Antoine Delacour is a relatively quiet guy. Unassuming in many ways. When I arrive to the agreed location of our interview, he's already there, hunched over a laptop, typing rapidly. He doesn't even flinch as I sit down opposite him. After a few moments, his eyes flick up and he mutters, "Sorry, one moment". I wonder what I've gotten myself into, he doesn't seem half as talkative as he did in his first -- and to date, only -- NSFL presser some eighteen months ago. Maybe the pressures of pro football have dulled him? Who knows. I wait for him to finish, it takes him maybe another thirty seconds. Less than a minute, I'm sure. He closes the laptop before suddenly reverting to the familiar persona I remembered.
"Sorry about that, I was in the middle of some code." He grins sheepishly. "Hard to pick back up if I stop in the middle of a function."
I had forgotten he held a degree in computer science. At the risk of sounding prejudiced, he just doesn't look the type. I ask him what he was working on and he reels off a sequence of words that mean little to me. Something about databases and statistical analysis, with some other technical terms I don't understand. It takes him a moment to realise I'm lost. "Oh, sorry. I get carried away sometimes."
He says sorry a lot, I notice. Ironic, given that he has little to apologise for. As a senior member of the league leading Baltimore Hawks, and arguably a key component of their NSFC-leading defence, Delacour should easily rank among the league's best defensive backs. Last season he was rated among the top fifty players in the league, after all, and yet he chose to remain with the consensus worst team in the league. Why?
"It was still my team." He shrugs. "They were the ones who believed in me, and gave me a shot. I wasn't going to abandon them just because we had a bad year. I knew we were better than everyone thought. We just needed a bit longer to get it all together."
It's an admirable sentiment, but it just doesn't add up. The Hawks lost key contributors in the off-season, with Sharpei, Peterson, West and Novel all leaving the city. They had changes of management, and lost enough personnel that it wouldn't be amiss to say they are simply not the same franchise as they were on opening day of season one. So how could Delacour possibly believe that the team would turn it around? There was little left of that team to turn around at all.
"The key pieces were all still here. You know, a lot of people will talk about [Matthew] Peterson and [Damian] West, but they weren't as integral to our game as it looks. Levon [Novel] too. Great guys, talented guys, but they were never integral pieces, I don't think. As much as I liked Vince [Sharpei], toward the draft, I think we all kinda knew he wasn't going to be coming back too. The guys who left weren't the spine." He explained. "Then we picked up the new guys in the draft and they've been fantastic. Huge contributions. The offensive line has done a great job protecting Scrub, Darlane Farlane takes heat off him, the defensive line applies pressure, new defensive backs mean I don't have to go it alone... the list goes on."
The obvious question at this point was to ask who was the spine. "On offense, we relied a lot on Scrub [Kyubee]. I think we all believed deep down that if we could keep him, and bring in guys to protect him, we'd be okay." Delacour told me. "Defensively, we got the two big guys. Hendrix and Harrison. Those guys have been the heartbeat of this team since the beginning. As long as we kept those guys around, I felt we could bounce back. And obviously Turk, he'd the best kicker in the league. A reliable kicker is priceless."
I noted that Antoine didn't name himself as part of the team's spine, despite many rating him as one of the league's top corners, and pressed the issue. "I'm not that kind of leader, really. I just try to do what I gotta do and help out whenever I can. I'm not the kind of guy who gets loud in the locker room, or anything like that." He said. "I'm a head-down, get it done kinda guy."
Delacour's forty-three tackles for the season so far rank second among cornerbacks, and sixth among all defensive backs; similar to his hard-hitting displays of last season. In addition, though, the LSU alumnus has really upped his game in the pass defense area, recording five interceptions and nine pass deflections so far. Where the most notable change has come, though, is in his return ability. Delacour's two return touchdowns are behind only Ryan Flock, who he leads in almost every other defensive category. After recounting the stats to the Lafayette native, I press the issue again. Why doesn't he consider himself integral to his team's success? He reels off a list of errors. Moments in which he has failed to cover his assignment, or missed a tackle. Moments in which he recognises he has cost his team in some way. To Delacour, his team's successes are as often despite him as thanks to him.
"I feel like if I tell myself I'm integral to the team, I'll let myself slip a little. I haven't been able to train as hard as usual the past month or so, thanks to a niggling injury. But I suited up on game day every week and did my best. Sometimes it wasn't enough. I'm back to full fitness now, though and I have every intention of repaying the faith this organisation showed me. In the off-season, I had a couple of guys wish me luck finding 'a better team' and things like that. Some of it said in jest, some of it seriously. I didn't really think too hard about it. I just wanted to believe in my team, the same way my team has believed in me."
(1031 words)
GRADED
"Sorry about that, I was in the middle of some code." He grins sheepishly. "Hard to pick back up if I stop in the middle of a function."
I had forgotten he held a degree in computer science. At the risk of sounding prejudiced, he just doesn't look the type. I ask him what he was working on and he reels off a sequence of words that mean little to me. Something about databases and statistical analysis, with some other technical terms I don't understand. It takes him a moment to realise I'm lost. "Oh, sorry. I get carried away sometimes."
He says sorry a lot, I notice. Ironic, given that he has little to apologise for. As a senior member of the league leading Baltimore Hawks, and arguably a key component of their NSFC-leading defence, Delacour should easily rank among the league's best defensive backs. Last season he was rated among the top fifty players in the league, after all, and yet he chose to remain with the consensus worst team in the league. Why?
"It was still my team." He shrugs. "They were the ones who believed in me, and gave me a shot. I wasn't going to abandon them just because we had a bad year. I knew we were better than everyone thought. We just needed a bit longer to get it all together."
It's an admirable sentiment, but it just doesn't add up. The Hawks lost key contributors in the off-season, with Sharpei, Peterson, West and Novel all leaving the city. They had changes of management, and lost enough personnel that it wouldn't be amiss to say they are simply not the same franchise as they were on opening day of season one. So how could Delacour possibly believe that the team would turn it around? There was little left of that team to turn around at all.
"The key pieces were all still here. You know, a lot of people will talk about [Matthew] Peterson and [Damian] West, but they weren't as integral to our game as it looks. Levon [Novel] too. Great guys, talented guys, but they were never integral pieces, I don't think. As much as I liked Vince [Sharpei], toward the draft, I think we all kinda knew he wasn't going to be coming back too. The guys who left weren't the spine." He explained. "Then we picked up the new guys in the draft and they've been fantastic. Huge contributions. The offensive line has done a great job protecting Scrub, Darlane Farlane takes heat off him, the defensive line applies pressure, new defensive backs mean I don't have to go it alone... the list goes on."
The obvious question at this point was to ask who was the spine. "On offense, we relied a lot on Scrub [Kyubee]. I think we all believed deep down that if we could keep him, and bring in guys to protect him, we'd be okay." Delacour told me. "Defensively, we got the two big guys. Hendrix and Harrison. Those guys have been the heartbeat of this team since the beginning. As long as we kept those guys around, I felt we could bounce back. And obviously Turk, he'd the best kicker in the league. A reliable kicker is priceless."
I noted that Antoine didn't name himself as part of the team's spine, despite many rating him as one of the league's top corners, and pressed the issue. "I'm not that kind of leader, really. I just try to do what I gotta do and help out whenever I can. I'm not the kind of guy who gets loud in the locker room, or anything like that." He said. "I'm a head-down, get it done kinda guy."
Delacour's forty-three tackles for the season so far rank second among cornerbacks, and sixth among all defensive backs; similar to his hard-hitting displays of last season. In addition, though, the LSU alumnus has really upped his game in the pass defense area, recording five interceptions and nine pass deflections so far. Where the most notable change has come, though, is in his return ability. Delacour's two return touchdowns are behind only Ryan Flock, who he leads in almost every other defensive category. After recounting the stats to the Lafayette native, I press the issue again. Why doesn't he consider himself integral to his team's success? He reels off a list of errors. Moments in which he has failed to cover his assignment, or missed a tackle. Moments in which he recognises he has cost his team in some way. To Delacour, his team's successes are as often despite him as thanks to him.
"I feel like if I tell myself I'm integral to the team, I'll let myself slip a little. I haven't been able to train as hard as usual the past month or so, thanks to a niggling injury. But I suited up on game day every week and did my best. Sometimes it wasn't enough. I'm back to full fitness now, though and I have every intention of repaying the faith this organisation showed me. In the off-season, I had a couple of guys wish me luck finding 'a better team' and things like that. Some of it said in jest, some of it seriously. I didn't really think too hard about it. I just wanted to believe in my team, the same way my team has believed in me."
(1031 words)
GRADED
I impersonate a programmer for a living
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