*Brady McIntyre's NSFL Mid Season LB Awards

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[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Brady McIntyre’s NSFL Mid Season Linebacker Awards

Hello everyone, my name is Brady McIntyre. I’m normally found playing hockey for the Edmonton Blizzard of the SHL, but I’m the kind of guy who thinks a lot about the future so I’m looking to improve myself as a sports journalist so I have a job when I retire from hockey. Today I’m trying my hand at creating the mid season linebacker awards for the NSFL and this one turned out to be a doozy! I believe every team is represented on this list at some point so there’s a reason for everyone to give it a read! Here are the awards that we’ll be handing out today:

The Tackling Machine - Awarded to the linebacker with the most tackles

The Yard Stealer - Awarded to the linebacker with the most tackles for loss

The Stripper - Awarded to the linebacker with the most forced fumbles

The Ball Grabber - Awarded to the linebacker with the most fumble recoveries

The Sacky Boi - Awarded to the linebacker with the most sacks

The Stealy Boi - Awarded to the linebacker with the most interceptions

The Cornerback? - Awarded to the linebacker with the most passes defended

The Crossing Guard - Awarded to the linebacker with the most safeties

The Point Man - Awarded to the linebacker with the most touchdowns[/div]


The linebacker is an interesting position to me. They’re like the middle man of the defense, providing hard hitting run protection to keep the running back or quarterback from taking advantage of gaps in the line, but also able to spread out a little to keep tight ends from getting too far up the field on a short pass. You’ll find that middle linebacker generally “quarterbacks” the defense and has a ton of versatility in that he can blitz, cover back, play spy on the quarterback. I don’t think you’ll find a more versatile position on defense. The cornerbacks cover the receivers, safeties hang back a little farther, defensive tackles go after the quarterback, defensive ends cover the tight ends and blitz. But the linebacker is one of the backbones of the defense, a truly important position. If you’re lucky enough to receive one of these awards let me say congratulations, you’re doing an awesome job out there.


The Tackling Machine
You’d be hard pressed to find a player on any given team with more tackles than any of the linebackers out there. These guys are just tackle machines and if you’re getting a ton of tackles at this position you’re doing something right. Right now I’d say that the Yellowknife Wraiths have the top group of tackling linebackers in the league, all three of their linebackers are in the top 10 for tackles in the league with Wallace Stone, Boss Tweed and Chad Pennington making up their core of linebackers. Next would probably be a tie between two teams. The first being the Colorado Yeti with Rickey Ramero and Haruki Ishigawa doing the bulk of the work for them, but also Johnathon Saint doing some good work as well. The other team I’d that is tied for second in linebacker groups is the New Orleans Second Line with Brian Mills and Julian O’Sullivan being their only two linebackers. Expect to see these three groups of linebackers have players vying for linebacker of the year. This season’s tackling machines so far are:

3. Mason Brown & Brian Mills - 87 tackles
Mason Brown and Brian Mills are tied for third on our list of tackling machines. At just under 10 tackles per game, these two players are playing really consistently. If they want a chance to make tackling machine of the season they’ll have to step it up a notch in the final four games they’ll be playing, but having about nine tackles a game and tying for third on the list of tackles made is nothing to sneeze at. On top of that both of these players are still on the upswing. Don’t be surprised of one of them takes home this award next season.

2. Wallace Stone - 93 tackles
Stone came into Yellowknife as a free agent fairly recently and since joining has been a great linebacker for them. No one could have predicted they’d be this good though. Stone is currently on the down side of their career and it’s sad to see a player that has been so good for so long begin to regress, and when you see a player playing like they’re back in their prime you can’t help but feel happy for them. Management has really found a way to utilize Stone to their full potential and good on Stone for going out their and giving the top tackling machine a run for their money.

1. Haruki Ishigawa - 96 tackles
The clear #1 right now, Haruki Ishigawa who has been putting in a ton of work for his entire career is getting some well deserved recognition. Coming into the league in season 4, he’s one of the more interesting linebackers out there, and not exactly one that I’d expect to see at the top of the charts. There are faster guys out there that are just as strong as him, and as we all know speed kills in this league. You can’t tackle what you can’t catch. Still, he’s earn the number one spot on the list. Congrats Haruki Ishigawa, you’re the season 10 mid season tackling machine.


The Yard Stealer
The offense works so hard to get every yard that not only is it great for you to be able to gain a few yards on defense, it’s totally demoralizing for the other team’s offense to have them lose yards on a play. I don’t think the value of a tackle for loss can be overstated. I’m not sure what San Jose is doing with their linebackers, but you’ll be surprised when you see just how great they’ve been able to make them at this one crucial part of playing defense. No other team is close to rivaling them in this department to the point that you worry someone may have made a mistake while taking down stats.

3. M. Brown, B. Horne, A. Winchester, A. Roenick, J. Dwyer & B. Earl - 2 tackles for loss
Tackles for loss are so uncommon that I’m not surprised that the final spot on the list was a huge tie between five players. Orange County and Arizona both have two players on this part of the list, meanwhile the Yellowknife Wraiths, New Orleans Second Line and Philadelphia Liberty don’t have a single player with more than one tackle for loss. They may want to take a look at other team’s practices and see what their linebackers are doing, because right they’re missing a big part of the game that their linebackers could be contributing to.

2. Luke Washington - 4 tackles for loss
I don’t mean any offense, but this has to be a fluke, right? Washington still has speed and strength to spare, but after the first quarter you shouldn’t be surprised to see him hunched over the bench gasping for air when he comes off the field from playing defense. He’s not particularly great at reading plays and is as agile as a turtle. San Jose must have just told him to forget about everything else and immediately run at whoever has the ball after the snap and hope he’s able to get there before they cross the line of scrimmage. Whatever the magic is, it’s working. He’s ahead of nearly every linebacker except for one with 4 tackles for loss. Keep doing what you’re doing Mr. Washington.

1. Stephen Harrison - 11 tackles for loss
Okay this just doesn’t make any sense. Harrison is a player that is only slightly more talented than Washington. This really isn’t meant to bring offense, but these guys just downright aren’t as fast, strong, agile, or quick as other linebackers in the league. The fact that San Jose management has found a way to get their linebackers to collectively has 18 of the 36 tackles for loss that the entire league has combined is astounding. Coaches need to find out what they’re doing and find a way to both stop it and replicate it because the way Harrison gets away with this is unreal. Stephen Harrison you truly are deserving of the season 10 mid season yard stealer award, and I don’t think any linebacker in the future will ever have a chance of catching your record.


The Stripper
Creating fumbles is a skill that can’t be overstated. Stripping the ball from the other team gives you the opportunity to take it out of their hands and put it your offense’s, and any play that causes that to happen has more potential to help your team win than other player. If the other team doesn’t have the ball they can’t score. Three players have put themselves above the rest of the league in this category, and they’re all from different teams.

1. Mason Brown, Julian O’Sullivan & Wallace Stone - 2 forced fumbles
Who knows if it’s luck or skill that is allowing these players to force fumbles, or if it’s simply the other player not holding onto the ball well enough, but I have been able to find some common denominators. Each of them is a player with great hands, and speed and strength to spare. You’d think that their tackling ability would factor into it, a player might end up dropping the ball if they’re hit harder, but Stone isn’t exactly the kind of player to send someone to the showers the way someone like William Perry would have. Whether you want to call it luck or skill, these players should be proud to call themselves strippers (of the ball), they’re doing a ton for their teams by giving their teams the opportunity to go on the offensive without returning a punt or getting a turnover on downs. Congratulations to each of you for the three way tie and good luck in the final four games of the season.


The Ball Grabber
If forcing a fumble is big, a fumble recovery is huge. Having the ability to be quick and clutch enough to grab a fumbled ball before any other player on the field does really shows attention to detail and a determination to win the game. It also requires a little bit of luck, you can’t get the ball first if you aren’t close to the ball and on the field during a fumble. One player put themselves above the rest in this as the season 10 mid season ball grabber, but who gets the end of season award is still up in the air with four games left in the season. Still, the New Orleans Second Line have to be happy with how clutch their player has been to be able to clock in at number one on this list.

2. W. Stone, C. Pennington, N. Goodson, K. Deringer & B. Tweed - 1 fumble recovered
The Yellowknife Wraiths linebacker core takes up three of the five players that have earned themselves a spot in the five way tie for second on the list of players with a fumble recovered. The bodes well for the Yellowknife defense as it means they’re forcing more fumbles than the average team while playing defense. Baltimore will be happy to have Goodson on the list as well, but one big surprise is San Jose’s rookie linebacker Deringer who has found a way to make himself look like a veteran on the field. He’s a great up and coming player who is well deserving of his spot on the list of ball grabbers, as are the other four players he is tied with.

1. Brian Mills - 2 fumbles recovered
The number one ball grabber in NSFL is none other than New Orleans Second Line linebacker Brian MIlls. Mills has been a player who sets an example on NOLA for the entire season and it’s really shown in his ability to recover fumbles. That’s two extra chances his team’s offense has had to put points on the board during this season that he is directly responsible for on top of the times he’s forced the other team to punt the ball due to his tackles and passes defended (more on the later). Mills you are truly deserving of the season 10 mid season ball grabber award. Keep up the good work.


The Sacky Boi
I feel like a broken record saying this again, but sacks are huge. If the quarterback can’t distribute the ball he has essentially failed his team. The offense has likely lost yards because of it and they’ve lost a chance to get a first down or a touchdown. It totally deflates the offense and is a huge boost the confidence of the entire defense. Unsurprisingly the three teams the top sacky bois are teams that are currently in position to make the playoffs so you can tell just how important sacks are just from that correlation. Most of the linebackers in the league have at least a sack or two, but these three players have really set themselves apart from the pack and made themselves exceptionally valuable to their team.

3. Boss Tweed - 9 sacks
Yellowknife has expected Boss Tweed to be one of the top linebackers for a few seasons now, and he’s really showing it this season by being a multidimensional linebacker. He may be too far out of the race to be the top sacky boi of the season, but being the third sacky boi in the league during the middle of the season is a great starting point. He hasn’t started regressing yet, but he likely has one more season it make it happen before we see start to decline.

2. Austin Roenick - 11 sacks
Austin Roenick is the kind of linebacker you expect to see on this list. A player who’s in the prime of his career who is one of the strongest, fastest, most agile and smartest linebackers in the league. He reads the play and reacts as well as any linebacker I’ve seen in history and I don’t expect him to slow down any time soon. If he worked a little more on his hands to be able to bat down passes and did some more core workouts to keep from getting winded during long drives I’d say he’s possibly in the running for the top linebacker in the league. Expect him to be high on this list for at least the next few seasons. He’ll be the premier linebacker in this league if he keeps it up. I wouldn’t be surprised if he took the number one spot on the sacky boi list by the end of the season.

1. Mason Brown - 14 sacks
Mason Brown is playing like an absolute stud. He’s getting about one and a half sacks a game and it’s crazy honestly. If he can keep this up for the rest of the season and into the playoffs he’ll be making a case for more than just sacky boi of the year, he could be looking at getting linebacker of the year. For now season 10 mid season sacky boi will have to do, but he isn’t in much danger of being caught for now. Orange County coaching and management has to be extremely pleased with the way he’s playing right now, it’s totally stellar.


The Stealy Boi
It’s not often you expect a linebacker to get an interception. They’re usually just not in a position for that to be possible, so when a linebacker does get one it’s a really special occasion where you’ll see them using quick hands and a really exceptional read on the play. Watch out for these stealy bois in the future. It’s a four way tie for the number one stealy boi in the league right now so it’s anyone’s guess who will take the award at the end of the season.

1. B. Tweed, B. Mills, J. Lee & H. Ishigawa - 2 interceptions
Here you see three incredible players in their prime getting interceptions off of reading the play and skill and one player at the tail end of their career who has been mainstay in the league for such a long time that where his body may fail him his experience has brought him back up. You won’t usually see Lee in the same conversation as Ishigawa, MIlls or Tweed anymore but in his prime you wouldn’t have been surprised to see him have two interceptions. Each of these players are really deserving of their spot on this list. But with just four games left in the season, a four way tie and the small number of times that you’ll see a linebacker get an interception we may see an award at the end of the season which has a tie! For now these four players have done an exceptional job on the field reading plays and catching errant passes. Each of these players are very deserving the season 10 mid season stealy boi award.

The Cornerback?
Now this might sound funny, but there are some linebackers out there with so many passes defended that you could swear they’re really cornerbacks. This is an interesting stat though. There are some players on this list who are absolute studs, meanwhile we have a player on this list who seems like he should be in the DSFL half the time. It’s not always about being the best player though, sometimes you just have to clutch. Who knows, maybe that player should switch to cornerback instead?

3. Stephen Harrison - 14 passes defended
This is a name you might remember from the list of players with the most tackles for loss. Again, it’s entirely puzzling that he could be this high on a list with where he’s at in his career. It’s even more interesting that he’s been able to find himself in a position to get some many tackles for loss and passes defended because those two situations don’t really seem similar enough that it makes sense for him to have high numbers of both. Still, the San Jose coaching staff and Harrison seem to have found a formula for him to become a mix between a defensive tackle and a cornerback. Congratulations to him for being such a swiss army knife, it really is extraordinary.

1. B. Tweed & Brian Mills - 15 passes defended
Tied for first on our list are two exceptional players on two of the best linebacker corps in the league. The New Orleans Second Line and the Yellowknife Wraiths have put Tweed and Mills into positions that have really allowed them to thrive. Having such a high number of tackles and passes defended means they’ve really been reading plays well and are doing everything they can to stop the other team from gaining yards. Who will be the top “cornerback?” at the end of the season is still a toss up between not just these two players, but also the next three players on the list as they have 14, 14 and 13 passes defended each. Tweed and Mills have managed to put themselves in the top position though for now, and find themselves in a tie for the #1 linebacker “cornerbacks” in the league for the season 10 mid season linebacker awards.


The Crossing Guard
Crossing guards are all about safety, so I figured we call the top safety scoring linebackers the crossing guards of the league, eh? Well I thought it was funny. You don’t expect any player to have a high number of safeties, it’s a very situational stat like fumble recoveries, but if you find a player who has more than a couple you have a really clutch player on your hands. Only two linebackers in the league find themselves with at least one safety for the season 10 mid season linebacker awards, and they should be really proud of their work that has put themselves above the rest of their peers in this category so far.

2. Perry Tucker - 1 safety
It took some time but we finally have a player from Philadelphia on the list. Perry Tucker is a player near the tail end of his career who is probably looking for things to be happy about while being stuck playing on a liberty team that is having a pretty rough go of things as of late. He’s found a way to make a name for himself after scoring a safety this season though. This may be the final season of football that he plays in the NSFL so it’s great to see that he’ll have something to hang his hat on when he has to put away his helmet and cleats. Way to go Perry.

1. Kolby Deringer - 2 safeties
Kolby Deringer may be putting himself on the map for San Jose’s defensive rookie of the year with the way he’s playing. A player will get lucky sometimes and score a safety for his team, but how often do you see a player score two safeties in one season? This is the result of a young player with dedication, determination, talent and athleticism. Plain and simple. It’s a big achievement to be the league’s top linebacker crossing guard, let alone as a rookie. San Jose has found a way to do it again with their exceptional coaching, but this time I have to say that I think the player has really put in the time and effort to make it happen. Great job Kolby Deringer, you really deserve season 10’s mid season crossing guard award.


The Point Man
If you’re surprised to hear that only one linebacker in the entire league currently has a touchdown then you probably don’t know much about what a linebacker does. For a player to either recovery a fumble or get an interception and score a touchdown on the same play is really exceptional. With his single touchdown this season I wouldn’t be surprised if he carried this award all the way to the finish line without adding any more points to it.

1. Boss Tweed - 1 touchdown
There’s nothing like scoring a touchdown for your team. Well, almost nothing like it. There’s nothing like scoring a defensive touchdown for your team. The other team has to be absolutely horrible when that happens, it's just something that nobody expects. One second you’re catching the ball or picking it up off the ground, the next you’re running into the end zone with your entire defensive unit gathered around you celebrating the incredible feat you just pulled off. Boss Tweed you’ve done something that no other linebacker has been able to do this entire season by scoring a defensive touchdown. Congratulations on being this season’s one and only point man playing the position of linebacker for the season 10 mid season awards. Good luck going down the final stretch, we expect you to hold onto the number one spot for the rest of the season.

[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Closing
Thanks for reading my first article. Coming from a hockey background I don’t know everything about football, but I’ve done my best to watch some film and read up on these players. Let me know how I did in the replies. Am I a total dolt who doesn’t know jack about football? Or maybe I actually did an okay job with some of these. Either way I’d love to hear your feedback on it. If you want the end of the season awards for linebackers say so! Otherwise I may move onto a different position such as defensive tackles, offensive linemen or running backs just to shake things up a bit. If there’s a specific position you’d like me to do in the future or a team you’d like me to review say that too! All feedback is welcome. Thanks for reading![/div]

-Brady McIntyre