08-31-2021, 07:44 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-03-2021, 04:15 PM by KC15. Edited 2 times in total.)
Press Conference Opening Statement: Tobias Worthington III re: Position Swap to Quarterback
Hello. My name is Tobias Worthington III. My Eli teammates called me TW3 and you should feel comfortable calling me that too since Tobias Worthington III is a real mouthful.
I am here to announce my declaration for the upcoming draft and more importantly to do so as a Quarterback – not a Defensive End. I know this will come as quite a surprise to some and so I wanted to tell interested scouts and GMs a little about myself and explain why I am making this change in career plans. I have a lot of passion around this decision and I think it is important for drafting teams to hear that passion and to be able to get a little insight into my reasons.
My Early Years
I am going to beg a little grace here as I want to start way back in my childhood. It may seem like ancient history or irrelevant, but there is real significance in learning who my family is and how that has influenced me all my life and especially in this present decision. I was blessed to be born into a fairly, what many people would call, “prominent” family in Greenwich, Connecticut. My family’s roots go all the way back to the first free black communities in the Colonies and we have always tried to conduct ourselves in a way that would honor those proud, hard-working, perseverant ancestors.
The keynote in our family is personal integrity. Maintenance of your own personal integrity and the integrity of the entire family is a paramount virtue. At the core of that integrity is honesty. In our family, when you threw the ball in the house against the clearly communicated rules and broke the vase sitting on the side table, you ran to our parents immediately to confess. You knew you were going to be punished for breaking the rules, but you also knew that you would be punished much more severely for trying to cover the offense up or lie in any way about your involvement.
Here is why this background is important. Honesty means not only being truthful with others. It means being honest with yourself which is sometimes the harder task. The truth is that I very much want to play QB in the DSFL and later in the ISFL. I enjoy defense but I want to be the offensive leader. I want to take my team down the field when we are down by 4 points with 1 minute 22 seconds on the clock and score the winning TD having driven all the way from our own 23 yard line.
If I do not declare for the draft as a quarterback, I will not be being honest with myself and my personal integrity will take a hit I am not prepared to deliver.
My Time at Yale University
Many people will remind me that I was a defensive standout at Yale with school records in tackles and sacks both on a seasonal and career basis. What is this about love for the offensive side of the ball?, they might ask. No one needs to remind me of my success on defense playing for the Bulldogs. I take great pride in that success. However, it was during my high school years at Choate Rosemary Hall that I really developed a love for the quarterback position. At Choate, we were all two-way players. You had to be when you are on a small school team with a limited enrollment. Fortunately we played other prep schools in the same situation. Of course, as you might imagine, I was the Choate QB as well as DE.
Yale scouted me at Choate and as a result offered me a full ride scholarship …. to play defensive end. They told me I was a fine QB, but also a standout DE and they had a junior they were very high on at QB that they were not going to move off of. I could have played my senior year starting at QB, but by that time I was considered indispensable at defensive end and there you have it.
Did I love playing and excelling at defensive end in my time at Yale? Of course! Would I have liked to play QB instead? Yes, but I needed that scholarship to attend Yale and I wanted to attend Yale. I do not regret the decision.
Competition at the Quarterback Position
Everyone knows that my way into the DSFL and the ISFL beyond that would be much more secure were I to remain at DE. There are just more openings per team and the competition in terms of numbers of DL guys and gals is just less than at QB.
But there are two factors that make me feel I am not being crazy switching to QB for the draft.
The first is the actual state of competition for the starting role in the DSFL. Yale taught me a lot and among the skills I attained is the ability to use tools like Excel to make good decisions based on excellent analysis. So, I made a spreadsheet of all the current quarterbacks in the DSF, their current progression toward greatness, and their potential for callup to the ISFL. I found that there were two teams that would definitely be looking for a new quarterback since their current one was sure to be called up: Bondi Beach and Tijuana. Minnesota is also on the bubble for needing to look elsewhere and whether it is this coming season or the next, there will be an opening there.
Three wide open competitions for the starting role … and five or six prospects, counting myself, competing for those three spots. That may sound like daunting odds to some, but for an aspiring quarterback, it might be the best odds you could hope for.
Among those prospects is Live Laughlove. Laughlove is as far in his development – or further – than me and has a long history with Tijuana so he would have to be considered the front runner for that slot. But Tijuana is going to draft 7 and we will see if he is still there at that slot. And if he is the presumptive next QB in Mexico, that still leaves 2 openings for the other 4 of us.
Bernd D. Brot is also an experienced DSFL prospect which makes him particularly acute competition. I do not have more experience than he and there is a strong likelihood that he could sew up one of the remaining two spots. That would still leave 1 spot for the remaining 3 of us.
Three prospects for one starting spot is still stiff competition, but it’s better than 10 for 1 spot. The remaining two other prospects are Toucan Sam and Reggie Wilder. My understanding is that Marty McMahon III has withdrawn from the draft to pursue other opportunities, but I may be wrong. I know I have not seen him around the league much. Both these other two are at the very beginning of their careers, but both are earning and are active in the league so need to be taken seriously. However, I believe I might have some sort of edge with my longer experience.
The bottom line is this on the competition factor:
• Five prospects is probably as wide an opportunity as one can expect.
• Casting no aspersions on anyone, but the law of attrition in league play is that not every prospect is going to go the distance with their career.
• If all of us persevere, several of us are going to be sharing time for a while regardless of any other factor as if you make the DSFL, you play in the DSFL.
• Would you rather share time at the position you live for or have all the playing time at a position you are settling for? I choose the former.
My Passion
This final point brings up a further consideration and the second factor that makes me feel my ambition to play QB is reasonable. My passion for the position. I did not get a chance to compete for the QB position at Yale. There were legitimate factors that made that ok. Chief among these factors is that I got an Ivy League education. Those legitimate factors are now gone and I can just pursue my life’s goal without encumbrance and that goal is to be the starting QB for an Ultimus-winning ISFL team and that starts by winning a spot here and now in the DSFL.
I did not get a chance to compete before and I relish the chance to compete now. Let me go up against the other four guys in a fair competition and without meaning to sound cocky, I like my chances. And if I don’t land an uncontested starting position this season, I will work to earn it next season. If not then, I will work even harder and look to earn my spot by the next opening kickoff…
I appreciate having had the chance to make this announcement and the opportunity to explain why I am making this unusual decision to change course from record-setting defensive end to quarterback looking for a place to play.
_________________
Since this is a draft prep article to provide as much information as possible for GMs and scouts as they make their draft boards, I wanted to come out of character for a moment and just speak as the user KC15 in order to try to make my case from that perspective.
I am a recreate. My first player was Jed Podolak. Jed started as an RB for Tijuana and when drafted to the New Orleans Second Line I position switched to WR to help the team and gain the playing time I wanted right away. I had a ball as a WR, so I have never regretted that decision. Similarly, I created as a SS in the PBE, but as GM switched to 1B for the good of the team. Then I swtiched to LF for the good of the team. Again, I have really had a ball with my current player, but I created as SS and never played one inning at SS in the majors. So I am feeling like I have done it that way before and now want to try a more targeted goal this time around. Quarterback or bust!
I know that QB is highly competitive. I know you need to earn extremely well to get and keep your place on the roster. I feel that I know enough about the league after having played a full career with Podolak to know that I can make the commitment to stick at the position. For sure, I can guarantee that I can get to the DSFL 250 TPE cap quickly and am quite content to spend longer in the DSFL than is usual for other positions. There is next to no risk for a DSFL GM who decides to draft me as their next franchise QB. There is also next to no risk for a DSFL GM who decides to draft me to split time with a more experienced QB. I would rather a fair split of snaps at QB than all of the snaps at DE. So, you will have a content team player with Tobias Worthington III (TB3) on your roster.
I have been in sim leagues for quite a while now between the ISFL, PBE, SHL, VHL, EFL, and GOMHL, and I know my way around earning TPE and $$$. For example, I started out in the PBE in S9 and we are now wrapping up S27. I’ve been Head Updater (PBE) Updater (ISFL PBE, SHL GOMHL), and Banker (PBE), Head Majors GM (PBE) and am now an Updater and a Minors GM in the PBE. I have a plan for how to earn enough to buy full equipment and training and I will be certain to get there.
So, there is my pitch which should more than get the scouting ball rolling with those teams that have not already started that process with me. And in the end, I look forward to starting my career with whichever DSFL takes a shot on TW3!
Hello. My name is Tobias Worthington III. My Eli teammates called me TW3 and you should feel comfortable calling me that too since Tobias Worthington III is a real mouthful.
I am here to announce my declaration for the upcoming draft and more importantly to do so as a Quarterback – not a Defensive End. I know this will come as quite a surprise to some and so I wanted to tell interested scouts and GMs a little about myself and explain why I am making this change in career plans. I have a lot of passion around this decision and I think it is important for drafting teams to hear that passion and to be able to get a little insight into my reasons.
My Early Years
I am going to beg a little grace here as I want to start way back in my childhood. It may seem like ancient history or irrelevant, but there is real significance in learning who my family is and how that has influenced me all my life and especially in this present decision. I was blessed to be born into a fairly, what many people would call, “prominent” family in Greenwich, Connecticut. My family’s roots go all the way back to the first free black communities in the Colonies and we have always tried to conduct ourselves in a way that would honor those proud, hard-working, perseverant ancestors.
The keynote in our family is personal integrity. Maintenance of your own personal integrity and the integrity of the entire family is a paramount virtue. At the core of that integrity is honesty. In our family, when you threw the ball in the house against the clearly communicated rules and broke the vase sitting on the side table, you ran to our parents immediately to confess. You knew you were going to be punished for breaking the rules, but you also knew that you would be punished much more severely for trying to cover the offense up or lie in any way about your involvement.
Here is why this background is important. Honesty means not only being truthful with others. It means being honest with yourself which is sometimes the harder task. The truth is that I very much want to play QB in the DSFL and later in the ISFL. I enjoy defense but I want to be the offensive leader. I want to take my team down the field when we are down by 4 points with 1 minute 22 seconds on the clock and score the winning TD having driven all the way from our own 23 yard line.
If I do not declare for the draft as a quarterback, I will not be being honest with myself and my personal integrity will take a hit I am not prepared to deliver.
My Time at Yale University
Many people will remind me that I was a defensive standout at Yale with school records in tackles and sacks both on a seasonal and career basis. What is this about love for the offensive side of the ball?, they might ask. No one needs to remind me of my success on defense playing for the Bulldogs. I take great pride in that success. However, it was during my high school years at Choate Rosemary Hall that I really developed a love for the quarterback position. At Choate, we were all two-way players. You had to be when you are on a small school team with a limited enrollment. Fortunately we played other prep schools in the same situation. Of course, as you might imagine, I was the Choate QB as well as DE.
Yale scouted me at Choate and as a result offered me a full ride scholarship …. to play defensive end. They told me I was a fine QB, but also a standout DE and they had a junior they were very high on at QB that they were not going to move off of. I could have played my senior year starting at QB, but by that time I was considered indispensable at defensive end and there you have it.
Did I love playing and excelling at defensive end in my time at Yale? Of course! Would I have liked to play QB instead? Yes, but I needed that scholarship to attend Yale and I wanted to attend Yale. I do not regret the decision.
Competition at the Quarterback Position
Everyone knows that my way into the DSFL and the ISFL beyond that would be much more secure were I to remain at DE. There are just more openings per team and the competition in terms of numbers of DL guys and gals is just less than at QB.
But there are two factors that make me feel I am not being crazy switching to QB for the draft.
The first is the actual state of competition for the starting role in the DSFL. Yale taught me a lot and among the skills I attained is the ability to use tools like Excel to make good decisions based on excellent analysis. So, I made a spreadsheet of all the current quarterbacks in the DSF, their current progression toward greatness, and their potential for callup to the ISFL. I found that there were two teams that would definitely be looking for a new quarterback since their current one was sure to be called up: Bondi Beach and Tijuana. Minnesota is also on the bubble for needing to look elsewhere and whether it is this coming season or the next, there will be an opening there.
Three wide open competitions for the starting role … and five or six prospects, counting myself, competing for those three spots. That may sound like daunting odds to some, but for an aspiring quarterback, it might be the best odds you could hope for.
Among those prospects is Live Laughlove. Laughlove is as far in his development – or further – than me and has a long history with Tijuana so he would have to be considered the front runner for that slot. But Tijuana is going to draft 7 and we will see if he is still there at that slot. And if he is the presumptive next QB in Mexico, that still leaves 2 openings for the other 4 of us.
Bernd D. Brot is also an experienced DSFL prospect which makes him particularly acute competition. I do not have more experience than he and there is a strong likelihood that he could sew up one of the remaining two spots. That would still leave 1 spot for the remaining 3 of us.
Three prospects for one starting spot is still stiff competition, but it’s better than 10 for 1 spot. The remaining two other prospects are Toucan Sam and Reggie Wilder. My understanding is that Marty McMahon III has withdrawn from the draft to pursue other opportunities, but I may be wrong. I know I have not seen him around the league much. Both these other two are at the very beginning of their careers, but both are earning and are active in the league so need to be taken seriously. However, I believe I might have some sort of edge with my longer experience.
The bottom line is this on the competition factor:
• Five prospects is probably as wide an opportunity as one can expect.
• Casting no aspersions on anyone, but the law of attrition in league play is that not every prospect is going to go the distance with their career.
• If all of us persevere, several of us are going to be sharing time for a while regardless of any other factor as if you make the DSFL, you play in the DSFL.
• Would you rather share time at the position you live for or have all the playing time at a position you are settling for? I choose the former.
My Passion
This final point brings up a further consideration and the second factor that makes me feel my ambition to play QB is reasonable. My passion for the position. I did not get a chance to compete for the QB position at Yale. There were legitimate factors that made that ok. Chief among these factors is that I got an Ivy League education. Those legitimate factors are now gone and I can just pursue my life’s goal without encumbrance and that goal is to be the starting QB for an Ultimus-winning ISFL team and that starts by winning a spot here and now in the DSFL.
I did not get a chance to compete before and I relish the chance to compete now. Let me go up against the other four guys in a fair competition and without meaning to sound cocky, I like my chances. And if I don’t land an uncontested starting position this season, I will work to earn it next season. If not then, I will work even harder and look to earn my spot by the next opening kickoff…
I appreciate having had the chance to make this announcement and the opportunity to explain why I am making this unusual decision to change course from record-setting defensive end to quarterback looking for a place to play.
_________________
Since this is a draft prep article to provide as much information as possible for GMs and scouts as they make their draft boards, I wanted to come out of character for a moment and just speak as the user KC15 in order to try to make my case from that perspective.
I am a recreate. My first player was Jed Podolak. Jed started as an RB for Tijuana and when drafted to the New Orleans Second Line I position switched to WR to help the team and gain the playing time I wanted right away. I had a ball as a WR, so I have never regretted that decision. Similarly, I created as a SS in the PBE, but as GM switched to 1B for the good of the team. Then I swtiched to LF for the good of the team. Again, I have really had a ball with my current player, but I created as SS and never played one inning at SS in the majors. So I am feeling like I have done it that way before and now want to try a more targeted goal this time around. Quarterback or bust!
I know that QB is highly competitive. I know you need to earn extremely well to get and keep your place on the roster. I feel that I know enough about the league after having played a full career with Podolak to know that I can make the commitment to stick at the position. For sure, I can guarantee that I can get to the DSFL 250 TPE cap quickly and am quite content to spend longer in the DSFL than is usual for other positions. There is next to no risk for a DSFL GM who decides to draft me as their next franchise QB. There is also next to no risk for a DSFL GM who decides to draft me to split time with a more experienced QB. I would rather a fair split of snaps at QB than all of the snaps at DE. So, you will have a content team player with Tobias Worthington III (TB3) on your roster.
I have been in sim leagues for quite a while now between the ISFL, PBE, SHL, VHL, EFL, and GOMHL, and I know my way around earning TPE and $$$. For example, I started out in the PBE in S9 and we are now wrapping up S27. I’ve been Head Updater (PBE) Updater (ISFL PBE, SHL GOMHL), and Banker (PBE), Head Majors GM (PBE) and am now an Updater and a Minors GM in the PBE. I have a plan for how to earn enough to buy full equipment and training and I will be certain to get there.
So, there is my pitch which should more than get the scouting ball rolling with those teams that have not already started that process with me. And in the end, I look forward to starting my career with whichever DSFL takes a shot on TW3!
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