Oh man the good old days. My most fond memory takes me back to my junior year of college. It was the championship game between my good old Premier University of Townsend and our rival Southern State University. It had been a close game all 4 quarters. We had been swapping the lead with SSU back and forth and were now in the last 17 seconds of the game and down by 5 points. I had been slightly injured at the beginning of the fourth quarter and was fighting through a sore wrist trying to finish out the game with my team.
We were at the 18 yard line in the redzone with 4th and 3. This next play was designed as a simple shotgun pass down to our wide receiver on the left side of the field so our quarterback could get the ball out quick and hopefully score. I was supposed to stay along the left and block to give our quarterback Jack the best chance at getting the ball out. But the defense ended up blitzing along the right. This caused our quarterback to scramble and he ended up having to rush out of the pocket. The intended wide receiver was covered all the way down the field but the man I was on ended up leaving me to blitz along with the rest of the defensive line. This gave me the great opportunity to get wide open for our QB. I ran straight across the field and called out to Jack. He saw me and threw the ball right into my wide open hands. My injured wrist almost caused me to fumble it but I managed to secure it at the last second. Once I got control of the ball I took off as fast as I could towards the endzone. I knew my team was depending on me to run faster than I ever had in my life. I kept going and going and before I knew it I was in the endzone. We had scored! I had managed to bring in the ball and put my team back on top with 8 seconds left in the game. This secured our championship title that year. It was a great feeling being able to bring in that game winning touchdown. I could hear the screams of our hometown crowd and could feel the excitement as my teammates came up to congratulate me. That day will forever be one of my favorites.
Jack McPherson went into the University of Florida football program in a bit of a weird spot. Sure he was big and had a lot of talent, but he mostly played kicker in high school with occasional good linebacker play and now was recruited to mostly play linebacker. However, any doubt people may have had about his playing ability at linebacker was shattered when Florida played host to the University of Michigan in a big primetime game during his freshman year. The schools usual starting linebacker had gone down to a leg injury, and Jack was put in the starting lineup to replace him.
Jack would end up dominating the field during that game, racking up 9 tackles and 2 sacks. However, it was a pick six that the Michigan quarterback threw right into his hands that sealed the game. Just to throw a bit more into it, Jack would end up kicking the extra point and making the last tackle of a 34-24 victory for the Gators.
The game that defined Logjammed Mcbobface’s pre ISFL career had to be his Homecoming game vs the city rival his Sophomore year of Highschool. In this game, Logjammed has said he took his brothers pre game ritual, and ate a cheeseburger before the game. And because of this, he was pumped up minutes before the kickoff. When he came out on his first drive, he had 2 sacks and even forced and recovered a fumble. He promptly threw up the cheeseburger on the sideline, but that didn’t stop him from playing good. He absolutely embarrassed the other teams qb by sacking him, and then throwing up on him, the cheeseburger was doing wonders to his game, but the complete opposite to his stomach. Logjammed got the game winning sack, sacking the Qb for his 6th of the game on 4th down, but he had no time to celebrate, as he threw up again, the poor QB.
Ahh the old days - back when things were a lot more simple, there were no scouts watching your games, or Nerds in the ISFL watching every single snap - trying to break down your game. My path was a bit different, was late to the sport compared to most. I would say that one of the moments that led to my rise to professional football was a high school football game against the Buffalo Silvercats. It was just one of those GAMES... I think I had forced a fumble on the opening kickoff (in my special teams days) which kickstarted the game. From there on, I think I had even blitzed off the CB-Edge side of the field and got a sack and a couple of TFL! I remember in the second quarter, game tied 10-10, I jumped up and snatched the ball down for a huge INT! It was just one of those games that essentially made my tape look amazing! I recall vividly the game ending on my interception to ice the game, winning 20-17. Oh, the good old days.
Dub Redd's career as a Defensive Tackle can only be put into the proper prospective if you know about his Freshman year of High School football. Dub's father Bill Redd was a historic figure for the Springdale Arkansas Bulldogs as the all team leader in passing yards. Dub had big shoes to fill following in his father's footsteps, but Dub's tenure as quarterback would be short lived. Dub was just going into his Sophomore year after a historic Freshman quarterback season for the Bulldogs. In the first game of the season against the Harrison Goblins, on the first play of the game, Dub Redd suffered a brutal hand injury after being sacked by opposing Linebacker John Blieu. Doctor's told Redd he would never be able to properly grip or throw a football ever again, and they were right.
What makes this game and story defining for Dub's career is how he handled the trials and tribulations on the road to recovery. Instead of giving up on his football dreams, Redd made the best with what he had left. Redd hit the weights, bulked up, and switched to the defensive side of the game where is lack of being able to grip a football was a non-concern. That game and the adversity he faced in recovery are what drive Dub Redd to be the hardest worker on and off the field to this day.
The game that changed RAINN's entire trajectory was a scrimmage in one of football's many minor leagues that have been popping up of late. You see, RAINN has never been big into sports at all and instead really focused all of their efforts into activism and bringing awareness to domestic violence and assault victims. They were looking for a way to really accelerate their platform when they were invited by a friend to this scrimmage. The friend figured that RAINN had a pretty good arm and should give the while quarterback thing a shot. Turn out RAINN was able to prett6 accurately throw it all over the field and while they needed some help with decision making and play calling they seemed to be a natural. Being a scrimmage they only played a half, but racked up a respectable 250 yards and two touchdowns. This was enough to catch the attention of an ISFL scout that was in attendance and the rest is history as RAINN now gets to spread their word with the help of a big league!
Geralt doesn't really have that one specific game that he thinks was his catapult into the magical world of professional football. He has several key moments made across several games in several years - his interceptions were all very impressive in terms of his positioning on the field and his intelligence and ability to read the quarterback. He never got any tip drill interceptions, as he usually played in his own world in a way. He also had some key tackles where he stuffed the back at the line on crucial 4th downs, but none of those ever happened in a single game really. His main abilities in college that got him drafted were his constant good performances - never rated below a 75 in the PFF grades, and rated above 90 on very frequent occasions. 4 years of an average score of 86.7 ensured that while he wasn't known for splash plays, he also simply did not make mistakes, and that alone is a massive boon for any ISFL team. (169)
When Jay Cue Jr. was born he was already a star, because he came out of his mother womb wearing shades and with his hair perfectly combed. Usual stuff in his family. But regarding football, and if you followed his early years story on his wiki, he was exposed to football really early by his father. And what defined his football path was pretty much the first time he went to watch one of his fathers training sessions in Portugal. He was about 6 or 7 and when someone handled him a ball, he just started running and juking older people with ease. And from that moment on, the only thing on his mind was getting a chance to play in the DSFL, something that got even clearer when his family returned to the United States.
Imagine what would have been of the ISFL if Cue Jr. just decided to try out soccer, or basketball? I think he would have been great in whatever sport he picked.