12-06-2021, 02:20 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-07-2021, 05:00 AM by .simo. Edited 1 time in total.)
EDITOR’S NOTE: ISFL Safety Amari Springer has chosen to begin working on his memoir as his career progresses. He’s also opted to write his memoir in pieces, including describing events that have already taken place at intervals that may not connect to the current timeline. He has also dramatized certain events and added in some events that may not have happened at all. I promise you, I will piece these all together once his memoir is released after his playing career has ended. For now, these are raw notes from Amari Springer’s life, written by the man himself. Enjoy!
Raaaaaaaah! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Springer! Springer! Springer! Springer!
...and Amari Springer has won Ultimus all by himself….
...he caught six interceptions, all one-handed…
...he’s joined by his two girlfriends, Ana de Armas and Megan Thee Stallion…
...the league has voted, unanimously, to induct Springer into the ISFL Hall of Fame, even though he’s still playing…
...free tickets to Great Wolf Lodge…
...front row seats at the 1st Led Zeppelin reunion concert in over a decade…
That’s the dream right there. Which one, exactly? Well...all of them...at once. There’s nothing better than winning. No, wait, there is: winning and getting a lot of cool shit for doing it. And sun-dried tomatoes, those are pretty dope too. That’s what I have to work towards in my career. It’s what drives me. Not the sun-dried tomatoes...well, not just the sun-dried tomatoes, but having that perfect moment. Everyone will be chanting my name, going ballistic for every single thing I do, throwing their shirts and babies and shoes at me (not because they want autographs, but because they know I’ll catch them), telling me my hair works: that is what I work towards. How have I done so far? Well…
I’ve had people all yell my name at once a few times. Mainly because I was hand-checking or I was standing offsides. I’ve caught a few interceptions, two to be exact. My girlfriend kinda checked out on me after I transferred from the U to Bemidji State and I haven’t had much of a relationship since. My Hall of Fame case is pretty much nonexistent considering I’ve only played very little in the big leagues. Zeppelin doesn’t care enough to get back together, even if it’s just for one night or a private concert at my cousin’s pool house. The closest I got to winning Ultimus, or Ultimini rather, was my first season in the league and it ended in a very close loss. I have been to Great Wolf Lodge, though. A few times. So you know, some progress is good progress.
Truth is, I’m a dreamchaser. I live to work towards accomplishing those goals. Will I accomplish them? Who knows? It’d be pretty damn sweet if I could. But I’d be satisfied enough knowing I worked my ass off to get there. At the end of the day, the gym rats and the grinders are the ones that history looks most favorably upon. Every season, a team with, what, twenty guys wins a championship? But of all twenty of those guys, how many of them are actually deserving? How many of them will go on to have winning a ring be their only accomplishment worth a damn? Most of them, I’d say. I won’t pass up the limelight or all the clout that comes with it, don’t get me wrong. But I want everyone to recognize Amari Springer as the hardest working safety to ever play. Someone who made defenses, and offenses by design, better just by showing up. Someone who made a difference, be it a game-ending pick or just some decent pass coverage throughout a game. Recognition for doing all that is what separates the stars from the superstars.
But...having clout is also pretty nice. Some guys have been able to coast into legendary careers by being at the right place at the right time. There is definitely luck involved when it comes to being one of the most recognized stars in football. But I can’t rely entirely on luck to make me into a star. Football is all about decision making. Every play involves about a hundred decisions made from coaches, players, and even referees. Nobody can choose to become a superstar player. While some are more fortunate than others, there are people like me who have to make very tough decisions in order to succeed. For example, transferring colleges was something I thought about long and hard. It ultimately came down to me wanting to play more than anything else. Some guys are fine with sticking it out at a major school until their number is finally called. But if there’s one thing Amari Springer is not, it’s a coaster.
Bemidji State offered me the WR1 spot immediately. They were further away from home than Minnesota, offered weaker facilities and resources, and regularly had snow through spring. Here’s the thing, though: I’m a football player. I started playing when I was three years old and only stopped because Minnesota told me I wasn’t old enough. So, since I wanted to actually play football, I took my talents to South Beach...I mean North Tundra. But I didn’t regret going that route one bit. I got to play immediately, was given plenty of attention because I was an actual starter, and racked up plenty of yards and points. The only downside to playing at BS (nope, not using that acronym again) was the lack of exposure I got. Come the draft, many of the pundits didn’t even have me on their top 10 lists of my own position. It was also an extremely receiver-heavy draft that I was heading into. That’s when I had to make my second major choice.
When talking to my agent (we’ll get into him at a later date), I was insistent that I wanted to be a top draft pick. He told me that the DSFL Draft is pretty unpredictable and that some who end up being first rounders in the ISFL Draft might end up going 4th or 5th round in the DSFL. I didn’t care which league I was going into: I wanted to be a top choice. Here’s my logic on this: top draft choices are automatically considered priorities by their team. It doesn’t matter if they struggle for a few seasons, they get outperformed by someone taken higher than them, they pull a hammy or a ligament; they will be given natural favor by their team. Why, you ask? Because teams are more hesitant to move someone they took with a high draft pick than someone they took with a lower one. Sure, most bets are off after about 3-4 seasons and players are looked at based on their talent rather than their draft position. But I absolutely, positively, did not want to fall into the “movable” category within my first few seasons. Even if I was playing well or playing better than someone taken higher than me, there are teams who will make executive decisions on their lower draft picks simply because they weren’t as much of a risk.
There’s definitely something psychological to delve into about my fear of being traded. Maybe at some point in the future, I’ll talk to a psychiatrist or my uncle Fred (he’s not a psychiatrist but he has…interesting opinions on most things) about why. But my gut instinct is that I don’t like the concept of having a certain value that could lead to me being moved. Hey, maybe I’m worth three first round picks and a Pro Bowl player. But there’s also the chance of me being shipped off with a pick for a third or an expiring contract. At that point, I’m an afterthought. Now I don’t want to be the center of attention. I may act like it, but that’s not the case. I want to be on a good team. But I also want to be on a team that values me. And values me enough that a price to trade me doesn’t exist. To be honest though, I think I’d take being on a bad team that doesn’t want to move me over being on a good team that views me as expendable.
There’s plenty of schools of thought on draft position, but mine is that I want to go high. So me and my agent laid out a bunch of different plans of attacks. One of them was going back to school for a year, possibly even transferring back to Minnesota to gain some more notoriety. I shrugged that one off, though, as I felt like it was now or never with entering the draft. The second one was to hold private workouts, which only the major stars in the draft do. This meant forgoing the combine and possibly even the Prospect game. Here’s the thing with that: wide receivers are, naturally, arrogant people. They like getting the ball, few of them exist to help other offensive players, and they always go the extra mile to get notoriety. By that last one, I mean they like humping the ball when they score and jawing with referees whenever they get poked on a route. Now...I admit to doing both of those in my time as a receiver...multiple times. But more than anything else, I wanted to prove I was a team player. A team player doesn’t hold a workout just for themselves so that teams can come to focus just on them. They’re out on the fields and the workout rooms with their teammates, making sure everyone’s getting equal amounts of support. So a private workout was a no for me.
But the idea of being a team player got us thinking. This draft is receiver heavy and many teams don’t even need receivers as-is. We then devised the very-risky concept of Amari Springer switching positions.
This was probably the toughest decision I’d made in my career thus far. For starters, I had only played at wide receiver on the football field. When you’re learning to play the game, coaches like to try the kids at every position. My physical stature prevented me from playing o-line, but I did try out almost every other position. But playing wide receiver just clicked with me. Having that mental link with your quarterback is one of the greatest feelings. Me and Dante Brooks had that. We played together, with him at quarterback, from peewee to high school. He’s the greatest teammate I’ve ever had. I...think I’ll save his story for another chapter. Although I really don’t like talking about it.
I think what I envied most about defenses is how they have the safety position. They have two guys who get to sit in the back of the field and survey everything before it happens and as it’s happening. You don’t really get that on offense. The quarterback is kinda surveying things, but he also has to take the ball and make a decision with it. There’s very little time to wait and dissect things as a quarterback. A safety is like a vulture: waiting for the offense to become vulnerable before it strikes. And a when a safety strikes, it fuckin strikes. We both agreed it would probably be the easiest transition from receiver. We threw around cornerback because you’re still running routes and catching balls as one. But there’s nothing, in my opinion, that defines a defense better than their safety.
Switching to safety created a whole new career path for me with plenty of intriguing challenges and triumphs along the way. But I’ll save that for another entry.
Raaaaaaaah! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Springer! Springer! Springer! Springer!
...and Amari Springer has won Ultimus all by himself….
...he caught six interceptions, all one-handed…
...he’s joined by his two girlfriends, Ana de Armas and Megan Thee Stallion…
...the league has voted, unanimously, to induct Springer into the ISFL Hall of Fame, even though he’s still playing…
...free tickets to Great Wolf Lodge…
...front row seats at the 1st Led Zeppelin reunion concert in over a decade…
That’s the dream right there. Which one, exactly? Well...all of them...at once. There’s nothing better than winning. No, wait, there is: winning and getting a lot of cool shit for doing it. And sun-dried tomatoes, those are pretty dope too. That’s what I have to work towards in my career. It’s what drives me. Not the sun-dried tomatoes...well, not just the sun-dried tomatoes, but having that perfect moment. Everyone will be chanting my name, going ballistic for every single thing I do, throwing their shirts and babies and shoes at me (not because they want autographs, but because they know I’ll catch them), telling me my hair works: that is what I work towards. How have I done so far? Well…
I’ve had people all yell my name at once a few times. Mainly because I was hand-checking or I was standing offsides. I’ve caught a few interceptions, two to be exact. My girlfriend kinda checked out on me after I transferred from the U to Bemidji State and I haven’t had much of a relationship since. My Hall of Fame case is pretty much nonexistent considering I’ve only played very little in the big leagues. Zeppelin doesn’t care enough to get back together, even if it’s just for one night or a private concert at my cousin’s pool house. The closest I got to winning Ultimus, or Ultimini rather, was my first season in the league and it ended in a very close loss. I have been to Great Wolf Lodge, though. A few times. So you know, some progress is good progress.
Truth is, I’m a dreamchaser. I live to work towards accomplishing those goals. Will I accomplish them? Who knows? It’d be pretty damn sweet if I could. But I’d be satisfied enough knowing I worked my ass off to get there. At the end of the day, the gym rats and the grinders are the ones that history looks most favorably upon. Every season, a team with, what, twenty guys wins a championship? But of all twenty of those guys, how many of them are actually deserving? How many of them will go on to have winning a ring be their only accomplishment worth a damn? Most of them, I’d say. I won’t pass up the limelight or all the clout that comes with it, don’t get me wrong. But I want everyone to recognize Amari Springer as the hardest working safety to ever play. Someone who made defenses, and offenses by design, better just by showing up. Someone who made a difference, be it a game-ending pick or just some decent pass coverage throughout a game. Recognition for doing all that is what separates the stars from the superstars.
But...having clout is also pretty nice. Some guys have been able to coast into legendary careers by being at the right place at the right time. There is definitely luck involved when it comes to being one of the most recognized stars in football. But I can’t rely entirely on luck to make me into a star. Football is all about decision making. Every play involves about a hundred decisions made from coaches, players, and even referees. Nobody can choose to become a superstar player. While some are more fortunate than others, there are people like me who have to make very tough decisions in order to succeed. For example, transferring colleges was something I thought about long and hard. It ultimately came down to me wanting to play more than anything else. Some guys are fine with sticking it out at a major school until their number is finally called. But if there’s one thing Amari Springer is not, it’s a coaster.
Bemidji State offered me the WR1 spot immediately. They were further away from home than Minnesota, offered weaker facilities and resources, and regularly had snow through spring. Here’s the thing, though: I’m a football player. I started playing when I was three years old and only stopped because Minnesota told me I wasn’t old enough. So, since I wanted to actually play football, I took my talents to South Beach...I mean North Tundra. But I didn’t regret going that route one bit. I got to play immediately, was given plenty of attention because I was an actual starter, and racked up plenty of yards and points. The only downside to playing at BS (nope, not using that acronym again) was the lack of exposure I got. Come the draft, many of the pundits didn’t even have me on their top 10 lists of my own position. It was also an extremely receiver-heavy draft that I was heading into. That’s when I had to make my second major choice.
When talking to my agent (we’ll get into him at a later date), I was insistent that I wanted to be a top draft pick. He told me that the DSFL Draft is pretty unpredictable and that some who end up being first rounders in the ISFL Draft might end up going 4th or 5th round in the DSFL. I didn’t care which league I was going into: I wanted to be a top choice. Here’s my logic on this: top draft choices are automatically considered priorities by their team. It doesn’t matter if they struggle for a few seasons, they get outperformed by someone taken higher than them, they pull a hammy or a ligament; they will be given natural favor by their team. Why, you ask? Because teams are more hesitant to move someone they took with a high draft pick than someone they took with a lower one. Sure, most bets are off after about 3-4 seasons and players are looked at based on their talent rather than their draft position. But I absolutely, positively, did not want to fall into the “movable” category within my first few seasons. Even if I was playing well or playing better than someone taken higher than me, there are teams who will make executive decisions on their lower draft picks simply because they weren’t as much of a risk.
There’s definitely something psychological to delve into about my fear of being traded. Maybe at some point in the future, I’ll talk to a psychiatrist or my uncle Fred (he’s not a psychiatrist but he has…interesting opinions on most things) about why. But my gut instinct is that I don’t like the concept of having a certain value that could lead to me being moved. Hey, maybe I’m worth three first round picks and a Pro Bowl player. But there’s also the chance of me being shipped off with a pick for a third or an expiring contract. At that point, I’m an afterthought. Now I don’t want to be the center of attention. I may act like it, but that’s not the case. I want to be on a good team. But I also want to be on a team that values me. And values me enough that a price to trade me doesn’t exist. To be honest though, I think I’d take being on a bad team that doesn’t want to move me over being on a good team that views me as expendable.
There’s plenty of schools of thought on draft position, but mine is that I want to go high. So me and my agent laid out a bunch of different plans of attacks. One of them was going back to school for a year, possibly even transferring back to Minnesota to gain some more notoriety. I shrugged that one off, though, as I felt like it was now or never with entering the draft. The second one was to hold private workouts, which only the major stars in the draft do. This meant forgoing the combine and possibly even the Prospect game. Here’s the thing with that: wide receivers are, naturally, arrogant people. They like getting the ball, few of them exist to help other offensive players, and they always go the extra mile to get notoriety. By that last one, I mean they like humping the ball when they score and jawing with referees whenever they get poked on a route. Now...I admit to doing both of those in my time as a receiver...multiple times. But more than anything else, I wanted to prove I was a team player. A team player doesn’t hold a workout just for themselves so that teams can come to focus just on them. They’re out on the fields and the workout rooms with their teammates, making sure everyone’s getting equal amounts of support. So a private workout was a no for me.
But the idea of being a team player got us thinking. This draft is receiver heavy and many teams don’t even need receivers as-is. We then devised the very-risky concept of Amari Springer switching positions.
This was probably the toughest decision I’d made in my career thus far. For starters, I had only played at wide receiver on the football field. When you’re learning to play the game, coaches like to try the kids at every position. My physical stature prevented me from playing o-line, but I did try out almost every other position. But playing wide receiver just clicked with me. Having that mental link with your quarterback is one of the greatest feelings. Me and Dante Brooks had that. We played together, with him at quarterback, from peewee to high school. He’s the greatest teammate I’ve ever had. I...think I’ll save his story for another chapter. Although I really don’t like talking about it.
I think what I envied most about defenses is how they have the safety position. They have two guys who get to sit in the back of the field and survey everything before it happens and as it’s happening. You don’t really get that on offense. The quarterback is kinda surveying things, but he also has to take the ball and make a decision with it. There’s very little time to wait and dissect things as a quarterback. A safety is like a vulture: waiting for the offense to become vulnerable before it strikes. And a when a safety strikes, it fuckin strikes. We both agreed it would probably be the easiest transition from receiver. We threw around cornerback because you’re still running routes and catching balls as one. But there’s nothing, in my opinion, that defines a defense better than their safety.
Switching to safety created a whole new career path for me with plenty of intriguing challenges and triumphs along the way. But I’ll save that for another entry.
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