09-17-2021, 11:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-24-2021, 03:34 PM by Tesla. Edited 1 time in total.)
Hey, everyone. As you all probably know, I’m Escanor Sama, the newest wide receiver for the Dallas Birddogs. I’ve spent a lot of time talking to many players and GMs around the league and getting to know people, but recently, I’ve realized that other than my press conferences and my one interview, I haven’t had a chance to let people know about me and my history. The point of this article is to let everyone see a little bit into my history, leading up to being drafted into the DSFL.
I was born in North Carolina and grew up playing sports all my life. I’ve played basketball, tennis, and soccer. However, none of them stood out to me quite like football has. It felt like my calling since I was playing in the recreational league as a small child. By the time I was in middle school, I had dedicated all of my time to playing football and my academics. I hardly ever made time for anything else. Hanging out with friends or talking to girls wasn’t a priority to me. I knew football was what I wanted to do and I wouldn’t be deterred. When high school rolled around, I was virtually an unstoppable force. I was a popular guy, while also maintaining a 3.8 GPA, while leading the team to 4 straight high school championships. I got to meet my idol, Calvin Johnson and attend his training camp. I was a 5 star recruit my senior year of high school. Scouts loved me. Eventually, I committed to play for Louisiana State University. I felt like I was on top of the world.
Freshman year of college, I was WR5 on an extremely stacked receiving corps. I didn’t see too much of the field, so I mainly focused on my academics and training to be better on the field. I saw most of my action on the field during the last two games of the season, when we were already out of contention to make the college football playoffs. I played very well, and was glad to have the opportunity to show my capabilities on the college level. During the offseason, I worked with various wide receiver coaches from different football leagues, most notably Tee Martin. I felt like I was ready to take that next step in my college football career. Sophomore year couldn’t come fast enough to me.
Eventually, sophomore season came and this is where I received my first reality check ever in my life. I started the season as the WR3 on the roster. However, by week 7, I had logged 75 receptions for 972 yards. I was gaining national media attention and had my first live post game interview. I wasn’t quite in Heisman contention, but I was becoming a household name quickly. Then came week 8. The very first offensive snap of the game, I caught a ball on a slant route. I got sandwiched between a linebacker and a corner and it was the most awkward tackle I had ever experienced. First all I experienced was seeing all white, and by the time I hit the ground, I couldn’t feel anything but absolute pain in my right leg. I was carted off the field and it was immediately obvious that I had a broken leg. After diagnostics, it was determined that I had suffered a clean break of my tibia. At first, I was heartbroken that my season had been ended abruptly and prematurely. But, after just a few days of not having schoolwork to catch up on, and being completely incapable of doing any football workouts, one thing became very apparent to me that I had never paid any attention to throughout my entire life: I had no real friends or social life.
Sure, I said I was popular back in high school. But I was the star athlete, it’s like the golden rule that the star players are popular. However, there was never anyone I called a friend. In middle school, I went to school, did my classwork, went to football practice, came home, did my homework, practiced my footwork or tossed the football with my dad in the backyard, ate dinner, rinse and repeat. During the weekends, I really stayed to myself. In high school, whenever anyone attempted to hang out with me or invite me out to do something, I’d tell them I was busy. It wasn’t related to football or my academics, so it really didn’t really pique my interest. Whenever girls made any advances towards me, or even blatantly asked me for a date, I was totally oblivious. I wasn’t even aware of how antisocial I had become. It was just a consequence of the tunnel vision style lifestyle I had chosen.
Fast forward to the first week of my injury, I had practically fallen into a depression. No football, no friends, no romantic life, no homework assignments because I had made sure I completed them all beforehand. Nothing but time on my hands. I hated it. That week was the first time I even had a real, full length conversation with my roommate. He turned out to be a really cool guy. Imagine that. His name was Coby, and he was a history major. Ironically, I happened to be a history major as well. History has always been my favorite subject. We actually had a really long conversation. We talked about our favorite eras in history, his being the French Revolution, and mine being the reign of Ancient Greece. We talked about our different classes during freshman year and sophomore year. We talked about life back home and our families. Then we started talking about our favorite memories on campus so far. He told me so much cool stuff that he had experienced in just 3 semesters. He told me about the parties he had been to, all the time he had spent making friends at the bowling alley and in the arcade. He told me that he was a member of the rock climbing club and esports club and that he also played flag football for the intramural league. I felt awful when all of my memories were on the football field, except for that one time I spilled coffee on some fraternity guy by accident in the library.
At the moment, I’m not sure if it was out of kindness or out of sympathy but Coby invited me to start hanging out with him. He ended up being the first person I called a friend in a very, very long time. He introduced me to his group of friends, and they were all really nice from the get-go. I was glad to actually fit in, because I was terrified of being rejected due to my inexperience with my social skills. I got more and more comfortable becoming integrated into the clique. I eventually even became a part of Coby’s esports club. I got especially good at the most recent boxing game that was out. I had become a pro with Sugar Ray Robinson (my favorite boxer of all time, by the way.) It was the first time I really had fun off the field since I was a kid. I enjoyed every moment of it. As my leg started to heal and I came out of the cast, I started going to frat parties and to the club. Those were fun as well, but I often got more attention than I bargained for, being a star player for the football team. Once my physical therapist allowed moderate activities, I tried out rock climbing and turned out to be a natural. During the second semester, Coby had asked me if I’d be willing to play for his intramural team. I asked him if that was even allowed, since I played for the college’s football team. He told me that they were allowed to have up to two school athletes on the roster. I was ecstatic to be able to play some football again, even in a somewhat limited capacity.
I had requested to play quarterback for the team. I didn’t want to be too strenuous on my leg just yet. I was scared of reinjuring it again, and I felt like this was a good way to ease myself mentally into being fully comfortable to play uninhibitedly. I also felt like it’d be unfair to play wide receiver against the other teams because, naturally, none of them would be able to stop me from just scoring a touchdown every play. After a few weeks, I eventually got comfortable enough to do more running, so I started being a two way player and started playing in the free safety position. It felt great to be back on the field. Not only that though, it was a brand new feeling to be able to actually experience this time with people I called friends. I realized that all the years I had spent playing football and getting better, it was always only about what I could do for myself. How could I make myself better? What would benefit me? Is that what’s best for me? Me, me, me, me, me. I had never been in this position where I considered this to be a team game. I was looking at the sport in an entirely different light. I started wondering what my teammates on the actual team thought about me. Then I realized that when I thought breaking my leg on that field was the worst thing that could ever happen, quite possibly could have been the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Indirectly, of course. We won the intramural championship, and the team voted me MVP of the season, but I named Coby the Co-MVP, as I knew I’d have never been in this position without him.
After the semester, during summer break, I went home and decided to try to catch up with some of the people I had gone to school with. I got to know a few of my old classmates quite well. At the high school, one kid, Devonte, who was a freshman wide receiver when I was a senior, was about to be a senior himself. I spent some of the summer helping him get better at the position. I watched him grow a lot during those few weeks and immediately had big hopes for him going into his senior season.
At the end of the summer, I report to training camp with a brand new mindset. I actually got to learn a bit about my teammates and a few of them joked around, asking if I was an alien in Escanor’s body. The Escanor they knew didn’t care about them, only about them doing their part on the field. At the end of the training camp, our coach announced that I would be the WR1 on the depth chart going into the season. Deep down, I knew that this season was going to be a magical one. I made sure Coby and the rest of the crew had season tickets to the games this year. They told me they’d definitely be at every home game, and they kept their word.
When I said that I could feel deep down that the season was going to be magical, I turned out to be right. My leg felt as good as new, no signs of that previous injury anywhere to be found. We ended the regular season as the #2 seed going into the College Football Playoffs for the first time in 9 seasons. The last time our school had made the playoffs, we were the #4 seed and we were blown out 47-6 by Alabama. I was glad to be a part of the team that got to write over that memory and make a brand new one. I finished the regular season with 147 receptions, 1984 yards, all shattering the previous school records. I was announced as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy before the playoffs started.
In the semi-finals, we faced the #3 seed Ohio State Buckeyes. Late in the third quarter, we were leading 35-10 when I had an injury scare with my right leg. After getting off the field, we quickly diagnosed that it was only severe cramping and I would be fine. I was on IVs for the rest of the game, as the team cruised through the fourth quarter, finishing the game 45-17. The week before the championship game, we had the College Football Awards show. At the end of the awards show, I had ended the night with the Heisman Trophy, the Biletnikoff Award, and the Maxwell Award.
The next weekend was time for the biggest game of my career up to this point. The College Football National Championship Game. #2 seed LSU vs #1 Alabama. The top ranked offensive the nation vs the top ranked defense in the nation. I got chills in the locker room just thinking about it. In the crowd, not only did I have my family there to support me, but I also made sure Coby was present as well. I had asked him if he’d be able to attend and he immediately told me he wouldn’t miss it for the world.
That game turned out to be, what I would consider, the definition of an instant classic. At the end of regulation, the score was tied 42-42. I had 13 receptions for 238 yards and 3 touchdowns. In overtime, we had the ball first. Our running back fumbled at Alabama’s 11 yard line. Thankfully our Tight End fell on it. Our WR2 caught the touchdown on a fade route to the outside. Extra point was good. Alabama got the ball back and had a slow, methodical drive down the field for an eventual touchdown. We were now in OT2.
In OT2, Alabama once again had a slow, methodical drive down the field for a touchdown. Extra point was good. On the second play of our drive, I caught a deep ball for a 73 yard touchdown. Extra point was good. We were heading into OT3 and the ref had informed us that we were no longer allowed to kick extra points after touchdowns. We had to go for two.
In OT3, we had a steady march down the field. I caught a ball and as I turned to run downfield, I was absolutely plowed by the middle linebacker. I had all the air knocked out of me. Coach pulled me from the drive as I was dazed. That completely stalled the drive and we were forced to punt. All I could do was watch as Alabama held the game in their hands. They marched all the way down into the end zone. A field goal would win it. I watched as they kept their offense on the field. The QB threw into the back of the endzone and…. INTERCEPTION! I was absolutely rejuvenated as I realized we were going into an OT4.
In OT4, we capped off a 5 play drive with me catching a touchdown pass in the back of the endzone. Our RB ran it up the gut for a successful two point conversion. Alabama had the ball back and their running back found a gap and broke through for a 75 yard touchdown. On the two point conversion, they lined up in an empty formation. The QB stepped back in the pocket, looked to throw to a wide open receiver in the corner of the endzone, when he was sacked from behind. We had won the Championship for the first time in 16 years.
In the post game interview, I was still amazed that we had just won a National Championship. I thanked my family and my newfound friends, especially Coby, as I knew I’d never have made it to this position without him. The reporter asked me what my plans were for the future. I made the announcement that I would be declaring for the DSFL draft.
Nowadays, I’m a proud member, and offensive captain of, the Dallas Birddogs. Although I was originally shocked about the team that decided to draft me, I quickly realized that there wasn’t a chance that I would trade it for anything. I absolutely love being a Birddog, and even when I’m drafted to ISFL, I know I’ll still be a Birddog for life. Coby and I are still best friends, and whenever he has time, he’ll be sure to attend our games.
Word Count: 2757
I was born in North Carolina and grew up playing sports all my life. I’ve played basketball, tennis, and soccer. However, none of them stood out to me quite like football has. It felt like my calling since I was playing in the recreational league as a small child. By the time I was in middle school, I had dedicated all of my time to playing football and my academics. I hardly ever made time for anything else. Hanging out with friends or talking to girls wasn’t a priority to me. I knew football was what I wanted to do and I wouldn’t be deterred. When high school rolled around, I was virtually an unstoppable force. I was a popular guy, while also maintaining a 3.8 GPA, while leading the team to 4 straight high school championships. I got to meet my idol, Calvin Johnson and attend his training camp. I was a 5 star recruit my senior year of high school. Scouts loved me. Eventually, I committed to play for Louisiana State University. I felt like I was on top of the world.
Freshman year of college, I was WR5 on an extremely stacked receiving corps. I didn’t see too much of the field, so I mainly focused on my academics and training to be better on the field. I saw most of my action on the field during the last two games of the season, when we were already out of contention to make the college football playoffs. I played very well, and was glad to have the opportunity to show my capabilities on the college level. During the offseason, I worked with various wide receiver coaches from different football leagues, most notably Tee Martin. I felt like I was ready to take that next step in my college football career. Sophomore year couldn’t come fast enough to me.
Eventually, sophomore season came and this is where I received my first reality check ever in my life. I started the season as the WR3 on the roster. However, by week 7, I had logged 75 receptions for 972 yards. I was gaining national media attention and had my first live post game interview. I wasn’t quite in Heisman contention, but I was becoming a household name quickly. Then came week 8. The very first offensive snap of the game, I caught a ball on a slant route. I got sandwiched between a linebacker and a corner and it was the most awkward tackle I had ever experienced. First all I experienced was seeing all white, and by the time I hit the ground, I couldn’t feel anything but absolute pain in my right leg. I was carted off the field and it was immediately obvious that I had a broken leg. After diagnostics, it was determined that I had suffered a clean break of my tibia. At first, I was heartbroken that my season had been ended abruptly and prematurely. But, after just a few days of not having schoolwork to catch up on, and being completely incapable of doing any football workouts, one thing became very apparent to me that I had never paid any attention to throughout my entire life: I had no real friends or social life.
Sure, I said I was popular back in high school. But I was the star athlete, it’s like the golden rule that the star players are popular. However, there was never anyone I called a friend. In middle school, I went to school, did my classwork, went to football practice, came home, did my homework, practiced my footwork or tossed the football with my dad in the backyard, ate dinner, rinse and repeat. During the weekends, I really stayed to myself. In high school, whenever anyone attempted to hang out with me or invite me out to do something, I’d tell them I was busy. It wasn’t related to football or my academics, so it really didn’t really pique my interest. Whenever girls made any advances towards me, or even blatantly asked me for a date, I was totally oblivious. I wasn’t even aware of how antisocial I had become. It was just a consequence of the tunnel vision style lifestyle I had chosen.
Fast forward to the first week of my injury, I had practically fallen into a depression. No football, no friends, no romantic life, no homework assignments because I had made sure I completed them all beforehand. Nothing but time on my hands. I hated it. That week was the first time I even had a real, full length conversation with my roommate. He turned out to be a really cool guy. Imagine that. His name was Coby, and he was a history major. Ironically, I happened to be a history major as well. History has always been my favorite subject. We actually had a really long conversation. We talked about our favorite eras in history, his being the French Revolution, and mine being the reign of Ancient Greece. We talked about our different classes during freshman year and sophomore year. We talked about life back home and our families. Then we started talking about our favorite memories on campus so far. He told me so much cool stuff that he had experienced in just 3 semesters. He told me about the parties he had been to, all the time he had spent making friends at the bowling alley and in the arcade. He told me that he was a member of the rock climbing club and esports club and that he also played flag football for the intramural league. I felt awful when all of my memories were on the football field, except for that one time I spilled coffee on some fraternity guy by accident in the library.
At the moment, I’m not sure if it was out of kindness or out of sympathy but Coby invited me to start hanging out with him. He ended up being the first person I called a friend in a very, very long time. He introduced me to his group of friends, and they were all really nice from the get-go. I was glad to actually fit in, because I was terrified of being rejected due to my inexperience with my social skills. I got more and more comfortable becoming integrated into the clique. I eventually even became a part of Coby’s esports club. I got especially good at the most recent boxing game that was out. I had become a pro with Sugar Ray Robinson (my favorite boxer of all time, by the way.) It was the first time I really had fun off the field since I was a kid. I enjoyed every moment of it. As my leg started to heal and I came out of the cast, I started going to frat parties and to the club. Those were fun as well, but I often got more attention than I bargained for, being a star player for the football team. Once my physical therapist allowed moderate activities, I tried out rock climbing and turned out to be a natural. During the second semester, Coby had asked me if I’d be willing to play for his intramural team. I asked him if that was even allowed, since I played for the college’s football team. He told me that they were allowed to have up to two school athletes on the roster. I was ecstatic to be able to play some football again, even in a somewhat limited capacity.
I had requested to play quarterback for the team. I didn’t want to be too strenuous on my leg just yet. I was scared of reinjuring it again, and I felt like this was a good way to ease myself mentally into being fully comfortable to play uninhibitedly. I also felt like it’d be unfair to play wide receiver against the other teams because, naturally, none of them would be able to stop me from just scoring a touchdown every play. After a few weeks, I eventually got comfortable enough to do more running, so I started being a two way player and started playing in the free safety position. It felt great to be back on the field. Not only that though, it was a brand new feeling to be able to actually experience this time with people I called friends. I realized that all the years I had spent playing football and getting better, it was always only about what I could do for myself. How could I make myself better? What would benefit me? Is that what’s best for me? Me, me, me, me, me. I had never been in this position where I considered this to be a team game. I was looking at the sport in an entirely different light. I started wondering what my teammates on the actual team thought about me. Then I realized that when I thought breaking my leg on that field was the worst thing that could ever happen, quite possibly could have been the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Indirectly, of course. We won the intramural championship, and the team voted me MVP of the season, but I named Coby the Co-MVP, as I knew I’d have never been in this position without him.
After the semester, during summer break, I went home and decided to try to catch up with some of the people I had gone to school with. I got to know a few of my old classmates quite well. At the high school, one kid, Devonte, who was a freshman wide receiver when I was a senior, was about to be a senior himself. I spent some of the summer helping him get better at the position. I watched him grow a lot during those few weeks and immediately had big hopes for him going into his senior season.
At the end of the summer, I report to training camp with a brand new mindset. I actually got to learn a bit about my teammates and a few of them joked around, asking if I was an alien in Escanor’s body. The Escanor they knew didn’t care about them, only about them doing their part on the field. At the end of the training camp, our coach announced that I would be the WR1 on the depth chart going into the season. Deep down, I knew that this season was going to be a magical one. I made sure Coby and the rest of the crew had season tickets to the games this year. They told me they’d definitely be at every home game, and they kept their word.
When I said that I could feel deep down that the season was going to be magical, I turned out to be right. My leg felt as good as new, no signs of that previous injury anywhere to be found. We ended the regular season as the #2 seed going into the College Football Playoffs for the first time in 9 seasons. The last time our school had made the playoffs, we were the #4 seed and we were blown out 47-6 by Alabama. I was glad to be a part of the team that got to write over that memory and make a brand new one. I finished the regular season with 147 receptions, 1984 yards, all shattering the previous school records. I was announced as a finalist for the Heisman Trophy before the playoffs started.
In the semi-finals, we faced the #3 seed Ohio State Buckeyes. Late in the third quarter, we were leading 35-10 when I had an injury scare with my right leg. After getting off the field, we quickly diagnosed that it was only severe cramping and I would be fine. I was on IVs for the rest of the game, as the team cruised through the fourth quarter, finishing the game 45-17. The week before the championship game, we had the College Football Awards show. At the end of the awards show, I had ended the night with the Heisman Trophy, the Biletnikoff Award, and the Maxwell Award.
The next weekend was time for the biggest game of my career up to this point. The College Football National Championship Game. #2 seed LSU vs #1 Alabama. The top ranked offensive the nation vs the top ranked defense in the nation. I got chills in the locker room just thinking about it. In the crowd, not only did I have my family there to support me, but I also made sure Coby was present as well. I had asked him if he’d be able to attend and he immediately told me he wouldn’t miss it for the world.
That game turned out to be, what I would consider, the definition of an instant classic. At the end of regulation, the score was tied 42-42. I had 13 receptions for 238 yards and 3 touchdowns. In overtime, we had the ball first. Our running back fumbled at Alabama’s 11 yard line. Thankfully our Tight End fell on it. Our WR2 caught the touchdown on a fade route to the outside. Extra point was good. Alabama got the ball back and had a slow, methodical drive down the field for an eventual touchdown. We were now in OT2.
In OT2, Alabama once again had a slow, methodical drive down the field for a touchdown. Extra point was good. On the second play of our drive, I caught a deep ball for a 73 yard touchdown. Extra point was good. We were heading into OT3 and the ref had informed us that we were no longer allowed to kick extra points after touchdowns. We had to go for two.
In OT3, we had a steady march down the field. I caught a ball and as I turned to run downfield, I was absolutely plowed by the middle linebacker. I had all the air knocked out of me. Coach pulled me from the drive as I was dazed. That completely stalled the drive and we were forced to punt. All I could do was watch as Alabama held the game in their hands. They marched all the way down into the end zone. A field goal would win it. I watched as they kept their offense on the field. The QB threw into the back of the endzone and…. INTERCEPTION! I was absolutely rejuvenated as I realized we were going into an OT4.
In OT4, we capped off a 5 play drive with me catching a touchdown pass in the back of the endzone. Our RB ran it up the gut for a successful two point conversion. Alabama had the ball back and their running back found a gap and broke through for a 75 yard touchdown. On the two point conversion, they lined up in an empty formation. The QB stepped back in the pocket, looked to throw to a wide open receiver in the corner of the endzone, when he was sacked from behind. We had won the Championship for the first time in 16 years.
In the post game interview, I was still amazed that we had just won a National Championship. I thanked my family and my newfound friends, especially Coby, as I knew I’d never have made it to this position without him. The reporter asked me what my plans were for the future. I made the announcement that I would be declaring for the DSFL draft.
Nowadays, I’m a proud member, and offensive captain of, the Dallas Birddogs. Although I was originally shocked about the team that decided to draft me, I quickly realized that there wasn’t a chance that I would trade it for anything. I absolutely love being a Birddog, and even when I’m drafted to ISFL, I know I’ll still be a Birddog for life. Coby and I are still best friends, and whenever he has time, he’ll be sure to attend our games.
Word Count: 2757