(S20) - PT2 - Role Model

[lewislewes]

My first sports role model growing up had to be Eddie Johnson. Johnson was a professional soccer player who played striker in the late 2000’s-about mid 2010’s. He had experience playing in Europe with Fulham, now my favorite European club. But, Eddie also played for the Seattle Sounders who are the club dearest to my heart. He was a hard worker who created chances seemingly out of nothing just be the pressure he would put on the defense. I believe that Eddie’s ability to portray what hard work could earn you was a real light on my mindset growing up, especially as an athlete. I came from an area that wasn’t known for producing top talent for soccer and maybe 2 or 3 kids each graduating class in my county would go on to play college soccer. However, the hard work that I learned from Eddie pushed me over the top. I was a part of a group of kids from my high school that all went to play soccer in college, three of us in my graduating class at just my high school ended up playing college soccer and two kids in the class below me. I know that Eddie’s persona as a hard working, grinding, superstar striker led me to where I am today.

[Moosecop]

PBE PT

[Leafer]

https://simulationhockey.com/showthread.php...1238#pid2771238

[Boomcheck]

SHL Affiliate

[SDCore]

I have been inspired by a lot of great athletes along the way. Mostly in other sports that were not football, but the biggest inspiration for me and my character Rod Tidwell, would be well Rod Tidwell himself. Is that ok? I mean, he was a smaller receiver who was looked down on for a long time. He was grown through strife and determination. Nobody believed and him and all he wanted to do was get better, be a good man, husband, and teammate. He did all he could to succeed, he just needed that chance. Once he got that opportunity he took it.

I have modeled my guy after Rod Tidwell, as well as playing his persona from time to time. This has been a lot of fun, as he has some cool catch phrases and things that are interesting. He also has things like Kwan, love, respect, and money. I think Rod Tidwell is also very empowering, because he defies odds to get where he is going. He is smaller, gets hurt, wants to stay in Arizona, and cares about the people around him. Jerry Maguire is his agent and instead of treating him like business he treats him like family. This is what we should all strive for in our day to day, be more like Rod Tidwell.

[toivo]

SHL PT

[Shadowz]

PBE PT

[WALDO]

Zack Vega grew up in a small town in South Carolina, where not many connections to sports were made, except for baseball. In the south, baseball was the sport that everyone played and enjoyed, as it was their national pastime. He would play baseball in the backyard with his dad, he would play baseball with his friends after school, and he played in multiple different leagues. As a kid living in South Carolina, his idol was Chipper Jones. He would watch Chipper play every single day the Atlanta Braves played, and when Chipper didn’t play, he refused to watch games. His favorite activity was to go to the library, get on the computers, and watch highlights of Chipper, copying whatever he did. He once got kicked out of the library for practicing Chipper’s batting stance inside. He played third base in every game, no matter if it was a pickup game or the church league championship game, he was sitting on third base ready to make a play, in honor of his favorite player. As much as he and his father loved the Atlanta Braves, everyone in that small little town, everyone in that family, and everyone who knew Zack Vega, knew that he only cheered for the Braves, because of Chipper Jones.

[mrmouseman]

My role model is Russell Westbrook. ‘The Brodie’ has faced a lot of criticism and adversity in his career, as it isn’t easy to make it in the NBA when you are one of the shorter players in the league AND can’t shoot a 3 consistently. The way that Westbrook is able to succeed is by giving 110% effort every night, pushing the pace and hustling for loose balls, fighting for rebounds and finishing through contact. Every night, you can tell that he is the one that wants it the most, the one that will bring the most intensity to the court regardless of the day or opponent. We have seen this type of intensity before- in the Black Mamba, Kobe Bryant, who has said that Westbrook has the same dog and fight in him that he had in himself. In fact, Westbrook recently said in an instagram post that when he met Kobe at the age of 16, playing a pick up game against him at UCLA, Kobe played like it was the NBA finals. From that moment on, Westbrook decided that he wanted to emulate that Mamba mentality, and said that Kobe Bryant was his idol. So in a way, my role model is also Kobe, the man who did so much on the basketball court, yet had the potential to do so much more off of it. May he rest in peace.

(235 words)

[josh30601]

PBE PT