"Keep you in the dark, you know they all pretend"
Sometimes a particular song resonates with you at a particular moment in your life. I feel that way right now. Taking this team and trying to rebuild has been a daunting task. Moreso than I realized. My predecessor met with me briefly when I took over after the owner had to put someone on the chopping block. He said a few things I won't elaborate on, but boy was he ever correct. That lyric above fits it perfectly. It's the things you don't know that you don't know that get you.
"What if I say I'm not like the others?"
It's difficult to shoot straight with people when you're dealing with the twin issues of everyone else not shooting straight and the people you're trying to shoot straight for not believing you because of the way things have been done before. It's one of the reasons that I gunned so hard for Lincoln Jefferson when I heard the tiniest whiff that he was available. He was an Outlaw in the beginning, and since he left he's been one of the loudest and most unstoppable voices trying to draw attention to things he felt were wrong. There's a very strong chance that if not for him, the league wouldn't have paid enough attention. We needed someone like him. Well, really we needed him. Had he not come up at the right time I'd have had to take more drastic measures. I was prepared to, actually. Let's just say the mayor of Seattle is sort of pissed at me right now.
"I'm not just another one of your plays, you're the pretender."
My business proposals were met with a very lukewarm response. The words lip service were used. So when I say we needed Jefferson, I mean it. We NEEDED that display. We needed to put action to our words. So I did. I shipped HIM off the Canada and then traded away the assets I got for it like they were dirty, too. I brought in Jefferson despite some amount of murmering from the coaches and others. Two days later the coaching staff was praising him. They didn't see it until they were reminded. I hired the kid that kept getting passed up for promotions as my CoGM. I danced in my office after the first report he wrote me. Full throttle unashamed white guy gyrations all across the open space. That one was a tear drop hail mary right into the end zone. At every turn I get eyed suspiciously. What's this guy's game? Football as it turns out. Who'd have guessed?
"I'm the voice inside your head, you refuse to hear."
Wozy, Ramrio, and Hayden were easy additions. Skilled players and good citizens. Even as panicked voices suggested that there were too many changes. I saw that one guy on ESPN talking about it. The guy with the hair thing. Of course a week before he'd been the loudest one questioning my sincerity about really changing things. See if that guy gets an interview. Coaches called me every trade asking why this and why that and then inevitably praised the guys I brought in afterwards. I'm not always gonna get these calls right. no one does. Faith takes time, too. These guys are entrenched. A lot of them haven't really realized the shift that's happened. Granted, I've probably said too much. I'm not usually the guy who calls out other from within the organization but in this case, I think it helps. A lot of people aren't buying in for a variety of reasons. Knowing that people inside of things had the same trepidation is going to be important down the line.
"What if I say that I'll never surrender?"
A major retailer tried to swoop in and get naming rights while offering me HALF of what they offered the last sports franchise they spoke to. And that was a midwest baseball team with so so attendance and no titles in a decade. They sensed a wounded animal and tried to come cut them up a piece. I signed a minor sponsorship deal with a competitor of theirs within 20 minutes of their team leaving the building. Some of our players are going to make appearances at their stores over the course of the next two seasons. I made my point. As my wife put it "they tried to do MY job". I'll let you figure out what she meant by that. Outlaws don't surrender. Not the ones I'm in charge of. This team will not break before anything thrown our way. I'm going to keep working to make this team right. We're going to build a legacy for the future that erases what came before so thoroughly that it's a passing footnote in a reference guide. This team feels like it's been kicked and then kicked some more. I can see it when I talk to a lot of the guys. But they're still standing. And they will be even when more kicks come our way. I'm here now. It's time that my players learn the first most important thing about me. When you're with me, I'll be standing there in front taking all the kicks I can handle before they ever get to you. Then we're going to start kicking back.
"I'm the hand that takes you down, brings you to your knees."
There are those who have tried to destroy this team. You will be dealt with. This team deserves it. The Bandits that fill our stadium deserve it. The people who wash dishes in the pizza place on the 2nd level concourse deserve it. The league deserves it. And everybody is going to get what they deserve. EVERYBODY. The Outlaws will rise like the namesake of the city we call home. And I'll be smiling all the while.
-Adam Ess
Arizona Outlaws GM
GRADED
Sometimes a particular song resonates with you at a particular moment in your life. I feel that way right now. Taking this team and trying to rebuild has been a daunting task. Moreso than I realized. My predecessor met with me briefly when I took over after the owner had to put someone on the chopping block. He said a few things I won't elaborate on, but boy was he ever correct. That lyric above fits it perfectly. It's the things you don't know that you don't know that get you.
"What if I say I'm not like the others?"
It's difficult to shoot straight with people when you're dealing with the twin issues of everyone else not shooting straight and the people you're trying to shoot straight for not believing you because of the way things have been done before. It's one of the reasons that I gunned so hard for Lincoln Jefferson when I heard the tiniest whiff that he was available. He was an Outlaw in the beginning, and since he left he's been one of the loudest and most unstoppable voices trying to draw attention to things he felt were wrong. There's a very strong chance that if not for him, the league wouldn't have paid enough attention. We needed someone like him. Well, really we needed him. Had he not come up at the right time I'd have had to take more drastic measures. I was prepared to, actually. Let's just say the mayor of Seattle is sort of pissed at me right now.
"I'm not just another one of your plays, you're the pretender."
My business proposals were met with a very lukewarm response. The words lip service were used. So when I say we needed Jefferson, I mean it. We NEEDED that display. We needed to put action to our words. So I did. I shipped HIM off the Canada and then traded away the assets I got for it like they were dirty, too. I brought in Jefferson despite some amount of murmering from the coaches and others. Two days later the coaching staff was praising him. They didn't see it until they were reminded. I hired the kid that kept getting passed up for promotions as my CoGM. I danced in my office after the first report he wrote me. Full throttle unashamed white guy gyrations all across the open space. That one was a tear drop hail mary right into the end zone. At every turn I get eyed suspiciously. What's this guy's game? Football as it turns out. Who'd have guessed?
"I'm the voice inside your head, you refuse to hear."
Wozy, Ramrio, and Hayden were easy additions. Skilled players and good citizens. Even as panicked voices suggested that there were too many changes. I saw that one guy on ESPN talking about it. The guy with the hair thing. Of course a week before he'd been the loudest one questioning my sincerity about really changing things. See if that guy gets an interview. Coaches called me every trade asking why this and why that and then inevitably praised the guys I brought in afterwards. I'm not always gonna get these calls right. no one does. Faith takes time, too. These guys are entrenched. A lot of them haven't really realized the shift that's happened. Granted, I've probably said too much. I'm not usually the guy who calls out other from within the organization but in this case, I think it helps. A lot of people aren't buying in for a variety of reasons. Knowing that people inside of things had the same trepidation is going to be important down the line.
"What if I say that I'll never surrender?"
A major retailer tried to swoop in and get naming rights while offering me HALF of what they offered the last sports franchise they spoke to. And that was a midwest baseball team with so so attendance and no titles in a decade. They sensed a wounded animal and tried to come cut them up a piece. I signed a minor sponsorship deal with a competitor of theirs within 20 minutes of their team leaving the building. Some of our players are going to make appearances at their stores over the course of the next two seasons. I made my point. As my wife put it "they tried to do MY job". I'll let you figure out what she meant by that. Outlaws don't surrender. Not the ones I'm in charge of. This team will not break before anything thrown our way. I'm going to keep working to make this team right. We're going to build a legacy for the future that erases what came before so thoroughly that it's a passing footnote in a reference guide. This team feels like it's been kicked and then kicked some more. I can see it when I talk to a lot of the guys. But they're still standing. And they will be even when more kicks come our way. I'm here now. It's time that my players learn the first most important thing about me. When you're with me, I'll be standing there in front taking all the kicks I can handle before they ever get to you. Then we're going to start kicking back.
"I'm the hand that takes you down, brings you to your knees."
There are those who have tried to destroy this team. You will be dealt with. This team deserves it. The Bandits that fill our stadium deserve it. The people who wash dishes in the pizza place on the 2nd level concourse deserve it. The league deserves it. And everybody is going to get what they deserve. EVERYBODY. The Outlaws will rise like the namesake of the city we call home. And I'll be smiling all the while.
-Adam Ess
Arizona Outlaws GM
Code:
1006
GRADED