Tier 2 – Task 8 (5 TPE)
C.J. Sonjack grew up in the small, town of Immokalee, Florida. With a population of only 27,000 or so, it was easy to see that most kids would fall into the routine of scraping for a minimum wage to keep a roof over their heads when they grew up. C.J’s daddy was a used car salesman, and he certainly made more money than most of the folk that lived in his town. His momma was a paraprofessional at the local elementary school. They scraped by and lived in a small apartment complex where the most frequent visitors at their home were cockroaches. His momma always told him that “they ain’t roaches, they be palmetto bugs”, as if that was something that made them all feel a little bit better.
It became abundantly clear when C.J. was six that he was going to be different than his peers. He might have a future that might eclipse slinging Oldsmobile Cutlasses. When all of the other kids were more focused on reading One Fish Two Fish, he was sprinting across the classroom, with the poor underpaid daycare workers pleading for him to slow down. He would line up the Tonka Trucks, sometimes four or five in a row, and see how many he could clear by jumping over them. Other kids worked on their 1s, their 2s, their 3s, he was seeing how high he could climb onto the bookshelves before the teachers caught him and brought him down.
One fateful day when C.J. was in fourth grade, the middle school football coach from the next town over caught him outside his home shooting hoops. C.J. couldn’t have been less than 5’1” at age 12, so he stood out for a young kid. “Son, I see you shooting hoops, but have you ever thought about football?”
“Nah, not really sir.”
“Are your parents home?”
His dad was at the dealership, but his mother was home.
“MOM!” C.J. yelled towards their apartment door, which was left ajar. They didn’t pay for AC – it was a luxury, not a necessity. “What?” she retorted. “This man wants to talk to you about football.”
C.J.’s momma came out with a bewildered look on her face.
“Ma’am, I know you must be busy, I won’t waste your time. Your boy here could have a big future in football. Take my card, think about it, and if you’d like to talk more, give me a call.”
He handed her a business card, and with that, C.J. was set on a path. A path that leads to the ISFL.
Tier 2, Task 9 (5 TPE)
Well, I would be the first to confess that I have not exactly stayed “engaged” in the ISFL. I am now onto my third player, and the league has really failed to “set the hook” so to speak to keep me involved. I think this league has a lot of good things going for it. The sim, despite being clunky at times and having a questionable reputation from the users that spend much more time than I with analysis and experiencing it, offers a highly entertaining and fast-paced product to consume live which I recall enjoying when tuning in for the games. Where the league really flourishes, in my estimation, is with the events department. I recall tuning in to my first live draft with Bex at the forefront and the other interesting analysts. It was engrossing, and I felt like an actual player racked with nervousness, eagerly awaiting my player's name to be called. It was supremely humorous that when it was finally my time to be drafted, the stream seemed to disconnect and all the “analysis” on my pick was rendered useless. It was all squared away in time for the next player to be picked though, naturally. But hey, I was picked! That was exciting.
The way that the Events team creates custom graphics really polishes and makes the ISFL experience that much more robust and engaging. I am happy to see that my league that I spend most of my time in, the SHL, has recently adopted this sort of model and we are beginning to see the results from that team take shape.
I hope I can land in a similar locker room to what the Butchers had going on. With Eller, I had a good time, but my plan was to be a gun for hire as I was not planning to do anything to earn money, and I was hardly going to be a max earner. There was not a whole lot of appetite for that sort of player in the league, and I can understand why. Chicago’s LR was engaging, wanted the best out of their players, and seemed to be a bit like a family. I want, with my newfound motivation, to end up in a similar scenario.
I think one of the ways we could improve the ISFL is by allowing for a better understanding of football itself. I am a casual fan, but I do not know the difference between a cornerback, lineman, safety, what the hell is a Dime formation, etc. Perhaps a brief explanation on all the archetypes of what the position is known for, best attributes for those positions, etc. Not to encourage a meta, but to at least give some context as I felt utterly clueless when doing my first initial build.
C.J. Sonjack grew up in the small, town of Immokalee, Florida. With a population of only 27,000 or so, it was easy to see that most kids would fall into the routine of scraping for a minimum wage to keep a roof over their heads when they grew up. C.J’s daddy was a used car salesman, and he certainly made more money than most of the folk that lived in his town. His momma was a paraprofessional at the local elementary school. They scraped by and lived in a small apartment complex where the most frequent visitors at their home were cockroaches. His momma always told him that “they ain’t roaches, they be palmetto bugs”, as if that was something that made them all feel a little bit better.
It became abundantly clear when C.J. was six that he was going to be different than his peers. He might have a future that might eclipse slinging Oldsmobile Cutlasses. When all of the other kids were more focused on reading One Fish Two Fish, he was sprinting across the classroom, with the poor underpaid daycare workers pleading for him to slow down. He would line up the Tonka Trucks, sometimes four or five in a row, and see how many he could clear by jumping over them. Other kids worked on their 1s, their 2s, their 3s, he was seeing how high he could climb onto the bookshelves before the teachers caught him and brought him down.
One fateful day when C.J. was in fourth grade, the middle school football coach from the next town over caught him outside his home shooting hoops. C.J. couldn’t have been less than 5’1” at age 12, so he stood out for a young kid. “Son, I see you shooting hoops, but have you ever thought about football?”
“Nah, not really sir.”
“Are your parents home?”
His dad was at the dealership, but his mother was home.
“MOM!” C.J. yelled towards their apartment door, which was left ajar. They didn’t pay for AC – it was a luxury, not a necessity. “What?” she retorted. “This man wants to talk to you about football.”
C.J.’s momma came out with a bewildered look on her face.
“Ma’am, I know you must be busy, I won’t waste your time. Your boy here could have a big future in football. Take my card, think about it, and if you’d like to talk more, give me a call.”
He handed her a business card, and with that, C.J. was set on a path. A path that leads to the ISFL.
Tier 2, Task 9 (5 TPE)
Well, I would be the first to confess that I have not exactly stayed “engaged” in the ISFL. I am now onto my third player, and the league has really failed to “set the hook” so to speak to keep me involved. I think this league has a lot of good things going for it. The sim, despite being clunky at times and having a questionable reputation from the users that spend much more time than I with analysis and experiencing it, offers a highly entertaining and fast-paced product to consume live which I recall enjoying when tuning in for the games. Where the league really flourishes, in my estimation, is with the events department. I recall tuning in to my first live draft with Bex at the forefront and the other interesting analysts. It was engrossing, and I felt like an actual player racked with nervousness, eagerly awaiting my player's name to be called. It was supremely humorous that when it was finally my time to be drafted, the stream seemed to disconnect and all the “analysis” on my pick was rendered useless. It was all squared away in time for the next player to be picked though, naturally. But hey, I was picked! That was exciting.
The way that the Events team creates custom graphics really polishes and makes the ISFL experience that much more robust and engaging. I am happy to see that my league that I spend most of my time in, the SHL, has recently adopted this sort of model and we are beginning to see the results from that team take shape.
I hope I can land in a similar locker room to what the Butchers had going on. With Eller, I had a good time, but my plan was to be a gun for hire as I was not planning to do anything to earn money, and I was hardly going to be a max earner. There was not a whole lot of appetite for that sort of player in the league, and I can understand why. Chicago’s LR was engaging, wanted the best out of their players, and seemed to be a bit like a family. I want, with my newfound motivation, to end up in a similar scenario.
I think one of the ways we could improve the ISFL is by allowing for a better understanding of football itself. I am a casual fan, but I do not know the difference between a cornerback, lineman, safety, what the hell is a Dime formation, etc. Perhaps a brief explanation on all the archetypes of what the position is known for, best attributes for those positions, etc. Not to encourage a meta, but to at least give some context as I felt utterly clueless when doing my first initial build.