11-14-2023, 04:04 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-15-2023, 03:08 PM by xenosthelegend. Edited 1 time in total.)
Coming in to London, I thought it was all just an elaborate joke to make 21 Savage jokes since I came from Atlanta. Given this was my first professional league, I came in not sure what to expect. Would they be the type of veterans who believe in hazing and earning a right to be acknowledged, or a group more keen on uplifting. Thankfully, it was the latter of the two options as I was welcomed by two amazing GMs in Tyler and Sizzle. The excitement from the draft mostly kept the locker room extremely hype for a few days. Overall, I spent most of my first year in the training room. Because my dad was a basketball player, I ended up being really good at focusing on the ball. I felt like the best way to make a statement was to break a record, so I started the season as competitive as I reasonably could be before 26 would yell at me. Not many people are aware of this, but the best way to increase your competitiveness is actually to play family board games. Hungry hungry hippos did wonders for me. Thankfully, I was able to make good on my promise and do my best Peanut Tillman impression and break the record for FF in a season! And playing out of position at that. My main issue on that season was actually making sure I made my tackles. Missing tackles while you're supposed to be the island just results in a WR TD. Having my speed so low was really killing me against the receivers, even in the development league. So that had to be a priority for me. Going into the off-season tho, it was tumultuous to say the least. I was drafted by New Orleans at the same position as London: First pick of the second round. Thankfully, that meant I was able to be alongside the first pick on both teams which have been tremendous users in OJ and Tmoney. So then the question was do I move on up and try and push NOLA to a few more wins, or stay down and attempt to get London into the playoffs. Obviously playoffs meant more to me, but there had to be a conversation with Baz regardless. Initially, I didn't want to bank for an entire season as that felt like I was holding my player back. Once I asked about how far along The Process was coming, I feel like my decision was made for me. I was able to be competitive in the lower league for another year while still ensuring I'm not responsible for NOLA missing out. So I went to work on racing horses. Some people might call it crazy, but being able to compare yourself and your run techniques did wonders I really feel like it helped me this year, as I was back into my natural position of Free Safety instead of CB. The downside of this was that I'm only able to cover so much of the field. So more often than not a corner ends up getting burnt, taking over my position from the year before. This does not bode well for a playoff run, yet until the last quarter of the season we were still in it. Some bad losses knocked us out, and really did a number on everyone. Individually I was happy because not only did I get my first interception in my second year, I got 5 of them! Those along with my blocked FG were a bright spot amongst the season. I actually enjoyed watching my player play, and knowing I'll be alongside Gadget has me excited to play in this upcoming season! I can't wait to see how much chaos I'm able to cause in the ISFL!