weeks.
But alas, Tonzy and Amid both had bigger dreams and we only spent half a season together and it is awesome how Dewalt and huskies were able to keep everyone happy and still manage to move those guys without any strife. Our season did not turn out well at all, but these guys know what they are doing. I have been trying to re-sim seasons and cannot believe how productive I have been in the real season. But it was not all sunshine, we became a meme team after the “xth” road game of losing on late game interceptions and then expansion news dropped to turn the rain into a hurricane.
Expansion hit our team the hardest, we were losing our GM, who replaced our long-time GM at the start of the season, in addition to also losing one of our best war room members. But the fact that they found their mistake within our offense midway through the season instead of punting the whole season speaks to why these guys are gm’s and why we lost two guys to expansion gm roles.
All this positive work did have a downside, it put a spotlight on my player I was not ready for. The long-term vision I had for the Hawks quickly dissipated as I read around the league. I could connect the dots, I knew what was coming, I turned myself into a hot commodity by virtue of my own work, but I was in denial about this aspect of becoming a dedicated player. I eventually collected myself, as I wondered if I could never land a league job, then when and why are people taking flyers on me? Huskies and @Buttersqauch101 were both understanding, I offered myself on the trade block so I could bring some assets back to the team and they saw it just like that. I told them not to put any other veteran player below me on the protection list. I was the new guy, I have not mastered a craft yet, I have not established a footing in this league yet, there is no way I could ever be that selfish. It is very unfortunate Baltimore must lose three players and even though my original contract was set to expire this offseason, I cannot return to Baltimore next season.
Therefore, a lot of people have a gripe with free agency, me included, due to the general lack of player movement, especially of quality. I am here to say that with the end of S24, Lesean Paris Crooks is officially an unrestricted free agent and looking to bring a little extra drama to this offseason as I hope to transcend from no name to a name. I look forward to getting in touch with as many teams, hopefully all of them(already have one team off the list, excluding Baltimore), as possible and having the opportunity to freely talk about all topics without the risk of tampering charges.
My main goal is to eventually become a person trusted enough to hold a league job and therefore ascend my player/user up another level up the food chain. To my Baltimore brethren, this farewell is not intended to be permanent, I would not feel right not returning in the future at some point and at least giving the fans more than one season of me. Butters, I am sure you will have the team a consistent playoff threat again. For the rest of the league, this is the opportunity to learn about me and not make the same mistake twice.
