Brad Pennington throwing a football in shorts to a wide receiver during a pro day workout.
Narrator: “Brad Pennington, the eldest of the so called Ad trio shows his arm to a crowd of DSFL scouts and front office personnel. He has mystified league experts by changing from the position he played in college at Syracuse University, to quarterback. Concerns about his talent and commitment to the game likely helped lead to his fall at the beginning of round three. According to some at his home, he had hadn’t watched the draft, and according to some was weightlifting at his home in New York. Tonight, we trace the journey of this specific Ad from his high school career, into the pros.”
Brad Pennington sitting in a darkened locker room with the spotlight on him
“Growing up, I was the oldest of the Ads. Thad was always the middle child, and Chad was the baby of the family so to speak. It’s hard to believe, but I remember throwing a football in the backyard when I might have been six or seven years old about a good twenty or thirty yards through a tire swing. It was absolutely incredible. My father was a quarterback himself back in the day, so I suppose I’ve got some great genes and instincts from him. I began playing organized football in pee wee and so did my brothers. I am pretty sure Chad just followed because he didn’t want to be left out of the fun. He’s always like that.”
Flashing of some childhood pictures across the screen
“I was a bit bigger than the other kids, and so I was switched around between a few positions on offense and defense. Being that large at a young age did not afford me much grace. I had stone hands and crocodile arms. When you drop a game winning touchdown, that was the signal to me to stop playing on offense. Although, at that age positions don’t really matter until you start to age out of the little leagues. I started lifting when I was thirteen, and still do to this day, mostly because getting run over by a guy who’s half your size isn’t fun at all. In football, every little advantage you can get matters. You have to go all out to get somewhere and put yourself above everyone. Being passed over does that to you.”
“Heading into high school, I had no idea I would pursue professional football as a career. I thought I would be an accountant or something along those lines. I did get into baseball a bit, but that was more of a hobby than anything to do with me loving the sport. Baseball is much too slow for my tastes, although I will concede at points it can be more tactical overall. I’m glad that my job now is to basically work out for a living and make the fans of a football franchise happy. I tried out for the team, and so did Chad and Thad; Ads tend to travel in packs. All we had to show was a semblance of some football skill and talent. Our team was essentially unknown in the state and overshadowed by a championship winning basketball program. I came in thinking: Why not change that? I would carry this team to success if that’s what it took.”
“Coach didn’t really know where to slot us as we could play most positions anyway. I was set as a linebacker and third string quarterback. Back then, I had quite an amazing pass rushing skill set. From the swim move to the bull rush, I could do it all. The conference wasn’t too difficult, so I easily dominated with something around twenty sacks and seventy tackles flexing around the defense. In one of those games during the regular season, the starting quarterback went down with a broken collarbone and the backup immediately sprained his ankle. I came in with a trusty playsheet on my wrist, in part because I didn’t want to mess this up too badly for our team. Throwing off the bench is extremely difficult, and much harder than it seems. A relief pitcher in baseball gets to throw in the bullpen for a while and gets a few warmup pitches. Backup quarterbacks don’t have that luxury. Schematically, me and coach agreed to just get some short stuff completed before taking a shot vertically down the field.”
High school pictures flash across the screen
“I was profoundly mediocre. More or less, you have to dedicate yourself to being a quarterback for a lengthy period of time to experience any success. The players in high school are much smaller than in college and the pros but some guys play with a lot of heart out there. The idea of settling a quarterback into a rhythm is great, but timing has to be practiced thousands of times and instilled in a player. Chemistry is a huge part of that I was lacking. Star receivers have their own repertoire with whoever is throwing them passes, in much the same way as I have Squanch and Legion on the Tijuana Luchadores. Miscues led to a few turnovers and we end up losing the game by a lengthy margin. Coach pulled me aside after the game and suggested working with the second squad and scout team to get me into shape. Our actual backup needed a week to recover, so it fell upon me to pick up the slack. I can’t say I was too enthused about the idea, but I’m a team player first so I agreed.”
“It’s a completely different feeling to be in the film room and practice as “the guy” than when you are just one component of the defense. Quarterbacks occupy a key focal point in setting the tone and momentum of a game. A quarterback who can’t get the ball to his receivers is pretty much useless. Handing off every play only gets you so far. Wearing a red jersey makes you that key player who either leads or team to victory, or completely inept in defeat. It felt pretty good to work out my arm and shake off some rust to reveal my latent talent. The greatest feeling in the world is powering a pass over a defender to your own man on an out route. That never gets old, and still hasn’t to this day as a DSFL player.”
“A good week of practice had me going into a home game feeling awesome and rearing to get into some game action. If I recall correctly, they were one of the worst teams in the conference so there wasn’t that much pressure on me to perform. Either we won based on a solid offensive performance or the defense pulled out all the stops and won us the game. Through the first drive, everything slowed down for me. Diagnosing the pre snap reads told you what the defense was going to do and who was coming to get you. Reading the linebackers with confidence is something that I still have to this day. It’s a basic fundamental every quarterback develops if they want to accomplish something. The guys that wash out normally can’t do that. The step from amateur to the pros is entirely founded upon basic skills. Certain flaws like holding the ball too long or using a much too long release are exposed in many of these college quarterbacks who try to get into the DSFL or NSFL. Putting up stats is relatively easy to do when surrounded by guys designed specifically to work in spread and air raid schemes.”
“Anyway, I lit these guys up with some check downs and a pretty deep pass, maybe about 30 yards. Going out there and not worrying about the pressure raises anyone’s level of play; the game is all about fun and if you’re not enjoying it, then you’re in the wrong place. Even now, I still feel when I step onto the field during game day it’s my first time. Winning that game was one of the best moments of my life. I got to do something that many people mention in reference to their high school glory days. You take what you can get, and I did just that. Coach gave me a pat on the back and told me nice job, but you’re starting at linebacker Friday. Up until now, I never played quarterback again. The depth on our team was improved tremendously as I matured, so there never really was a reason for me to head out there when I was needed on defense. College scouts didn’t care all too much because I wasn’t a quarterback from day one, and so I lacked the instinct to play the position. Syracuse never mentioned it when they interviewed me in person and on the phone. They gave me and my brothers a full ride, so we said: Why not? And with that we ended up heading upstate.”
Pictures of being at Syracuse
“I majored in marketing at Syracuse; it seemed like a decent idea at the time and I could always fall back on my degree if I washed out of the DSFL. I attended every single one of my classes, regardless of the implications that may have had on football. My positional coach never believed I was truly dedicated to succeeding within the sport, and never recommended that I accrue any significant playing time. That hurt my ego, but the only real problem with that is I was going to lack the exposure of some big time prospects and vital game experience. I kept myself in shape by doing my own sprinting and hanging out in the weight room. It wasn’t that hard to steer myself out of trouble when you’re either studying or conditioning. Parties were a huge deal, but I’ve never been too interested in them. Drinking and doing drugs isn’t my kind of thing that I enjoy doing. I prefer the simpler life of having a close knit group of friends who weren’t only around me because I was on the team. My love life wasn’t stellar, but my career comes before any other pursuits. A free education and an opportunity to play at one of the top programs in the country shouldn’t be wasted. We see that all too often nowadays.”
“A lot of players end up broke after they spend thousands of dollars on potentially meaningless items like cars or jewelery. I don’t plan on being one of those people by being responsible with my money during and after my career. I believe the NSFL has a pension system, but that’s certainly not enough to support someone over a significant amount of time. The majority of my money will either be going straight to the bank or invested somewhere. That’s probably becoming the norm now for many players across the league, but it’s hard to say. Past trends like this are usually difficult to overcome. You have young guys coming in here who are at likely to be younger than twenty three that have access to an incredible amount of money. That’s really just human nature to live high while you can in the short term without concern for the future. I would like to be able to take care of myself and my family eventually, but in order to do so I have got to be responsible for my money and take ownership of my own funds. Some people believe in financial advisors, but I’d prefer to handle my money myself so I know exactly where it goes and what is to be done with it. I won’t have an agent either so that I have direct control over contract negotiations without having to worry about the interests of an agent.
“I will say though, special teams are one of the most interesting facets on a football team nobody ever talks about or mentions. Backups always had to be on special teams, whether to protect starters or help pin the opposing team in bad field position. This is where you see the small guys start to destroy lumbering lineman at full speed. I saw a 5’6’’ maybe at most 150 lbs guy decimate a towering 6’8’’, 300 lbs tackle. That made my day. Most of my playing time came here. I was pretty good at staying in my lane and watching the movements of the returner. Even if I didn’t know it then, I was developing my skills at looking downfield and processing what I saw. Quarterbacks have to be able to competently see their teammate streaking down the sideline and lead a pass straight into his hands. You didn’t have to be the fastest guy out there supposing that you understood what exactly was going on and could close in relatively quickly. The only requirement was that you had to be tough and be able to take a few hits.”
Draft Day Pictures
“DSFL scouts didn’t have an idea who I was outside of my playing time at special teams. However, the draft class projected to be relatively weaker in comparison to weaker years, so the fact that I was an active player rearing to go meant a lot to a few front offices out there. My inexperience at quarterback may have been a liability, but the talent and intangibles are there. I had the arm and the basic fundamentals down, and despite some concerns about my connection to the other Ads, nothing really went wrong on draft day. The Luchadores were transparent about wanting us and how exactly they planned to gather us together. I appreciate a front office that informed us of their intentions prior to the draft and the fact that the league respected where we went. I would like to expect the same out of the NSFL front offices after this season. From a league perspective, it will be interesting to say the least to see how our situation is handled. Long term, I don’t really see an issue with keeping us together because of my supplemental income likely meaning that I will not have to ask for a lucrative contract. Although that may change with the discussion that the league may eventually make alterations to the current cap structure. I support the idea of positional minimums based on ability, but in practicality that would end up being a change that takes multiple seasons to implement.”
“Honestly, I have no idea what to expect this season in Tijuana. The majority of rookie DSFL quarterbacks tend to be atrocious and while I might be the exception, the odds are stacked against me. There’s going to be a learning curve here that could end up preventing me from hitting my stride until later in the season. My mobility is a weakness that will be exploited behind a DSFL offensive line. I think I will get past that when I develop enough to punish blitzers, but expecting not to get hit every other play might be asking for too much here. Tijuana has a significant amount of young players and as the season goes on, we’ll improve to beat teams like San Antonio or Portland. Expect to see Squach and Wrong high in the leaderboards by the end of the regular season. I can see us making a significant amount of noise in the postseason. We’ve gotta maintain our composure and get past these early season growing pains to succeed and reach the potential that we are capable of reaching. Eight active players is nothing to scoff at. This team has a lot going for itself, and if this season doesn’t work out, then there’s no doubt we will be in contention next season.”
Narrator: “Brad Pennington, the eldest of the so called Ad trio shows his arm to a crowd of DSFL scouts and front office personnel. He has mystified league experts by changing from the position he played in college at Syracuse University, to quarterback. Concerns about his talent and commitment to the game likely helped lead to his fall at the beginning of round three. According to some at his home, he had hadn’t watched the draft, and according to some was weightlifting at his home in New York. Tonight, we trace the journey of this specific Ad from his high school career, into the pros.”
Brad Pennington sitting in a darkened locker room with the spotlight on him
“Growing up, I was the oldest of the Ads. Thad was always the middle child, and Chad was the baby of the family so to speak. It’s hard to believe, but I remember throwing a football in the backyard when I might have been six or seven years old about a good twenty or thirty yards through a tire swing. It was absolutely incredible. My father was a quarterback himself back in the day, so I suppose I’ve got some great genes and instincts from him. I began playing organized football in pee wee and so did my brothers. I am pretty sure Chad just followed because he didn’t want to be left out of the fun. He’s always like that.”
Flashing of some childhood pictures across the screen
“I was a bit bigger than the other kids, and so I was switched around between a few positions on offense and defense. Being that large at a young age did not afford me much grace. I had stone hands and crocodile arms. When you drop a game winning touchdown, that was the signal to me to stop playing on offense. Although, at that age positions don’t really matter until you start to age out of the little leagues. I started lifting when I was thirteen, and still do to this day, mostly because getting run over by a guy who’s half your size isn’t fun at all. In football, every little advantage you can get matters. You have to go all out to get somewhere and put yourself above everyone. Being passed over does that to you.”
“Heading into high school, I had no idea I would pursue professional football as a career. I thought I would be an accountant or something along those lines. I did get into baseball a bit, but that was more of a hobby than anything to do with me loving the sport. Baseball is much too slow for my tastes, although I will concede at points it can be more tactical overall. I’m glad that my job now is to basically work out for a living and make the fans of a football franchise happy. I tried out for the team, and so did Chad and Thad; Ads tend to travel in packs. All we had to show was a semblance of some football skill and talent. Our team was essentially unknown in the state and overshadowed by a championship winning basketball program. I came in thinking: Why not change that? I would carry this team to success if that’s what it took.”
“Coach didn’t really know where to slot us as we could play most positions anyway. I was set as a linebacker and third string quarterback. Back then, I had quite an amazing pass rushing skill set. From the swim move to the bull rush, I could do it all. The conference wasn’t too difficult, so I easily dominated with something around twenty sacks and seventy tackles flexing around the defense. In one of those games during the regular season, the starting quarterback went down with a broken collarbone and the backup immediately sprained his ankle. I came in with a trusty playsheet on my wrist, in part because I didn’t want to mess this up too badly for our team. Throwing off the bench is extremely difficult, and much harder than it seems. A relief pitcher in baseball gets to throw in the bullpen for a while and gets a few warmup pitches. Backup quarterbacks don’t have that luxury. Schematically, me and coach agreed to just get some short stuff completed before taking a shot vertically down the field.”
High school pictures flash across the screen
“I was profoundly mediocre. More or less, you have to dedicate yourself to being a quarterback for a lengthy period of time to experience any success. The players in high school are much smaller than in college and the pros but some guys play with a lot of heart out there. The idea of settling a quarterback into a rhythm is great, but timing has to be practiced thousands of times and instilled in a player. Chemistry is a huge part of that I was lacking. Star receivers have their own repertoire with whoever is throwing them passes, in much the same way as I have Squanch and Legion on the Tijuana Luchadores. Miscues led to a few turnovers and we end up losing the game by a lengthy margin. Coach pulled me aside after the game and suggested working with the second squad and scout team to get me into shape. Our actual backup needed a week to recover, so it fell upon me to pick up the slack. I can’t say I was too enthused about the idea, but I’m a team player first so I agreed.”
“It’s a completely different feeling to be in the film room and practice as “the guy” than when you are just one component of the defense. Quarterbacks occupy a key focal point in setting the tone and momentum of a game. A quarterback who can’t get the ball to his receivers is pretty much useless. Handing off every play only gets you so far. Wearing a red jersey makes you that key player who either leads or team to victory, or completely inept in defeat. It felt pretty good to work out my arm and shake off some rust to reveal my latent talent. The greatest feeling in the world is powering a pass over a defender to your own man on an out route. That never gets old, and still hasn’t to this day as a DSFL player.”
“A good week of practice had me going into a home game feeling awesome and rearing to get into some game action. If I recall correctly, they were one of the worst teams in the conference so there wasn’t that much pressure on me to perform. Either we won based on a solid offensive performance or the defense pulled out all the stops and won us the game. Through the first drive, everything slowed down for me. Diagnosing the pre snap reads told you what the defense was going to do and who was coming to get you. Reading the linebackers with confidence is something that I still have to this day. It’s a basic fundamental every quarterback develops if they want to accomplish something. The guys that wash out normally can’t do that. The step from amateur to the pros is entirely founded upon basic skills. Certain flaws like holding the ball too long or using a much too long release are exposed in many of these college quarterbacks who try to get into the DSFL or NSFL. Putting up stats is relatively easy to do when surrounded by guys designed specifically to work in spread and air raid schemes.”
“Anyway, I lit these guys up with some check downs and a pretty deep pass, maybe about 30 yards. Going out there and not worrying about the pressure raises anyone’s level of play; the game is all about fun and if you’re not enjoying it, then you’re in the wrong place. Even now, I still feel when I step onto the field during game day it’s my first time. Winning that game was one of the best moments of my life. I got to do something that many people mention in reference to their high school glory days. You take what you can get, and I did just that. Coach gave me a pat on the back and told me nice job, but you’re starting at linebacker Friday. Up until now, I never played quarterback again. The depth on our team was improved tremendously as I matured, so there never really was a reason for me to head out there when I was needed on defense. College scouts didn’t care all too much because I wasn’t a quarterback from day one, and so I lacked the instinct to play the position. Syracuse never mentioned it when they interviewed me in person and on the phone. They gave me and my brothers a full ride, so we said: Why not? And with that we ended up heading upstate.”
Pictures of being at Syracuse
“I majored in marketing at Syracuse; it seemed like a decent idea at the time and I could always fall back on my degree if I washed out of the DSFL. I attended every single one of my classes, regardless of the implications that may have had on football. My positional coach never believed I was truly dedicated to succeeding within the sport, and never recommended that I accrue any significant playing time. That hurt my ego, but the only real problem with that is I was going to lack the exposure of some big time prospects and vital game experience. I kept myself in shape by doing my own sprinting and hanging out in the weight room. It wasn’t that hard to steer myself out of trouble when you’re either studying or conditioning. Parties were a huge deal, but I’ve never been too interested in them. Drinking and doing drugs isn’t my kind of thing that I enjoy doing. I prefer the simpler life of having a close knit group of friends who weren’t only around me because I was on the team. My love life wasn’t stellar, but my career comes before any other pursuits. A free education and an opportunity to play at one of the top programs in the country shouldn’t be wasted. We see that all too often nowadays.”
“A lot of players end up broke after they spend thousands of dollars on potentially meaningless items like cars or jewelery. I don’t plan on being one of those people by being responsible with my money during and after my career. I believe the NSFL has a pension system, but that’s certainly not enough to support someone over a significant amount of time. The majority of my money will either be going straight to the bank or invested somewhere. That’s probably becoming the norm now for many players across the league, but it’s hard to say. Past trends like this are usually difficult to overcome. You have young guys coming in here who are at likely to be younger than twenty three that have access to an incredible amount of money. That’s really just human nature to live high while you can in the short term without concern for the future. I would like to be able to take care of myself and my family eventually, but in order to do so I have got to be responsible for my money and take ownership of my own funds. Some people believe in financial advisors, but I’d prefer to handle my money myself so I know exactly where it goes and what is to be done with it. I won’t have an agent either so that I have direct control over contract negotiations without having to worry about the interests of an agent.
“I will say though, special teams are one of the most interesting facets on a football team nobody ever talks about or mentions. Backups always had to be on special teams, whether to protect starters or help pin the opposing team in bad field position. This is where you see the small guys start to destroy lumbering lineman at full speed. I saw a 5’6’’ maybe at most 150 lbs guy decimate a towering 6’8’’, 300 lbs tackle. That made my day. Most of my playing time came here. I was pretty good at staying in my lane and watching the movements of the returner. Even if I didn’t know it then, I was developing my skills at looking downfield and processing what I saw. Quarterbacks have to be able to competently see their teammate streaking down the sideline and lead a pass straight into his hands. You didn’t have to be the fastest guy out there supposing that you understood what exactly was going on and could close in relatively quickly. The only requirement was that you had to be tough and be able to take a few hits.”
Draft Day Pictures
“DSFL scouts didn’t have an idea who I was outside of my playing time at special teams. However, the draft class projected to be relatively weaker in comparison to weaker years, so the fact that I was an active player rearing to go meant a lot to a few front offices out there. My inexperience at quarterback may have been a liability, but the talent and intangibles are there. I had the arm and the basic fundamentals down, and despite some concerns about my connection to the other Ads, nothing really went wrong on draft day. The Luchadores were transparent about wanting us and how exactly they planned to gather us together. I appreciate a front office that informed us of their intentions prior to the draft and the fact that the league respected where we went. I would like to expect the same out of the NSFL front offices after this season. From a league perspective, it will be interesting to say the least to see how our situation is handled. Long term, I don’t really see an issue with keeping us together because of my supplemental income likely meaning that I will not have to ask for a lucrative contract. Although that may change with the discussion that the league may eventually make alterations to the current cap structure. I support the idea of positional minimums based on ability, but in practicality that would end up being a change that takes multiple seasons to implement.”
“Honestly, I have no idea what to expect this season in Tijuana. The majority of rookie DSFL quarterbacks tend to be atrocious and while I might be the exception, the odds are stacked against me. There’s going to be a learning curve here that could end up preventing me from hitting my stride until later in the season. My mobility is a weakness that will be exploited behind a DSFL offensive line. I think I will get past that when I develop enough to punish blitzers, but expecting not to get hit every other play might be asking for too much here. Tijuana has a significant amount of young players and as the season goes on, we’ll improve to beat teams like San Antonio or Portland. Expect to see Squach and Wrong high in the leaderboards by the end of the regular season. I can see us making a significant amount of noise in the postseason. We’ve gotta maintain our composure and get past these early season growing pains to succeed and reach the potential that we are capable of reaching. Eight active players is nothing to scoff at. This team has a lot going for itself, and if this season doesn’t work out, then there’s no doubt we will be in contention next season.”
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