"With the 103rd pick in the inaugural National Simulation Football League draft, the Arizona Outlaws select...
Isaiah Rashad."
Do you remember hearing his name called in the draft? The fact of the matter is, many don't. Most casual fans have channel-surfed their ways off the draft by that point, and the hardcore fans who stuck around for this pick are busy saying things like, "Oh yeah, I believe I saw this guy play a game or two in college."
The unfortunate matter is, once you get to the triple digits, you have become an afterthought of the league. How can one possibly compare J.J. Reigns, Josh Garden and Mayran Jackson to a guy like Isaiah Rashad? There was a question in the air headed into the night if he would even be selected.
A quick glance at last season and this current season will show that Stephen Harrison, selected two picks before Rashad by the Baltimore Hawks, had serious late-round value. But nobody could have predicted the box that would open when the Arizona brass selected the safety out of LSU with the 103rd pick.
Not Rashad.
Not the Arizona Outlaws.
Not the loyal fans in the desert.
Not even the NSFL itself could have foreseen what was coming.
So what was coming?
The most tumultuous season and a half that one could probably imagine.
The Arizona Outlaws were perceived by most of the league to have had the "worst draft", and ended up on the bottom of a great deal of season standings predictions by NSFL fans and analysts alike. While it may have looked like a weak draft from the outset, the fact is many of their virtual unknowns outperformed some of the "sure things" drafted by other teams.
Harrif Ernston? Who?
Ryan Flock...
...and of course, Isaiah Rashad.
Fast forward through preseason as we head to sunny California, where the heavily favored Orange County Otters were set to open the season against the Arizona Outlaws. Orange County was supposed to be the big bread-winner, topping many predictions, but a different story was set to be written in Week 1, and in the season to come.
Collegiate blue-chip quarterback Mike Boss was supposed to come out firing, and he did. I mean, he threw the ball fifty times. However, in those fifty throws, he failed to find the end zone even once. To add insult to injury, the Otters "star" threw six (yes, six) interceptions.
Wouldn't it be fitting if one of those interceptions was to the "no-name of all no-names", Isaiah Rashad?
Isaiah Rashad did not have one interception.
He had three.
That's right, he went from being selected 103rd overall, to fighting for a job, to potentially not seeing the field, to intercepting a consensus top quarterback in the league a whopping three times in his first regular season game. All that transition took him just a few weeks, and signaled the winds of change were blowing in.
*insert tumbleweed rolling across the Arizona desert imagery here*
Was the one game a fluke? Absolutely not. Many would have reason to believe he couldn't replicate that performance because three interceptions in one game is an astronomical feat. But his play did not regress, even in spite of his failure to train all too often.
Rashad's teammate, Arizona Outlaws' cornerback Jason Williams finished the season with five interceptions, tied with Alex Hayden of the Colorado Yeti.
They were 2a and 2b as far as the league tally went, however.
Isaiah Rashad had ten interceptions on the season.
While those three came in one game, which has come to be fatefully known as the "Mike Boss Game", adding seven more in the thirteen remaining games is quite special as well.
With that stat among others, it came as no surprise at the first NSFL Awards Show that Isaiah Rashad took home some hardware. He was named the first Defensive Player of the Year in the history of the league. And he was picked in the eighteenth round of the inaugural draft. Chew on that for a minute.
So in this league, it seems with great power comes great...controversy...I guess? Responsibility, not so much, as he hasn't had to do all that much to get where he is.
Many thought Rashad would be left free of chaos, and symbolize a bright spot for younger guys with less experience just trying to break into the league.
"Hey, if an eighteenth rounder can do it, why can't I?" is just an example of reactions the NSFL fans would hope to elicit from those considering declaring for the draft.
Arizona had their guy. Among many others, Rashad was an integral piece of their Championship team which knocked off the Otters (again) and the Yeti in the playoffs to hoist the first ever Ultimus Cup in front of the 'Zona faithful.
Many fans believed Rashad had now cemented himself as a franchise cornerstone. Arizona sports talk radio hosts Marcus Daniels and Jake Plummer stated on-air that the safety is one-hundred percent a part of the team's long term plans.
This would change with four words from the NSFL Commissioner Ballerstorm on one evening.
"The league is expanding."
When the Las Vegas Legion and Philadelphia Liberty were announced, eyes turned to the player protection lists that would soon be publicized. Plenty of talent was available, but the two franchise took wildly different approaches to building their squads. The Las Vegas Legion made trades like it was going out of style. One of those trades happened to be with the Arizona Outlaws:
receive:
WR None Stormblessed
LB Brady Stropko
S Isaiah Rashad
receive:
S3 1st
S4 1st
S4 3rd
Look here, I get what Arizona was doing, I do. They figured they would lose Isaiah Rashad in the expansion draft, so they wanted to at least get something for him. But wait. Back that story up a second. Why was the Defensive Player of the Year at risk of being left unprotected in the expansion draft? Apparently the front office had concerns about his work ethic and his desire to remain an active part of the organization. So, in a rather questionable move, they shipped Rashad and top receiver Stormblessed to the brand new franchise out of Vegas. The Legion now possessed an incredible asset, someone who performed so well to be decorated after only one season. Maybe Arizona thought it was a fluke, but regardless, Isaiah Rashad was now a part of something brewing in Las Vegas.
So did you like that rather questionable trade? Yeah? Well here goes another one:
receives:
S3 3rd
S2 7th
receive:
S Isaiah Rashad
Now I didn't say this was bad for Arizona. All I said was "questionable", and to be fair, I meant from the Legion's perspective. Why trade for this potential gem of a player if the goal was to simply ship (or in this case, give him a bus ticket) back to Arizona? I guess we won't know. What we do know, however, is that Isaiah Rashad was rightfully back with the Arizona Outlaws. Time to intercept Mike Boss six times in a game this time around, I guess.
Fans were elated to have him back. Some comments on the trade announcement article included "the boss destroyer is back" and "welcome back bro!" One commenter also raised a rather legit question: "Does this mean Rashad was finally shown respect, or did he just get thrown away a second time?"
It's certainly a solid question, but the answer seemed clear. Arizona was essentially assuring Rashad that they want him there. On the field. In the locker room. In the public eye.
At this point, it was about time for the league's second season to commence, and Isaiah Rashad was inserted right back in the depth chart, as a safety alongside his Season 1 counterpart Ryan Flock. The expectation was (and still is) that he would continue to rise and develop, but the early going has been a slog for him so far. In the first four Outlaws games, he only has one interception, putting him on pace for just over three picks, which is nowhere near last campaign's ten. Couple that with only fourteen tackles so far, and it doesn't take an NSFL analyst to state that Rashad's sophomore season has been less than impressive so far. After getting burnt on a few plays, fans were already calling for his head, despite the 3-1 start for Arizona.
So what does this all mean for Isaiah Rashad? Will he be able to regain form? Or was the first season just an anomaly, a performance he will never be able to replicate in the future? Will the safety be an Outlaw for the rest of this season? Five seasons? Ten?
Either way, the story of Isaiah Rashad is one that will certainly not be forgotten in NSFL lore, and will likely only continue to grow.
*Isaiah Rashad was contacted for an interview but has not responded.
Code:
RainDelay - "Ups and Downs: the Wild Offseason of Isaiah Rashad": Discuss the wild career path of Isaiah Rashad, from winning S1 Defensive Player of the Year, to being traded twice, struggling in the early season, and how the future looks for Rashad. $800,000 bonus, additional $250,000 for interviewing Rashad - min 600 words - August 11
Code:
1524 words
Graded
[OPTION]Height: 6'1"
[OPTION]Weight: 197
[OPTION]Birthplace: Tallahassee, FL
[OPTION]Number: 18
[OPTION]===========================================
[OPTION]Regular Season Stats
[OPTION]S1 (SJS): 72 REC - 1062 YDS - 4 TD
[OPTION]S2 (SJS/YKW): 74 REC - 1078 YDS - 6 TD
[OPTION]S3 (YKW):
[OPTION]===========================================
[OPTION]Playoff Stats
[OPTION]S2 (YKW):
[OPTION]===========================================
[OPTION]Career Highlights:
[OPTION]Drafted 9th Overall by the San Jose SaberCats in the S1 Draft
[OPTION]Named to S1 ASFC Pro Bowl Roster
[OPTION]Traded to Yellowknife Wraiths for WR Darren Smallwood and S3 1st Round Pick
[OPTION]Height: 6'3"
[OPTION]Weight: 184
[OPTION]Birthplace: Syracuse, NY
[OPTION]Number: 16
[OPTION]===========================================
[OPTION]Height: 6'3"
[OPTION]Weight: 184
[OPTION]Birthplace: Greensboro, NC
[OPTION]Number: 10
[OPTION]===========================================