07-10-2020, 03:35 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-10-2020, 03:48 PM by HalfEatenOnionBagel.)
Hello, it's me, I was wondering if you knew about my good friend TheCC. Huh that was weird but yeah I'm back it's me HalfEatenOnionBagel, or Osiris Firestorm-Fjord. I don't really know right now, I guess for this article I'm actually going to be a bit of both, so hopefully you can keep up.
Anyways, let's get down to what I'm really here for. If you're not already familiar with Chicago Butchers cornerback Tyron Shields, then you will be in very short time. Shields was born in Fort Scott, KS to two parents that were gifted athletes. His father in particular was a defensive back in college at Pittsburg State University, which should have been a strong indicator of the path that Shields would eventually follow himself. The S22 draftee didn't take the most direct path to football success, spending a year playing in JUCO at Ft Scott CC before transferring to the University of Georgia. But the fact he was able to make it to one of the best college programs in the country, start for two years and put up a nice stat line of 46 tackles, 1 sack, 5 interceptions and both a kick and punt return touchdown in his final season of college ball is extremely indicative of his potential. He's spent the past two years in the DSFL with the Minnesota Grey Ducks, where he was known as a leader both on and off the field, and has been putting together a phenomenal rookie season in the NSFL this year. He should certainly be considered in the running for Defensive Rookie of the Year. Here's a look at some of Shields' statistics this season at the time of writing this article:
96 tackles (1st among all CB, 9th among all players)
2 interceptions (1st among all rookies, 9th among all CB)
12 passes defended (2nd among all rookies, 9th among all CB)
1 Sack
1 Forced Fumble
1 Fumble Recovery
Not just a dominant season so far compared to his fellow rookies, but even amongst some of the veteran defenders in the league as well. His tackling and playmaking ability at all levels of the defense especially considering his size is really an impressive feat. He's been a real anchor for us in the defensive secondary.
Additionally, as his teammate and lead character witness, I can tell you that I absolutely love having Shields / theCC on our team, beyond just what his on field performance has been. He's super dedicated to helping the team progress, encouraging new guys and running the Max Earners club to keep everyone, and especially Muford, in line. Not an easy task and a lot of responsibility that he took on of his own accord. His fun and calm demeanor has had a huge impact on the locker room after a few seasons where our activity was lacking as the team was slowly descending to rock bottom. And of course, his on field performance has been huge for the defense and he has had some especially strong performances as of late, especially in our blowout of the New Orleans Second Line. Apparently I'm being told just not to ask him to help you change your oil.
As an adoring fan, I wanted to learn a little bit more about Tyron Shields / TheCC. What motivates him, what makes him tick, and most importantly what his take is on a certain breakfast item. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
==========
Hey my dude thank you very much for taking the time to answer some questions for me. Let's start off on a more serious note and then we can get into some fun stuff.
When did you start playing football? What drew you to the sport initially? Why is cornerback the position that you've ended up playing?
I started playing football in 3rd grade. I wanted to start in 2nd grade with my cousin, but my mom missed the sign up deadline... Imagine about how much better I'd be today if I had gotten that extra year of development... It hurts to think about. I've always been a huge football fan. When my cousin and I were kids we'd be playing out in the yard all day during the summer. And when we got a little older, after school my friends and I would play on the playground until our parents were off work. I'm not sure why I've always loved it so much. I'm a competitor, so that's part of it. That competitiveness is a big reason I'm a cornerback. It's one of the hardest positions in football. It's the position where you have the least support, in my opinion. It's mostly on your shoulders. In my opinion, it's the most competitive spot on the field. It's just you and the guy across from you, battling it out. You gotta love it.
Oh yeah, as someone that started off as a tight end, the difference in how you approach each game is remarkable. It's definitely more difficult than people give us credit for. Ok next question, at what point did you know that you were going to make it in the pros?
I think that my parents knew I was going to make it to the pros long before I did. They knew I had the athleticism and they knew that I had the work ethic. It was always a dream, but I didn't know that I was going to make it until my time at the University of Georgia. It was hard to convince myself that I could make it after I battled injuries all through high school. Having to go to a junior college didn't help the self-esteem either. But you just gotta keep working. When I took over the CB1 spot at Georgia I knew I could do it.
How does playing on the Butchers compare to your time playing on the Minnesota Gray Ducks?
It's actually Grey Ducks.
Oh my bad….wait how can you tell the difference just from me saying it?
Dude, it's right there in your speech bubble!
Ah, so it is. And there's the correct spelling in yours, I see I see. How have I never noticed that? Anyways, Ok please continue.
The Butchers are definitely less.....sexual, than the Grey Ducks. I think that's because there is a distinct lack of ForSucksFake in the CHI locker room. When I first got to CHI, it was a teensy bit dead here, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it. I didn’t want to rush to conclusions though, so I gave it time. Now we have a fantastic group here. Surprisingly enough, I’m actually getting more playing time with the Butchers than I did in the DSFL. We had a really competitive group there, and we ended up being the best defensive back group in the league last season. I’m loving the playing time, loving the production I’m seeing, loving the atmosphere, the locker room,the progress we’re making, there’s a lot to look forward to in Chicago. The Grey Ducks will always have a special place in my heart (Q U A C C), but I love it here too.
Hey if you want sexy I got a whole box full of assless chaps around here somewhere.
:eyes:
So what's your favorite moment in the NSFL so far? On the field, off the field, whatever.
So there's a few different ones I could mention. The first thing that came to my mind was an off the field moment. Last season, the usual guys were talking in the Grey Ducks Discord server. Jamar Lackson decided he was gonna go to bed. Right after he left, ForSucksFake needed him for something so he pinged him and asked where he was. We told him he went to bed. I don't know what happened next to cause this, but next thing you know, FSF, me, and Reaper are pinging him in every channel (and if you're a member of the Grey Ducks Discord, you know that's like 50 channels), over and over. This went on for probably an hour. We would pop into a new channel, say something like, "Is he in here?" "No sighting of him here." Or "Jamar Lackson was last spotted in this channel on X day of X month." We even hopped over to the NSFL server and pinged him in there too. He woke up to hundreds of pings. It was amazing. I think that last season was just really special, and there were a lot of us that got along really well. Another awesome "moment", even though it isn't really one specific moment, is us Butchers just making jokes every once in a while about Franky. It's just a good meme all around. If I had to choose an on the field moment, I think I'd have to choose either my first career interception, which was just a few games ago. Or my last game with the Ducks. It was sad, but it was also cool, because all of the guys were in the voice chat. We had people in there for every game day, but never even half as many as that day. It didn't go our way, but it was cool to just talk to all of the guys.
I'm gonna miss Franky, but all good things must come to an end sadly and O'Donnell is a huge addition for our offense.
You're still a relative newcome to the league. What your biggest piece of advice for upcoming rookies?
Reach out to someone to help get you started. I didn't, and I missed out on an entire season. Worse than that even, I almost abandoned the league altogether just because it seemed like a lot of work to figure everything out. If it wasn't QUARANTINE SZN which gave me a lot more free time, I probably would've just left. I wouldn't have met all of the awesome people that I've met. Some of these people are probably going to be my friends for years, whether we all stay in the league or not. Some of us are even planning a trip together! So just find someone to mentor you and help you figure it out, I'm sure that most people in the league are more than willing to help out. Jango and Dewalt played that role for me, and now I'm paying it forward by helping out any of the new Ducks that have questions.
We're unfortunately in last place again this year, but how far do you think we realistically are from making the playoffs?
Unfortunately our chances this season took a hit since we just lost to the Sarasota Sailfish. I think next season is doable. I think that the season after that is when we'll really be picking up steam, though. We'll all be hitting our stride at that point. We're young so we're just playing catch up right now. We can already see the progress in this season alone. The blowouts that we were on the receiving end of early on in the season are a far cry from what we've seen in our most recent games. I'd look for us to make a push as early as next season.
Who is your role model? In the NSFL, real life or otherwise.
There are so many people that I could list here. In the NSFL, I think I gotta say that Bayley is a big role model. I talk to him fairly often (hopefully not too often hahah) and he's just really nice and pretty much exactly the kind of person I want to be in the NSFL. Someday I would like to try to get a shot at GMing, and I would wanna do it the way him and Muford do. They're a great pair. Dewalt is in that same kind of boat too. He's a great GM and a good friend, so I think he's a bit of a role model as well. Then there's Jango who is willing to help anyone with anything, which I've been trying to follow. There's FSF who is always the funniest guy in the room, and I wish I had that kind of a presence. On the field I gotta say it's you. You're the mentor, and I'll always be chasing you in TPE, modeling my game closely to yours. You've helped me build and you helped me to feel welcome when I came to CHI, which was nice since the locker room wasn't quite as lively as it is now. Not sure why you helped out a near-inactive 71 TPE 11th round pick so much, but hey, here we are. In real life it's definitely my mom. She's was a single mother for several years, busting her ass constantly. Even though it was just the two of us on our own, I never even realized we were poor. She's the hardest worker I know, never takes a vacation day because she says the office would fall apart if she was gone for more than an hour lol. And she's the most supportive person I know. Mom's are the best.
Oh yeah absolutely. Alright let's get into some of the harder hitting questions now. What's your favorite pregame meal?
I'm sorry to tell you, but it's definitely not your quesarito dogs-
Hey careful now, that's a family recipe.
Don't get me wrong, they aren't as bad as they sound. But my favorite pregame meal is pickled eels. Sounds disgusting, right? Well it is. It's absolutely horrendous. But Babe Ruth ate it, so I will eat it as well. To be the best, you have to eat like the best, or something.
Yeah but uhh that was a baseball player…..look you do you, baby. Whatever you eat it's working. I'm usually not in the locker room right before a game so I don't actually know, what's your favorite song to listen to to get pumped up on gameday?
I have a whole playlist to get pumped up for gameday, actually. Here are some of my top picks from that playlist:
I'll Make a Man Out of You - Mulan
Fall For You - Secondhand Serenade
You're Welcome - Frozen
I Touch Myself - Divinyls
Sea Shanty 2 Trap Remix
Pokemon Theme
Wow all the hits. What is your favorite animal?
A liger. It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic
You and I, and really a ton of people on the team are really active on Twitter. But do you think social media is a mostly positive or mostly negative thing?
Depends solely on how you use it. Everything has been pretty toxic recently, so I've honestly been on my NSFL Twitter more than my IRL Twitter lately. On my IRL Twitter I have certain words blocked, so that I won't see any tweets about politics at all. You just have to make sure you're only looking at the right stuff for you.
When will humans be able to live on Mars?
As soon as Muford and Bayley give me a contract large enough to afford a rocket and equipment.
Yeah they're pretty damn stingy. If you could have any superpower what would it be and why?
I would want to fly. I wouldn't use it for evil, or really even for good, unless the situation presented itself. I've just always wanted to be able to soar around like a bird, seeing the world from a different perspective. When you make it to a mountain peak and you look around, everything always looks so gorgeous. What if you had the opportunity to just fly up and see things like that whenever you want?
Ok, so now maybe the most important question that I have for you. I don't think I've ever had this discussion with anyone but it is something I have thought about a lot lately. French toast or french toast sticks?
French toast sticks easily for me. The convenience is insane. I also have this really weird thing about silverware. I hate the sound of silverware on a plate. I bought bamboo utensils just so I wouldn't have to deal with this. So with french toast sticks, you don't even need utensils.
My man, yes yes yes. I probably ate a pound of french toast sticks daily back in college. Alright last question, take your time with this one if you need to: Favorite number between 14 and 93?
33. It was my first football number. If I could choose any number, I would've chose 1, because that was my basketball number forever and basketball was my first love. But yeah, 33 is special to me. I still use it for certain things that definitely are not passwords or anything like that, definitely.
Good stuff, once again really appreciate you taking the time to help us make some money err I mean let the fans get to know you better.
==========
Well there you have it, the definitive Tyron Shields interview, overview and underview. What a guy, really just a special player and person. He's just getting started here in the NSFL, but I know great things are ahead for him. You won't want to miss what he does with the rest of his career.
*Note for grader: Please give 50% of payout to @TheCC
Anyways, let's get down to what I'm really here for. If you're not already familiar with Chicago Butchers cornerback Tyron Shields, then you will be in very short time. Shields was born in Fort Scott, KS to two parents that were gifted athletes. His father in particular was a defensive back in college at Pittsburg State University, which should have been a strong indicator of the path that Shields would eventually follow himself. The S22 draftee didn't take the most direct path to football success, spending a year playing in JUCO at Ft Scott CC before transferring to the University of Georgia. But the fact he was able to make it to one of the best college programs in the country, start for two years and put up a nice stat line of 46 tackles, 1 sack, 5 interceptions and both a kick and punt return touchdown in his final season of college ball is extremely indicative of his potential. He's spent the past two years in the DSFL with the Minnesota Grey Ducks, where he was known as a leader both on and off the field, and has been putting together a phenomenal rookie season in the NSFL this year. He should certainly be considered in the running for Defensive Rookie of the Year. Here's a look at some of Shields' statistics this season at the time of writing this article:
96 tackles (1st among all CB, 9th among all players)
2 interceptions (1st among all rookies, 9th among all CB)
12 passes defended (2nd among all rookies, 9th among all CB)
1 Sack
1 Forced Fumble
1 Fumble Recovery
Not just a dominant season so far compared to his fellow rookies, but even amongst some of the veteran defenders in the league as well. His tackling and playmaking ability at all levels of the defense especially considering his size is really an impressive feat. He's been a real anchor for us in the defensive secondary.
Additionally, as his teammate and lead character witness, I can tell you that I absolutely love having Shields / theCC on our team, beyond just what his on field performance has been. He's super dedicated to helping the team progress, encouraging new guys and running the Max Earners club to keep everyone, and especially Muford, in line. Not an easy task and a lot of responsibility that he took on of his own accord. His fun and calm demeanor has had a huge impact on the locker room after a few seasons where our activity was lacking as the team was slowly descending to rock bottom. And of course, his on field performance has been huge for the defense and he has had some especially strong performances as of late, especially in our blowout of the New Orleans Second Line. Apparently I'm being told just not to ask him to help you change your oil.
As an adoring fan, I wanted to learn a little bit more about Tyron Shields / TheCC. What motivates him, what makes him tick, and most importantly what his take is on a certain breakfast item. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
==========
Hey my dude thank you very much for taking the time to answer some questions for me. Let's start off on a more serious note and then we can get into some fun stuff.
When did you start playing football? What drew you to the sport initially? Why is cornerback the position that you've ended up playing?
I started playing football in 3rd grade. I wanted to start in 2nd grade with my cousin, but my mom missed the sign up deadline... Imagine about how much better I'd be today if I had gotten that extra year of development... It hurts to think about. I've always been a huge football fan. When my cousin and I were kids we'd be playing out in the yard all day during the summer. And when we got a little older, after school my friends and I would play on the playground until our parents were off work. I'm not sure why I've always loved it so much. I'm a competitor, so that's part of it. That competitiveness is a big reason I'm a cornerback. It's one of the hardest positions in football. It's the position where you have the least support, in my opinion. It's mostly on your shoulders. In my opinion, it's the most competitive spot on the field. It's just you and the guy across from you, battling it out. You gotta love it.
Oh yeah, as someone that started off as a tight end, the difference in how you approach each game is remarkable. It's definitely more difficult than people give us credit for. Ok next question, at what point did you know that you were going to make it in the pros?
I think that my parents knew I was going to make it to the pros long before I did. They knew I had the athleticism and they knew that I had the work ethic. It was always a dream, but I didn't know that I was going to make it until my time at the University of Georgia. It was hard to convince myself that I could make it after I battled injuries all through high school. Having to go to a junior college didn't help the self-esteem either. But you just gotta keep working. When I took over the CB1 spot at Georgia I knew I could do it.
How does playing on the Butchers compare to your time playing on the Minnesota Gray Ducks?
It's actually Grey Ducks.
Oh my bad….wait how can you tell the difference just from me saying it?
Dude, it's right there in your speech bubble!
Ah, so it is. And there's the correct spelling in yours, I see I see. How have I never noticed that? Anyways, Ok please continue.
The Butchers are definitely less.....sexual, than the Grey Ducks. I think that's because there is a distinct lack of ForSucksFake in the CHI locker room. When I first got to CHI, it was a teensy bit dead here, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to like it. I didn’t want to rush to conclusions though, so I gave it time. Now we have a fantastic group here. Surprisingly enough, I’m actually getting more playing time with the Butchers than I did in the DSFL. We had a really competitive group there, and we ended up being the best defensive back group in the league last season. I’m loving the playing time, loving the production I’m seeing, loving the atmosphere, the locker room,the progress we’re making, there’s a lot to look forward to in Chicago. The Grey Ducks will always have a special place in my heart (Q U A C C), but I love it here too.
Hey if you want sexy I got a whole box full of assless chaps around here somewhere.
:eyes:
So what's your favorite moment in the NSFL so far? On the field, off the field, whatever.
So there's a few different ones I could mention. The first thing that came to my mind was an off the field moment. Last season, the usual guys were talking in the Grey Ducks Discord server. Jamar Lackson decided he was gonna go to bed. Right after he left, ForSucksFake needed him for something so he pinged him and asked where he was. We told him he went to bed. I don't know what happened next to cause this, but next thing you know, FSF, me, and Reaper are pinging him in every channel (and if you're a member of the Grey Ducks Discord, you know that's like 50 channels), over and over. This went on for probably an hour. We would pop into a new channel, say something like, "Is he in here?" "No sighting of him here." Or "Jamar Lackson was last spotted in this channel on X day of X month." We even hopped over to the NSFL server and pinged him in there too. He woke up to hundreds of pings. It was amazing. I think that last season was just really special, and there were a lot of us that got along really well. Another awesome "moment", even though it isn't really one specific moment, is us Butchers just making jokes every once in a while about Franky. It's just a good meme all around. If I had to choose an on the field moment, I think I'd have to choose either my first career interception, which was just a few games ago. Or my last game with the Ducks. It was sad, but it was also cool, because all of the guys were in the voice chat. We had people in there for every game day, but never even half as many as that day. It didn't go our way, but it was cool to just talk to all of the guys.
I'm gonna miss Franky, but all good things must come to an end sadly and O'Donnell is a huge addition for our offense.
You're still a relative newcome to the league. What your biggest piece of advice for upcoming rookies?
Reach out to someone to help get you started. I didn't, and I missed out on an entire season. Worse than that even, I almost abandoned the league altogether just because it seemed like a lot of work to figure everything out. If it wasn't QUARANTINE SZN which gave me a lot more free time, I probably would've just left. I wouldn't have met all of the awesome people that I've met. Some of these people are probably going to be my friends for years, whether we all stay in the league or not. Some of us are even planning a trip together! So just find someone to mentor you and help you figure it out, I'm sure that most people in the league are more than willing to help out. Jango and Dewalt played that role for me, and now I'm paying it forward by helping out any of the new Ducks that have questions.
We're unfortunately in last place again this year, but how far do you think we realistically are from making the playoffs?
Unfortunately our chances this season took a hit since we just lost to the Sarasota Sailfish. I think next season is doable. I think that the season after that is when we'll really be picking up steam, though. We'll all be hitting our stride at that point. We're young so we're just playing catch up right now. We can already see the progress in this season alone. The blowouts that we were on the receiving end of early on in the season are a far cry from what we've seen in our most recent games. I'd look for us to make a push as early as next season.
Who is your role model? In the NSFL, real life or otherwise.
There are so many people that I could list here. In the NSFL, I think I gotta say that Bayley is a big role model. I talk to him fairly often (hopefully not too often hahah) and he's just really nice and pretty much exactly the kind of person I want to be in the NSFL. Someday I would like to try to get a shot at GMing, and I would wanna do it the way him and Muford do. They're a great pair. Dewalt is in that same kind of boat too. He's a great GM and a good friend, so I think he's a bit of a role model as well. Then there's Jango who is willing to help anyone with anything, which I've been trying to follow. There's FSF who is always the funniest guy in the room, and I wish I had that kind of a presence. On the field I gotta say it's you. You're the mentor, and I'll always be chasing you in TPE, modeling my game closely to yours. You've helped me build and you helped me to feel welcome when I came to CHI, which was nice since the locker room wasn't quite as lively as it is now. Not sure why you helped out a near-inactive 71 TPE 11th round pick so much, but hey, here we are. In real life it's definitely my mom. She's was a single mother for several years, busting her ass constantly. Even though it was just the two of us on our own, I never even realized we were poor. She's the hardest worker I know, never takes a vacation day because she says the office would fall apart if she was gone for more than an hour lol. And she's the most supportive person I know. Mom's are the best.
Oh yeah absolutely. Alright let's get into some of the harder hitting questions now. What's your favorite pregame meal?
I'm sorry to tell you, but it's definitely not your quesarito dogs-
Hey careful now, that's a family recipe.
Don't get me wrong, they aren't as bad as they sound. But my favorite pregame meal is pickled eels. Sounds disgusting, right? Well it is. It's absolutely horrendous. But Babe Ruth ate it, so I will eat it as well. To be the best, you have to eat like the best, or something.
Yeah but uhh that was a baseball player…..look you do you, baby. Whatever you eat it's working. I'm usually not in the locker room right before a game so I don't actually know, what's your favorite song to listen to to get pumped up on gameday?
I have a whole playlist to get pumped up for gameday, actually. Here are some of my top picks from that playlist:
I'll Make a Man Out of You - Mulan
Fall For You - Secondhand Serenade
You're Welcome - Frozen
I Touch Myself - Divinyls
Sea Shanty 2 Trap Remix
Pokemon Theme
Wow all the hits. What is your favorite animal?
A liger. It's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic
You and I, and really a ton of people on the team are really active on Twitter. But do you think social media is a mostly positive or mostly negative thing?
Depends solely on how you use it. Everything has been pretty toxic recently, so I've honestly been on my NSFL Twitter more than my IRL Twitter lately. On my IRL Twitter I have certain words blocked, so that I won't see any tweets about politics at all. You just have to make sure you're only looking at the right stuff for you.
When will humans be able to live on Mars?
As soon as Muford and Bayley give me a contract large enough to afford a rocket and equipment.
Yeah they're pretty damn stingy. If you could have any superpower what would it be and why?
I would want to fly. I wouldn't use it for evil, or really even for good, unless the situation presented itself. I've just always wanted to be able to soar around like a bird, seeing the world from a different perspective. When you make it to a mountain peak and you look around, everything always looks so gorgeous. What if you had the opportunity to just fly up and see things like that whenever you want?
Ok, so now maybe the most important question that I have for you. I don't think I've ever had this discussion with anyone but it is something I have thought about a lot lately. French toast or french toast sticks?
French toast sticks easily for me. The convenience is insane. I also have this really weird thing about silverware. I hate the sound of silverware on a plate. I bought bamboo utensils just so I wouldn't have to deal with this. So with french toast sticks, you don't even need utensils.
My man, yes yes yes. I probably ate a pound of french toast sticks daily back in college. Alright last question, take your time with this one if you need to: Favorite number between 14 and 93?
33. It was my first football number. If I could choose any number, I would've chose 1, because that was my basketball number forever and basketball was my first love. But yeah, 33 is special to me. I still use it for certain things that definitely are not passwords or anything like that, definitely.
Good stuff, once again really appreciate you taking the time to help us make some money err I mean let the fans get to know you better.
==========
Well there you have it, the definitive Tyron Shields interview, overview and underview. What a guy, really just a special player and person. He's just getting started here in the NSFL, but I know great things are ahead for him. You won't want to miss what he does with the rest of his career.
*Note for grader: Please give 50% of payout to @TheCC
[OPTION]===========================================
[OPTION]Regular Season Stats
[OPTION](S2) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S3) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S4) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S5) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S6) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S7) 14 Games Played
[OPTION](S8) 14 Games Played
[OPTION]===========================================
[OPTION]Playoff Stats
[OPTION] 27839
[OPTION]===========================================
[OPTION]Trophy Case/Achievements:
[OPTION]Most Likely to Break the Team Bench When Sitting Down
[OPTION]Pumpkin Chuckin' Rally 2017 Semifinalist
[OPTION]Most Likely to Get Traded in S8 (T-1st)
[OPTION]Ultimus Champion S7, S8