Guts vs Glory (18 page)

Of course our team was disappointed
in the outcome of our season.  I was, however, able to make the most of it. 
During my time as a starting center, I stopped the defender every time I was
given the chance; a feat that was nearly impossible to accomplish by most
offensive linemen at any level.  I knew that my success during my senior year
would increase my chances of becoming a professional football player.  That
motivation, plus my experience as a lineman, pushed me to a higher level.  My
performance allowed me to stand out on my team as one of the best linemen.

For my successful season, I was
nominated by conference officials as one of the best linemen in the Midwestern
Conference.  Those officials selected the two best players from each position
playing in our conference.  They placed the better of the two athletes on the
first hypothetical team, while the other athlete was placed on the second
hypothetical team.  Those two teams never played in any actual games; it was
simply an acknowledgement of their hard work during the season and an honor to
be selected.  I was selected for the first-team, meaning that I was chosen as
the best center in the Midwestern Conference.

The Major College Football
Committee did the same thing, but their candidate pool consisted of all major
college football players.  By making that team, one wasn’t simply the best
football player at their position in the conference; they were the best athlete
at that position in all of major college football.  For that vote, I made it to
the second-team.  Although I didn’t make the first-team, I was greatly honored
to be voted as the second best center in all of major college football that
season.

Fall semester drew to a close and
surprisingly, I was able to achieve my 3.9 grade point average.  With only one
semester of school left, I was almost done with studying, homework, and
quizzes.  I knew that even if I didn’t turn in another paper, or test, during
my spring semester, my grade point average would still be high enough for me to
graduate.  Even though I was proud of Christine for achieving the same grade as
me, she was even more proud of me because I was able to do it while
concentrating on football.  She wasn’t the only one who noticed, though.

At the end of the fall semester,
Midwestern Conference officials gathered together to discuss who the best male
and female student-athletes were.  They took into consideration only two
factors: grades, and athletic performance.  One male and one female athlete
were rewarded for achieving highest academic honors, while contributing the
most to their teams.  My awards as a lineman displayed my contribution to the
team, while my grades were high enough for me to be declared as the Midwestern
Conference Male Student-Athlete of the Fall Semester – an honor I hadn’t
expected.

As my awards and honors were piling
up, my chances of getting selected by a professional football team in April
were increasing.  In February, I went to the same try-out that Mike attended
the previous season.  As a center, I was compared to other offensive linemen
from around the country.  My numbers had improved significantly from my
try-outs with USM a few years before, but they were only average compared to
the rest of the group.  While trying out for USM, I was competing against
athletes who weren’t talented enough to earn a scholarship.  While trying out
for the pros, however, I was competing against the best linemen from the best
college football teams.

Once March came around, I got
another chance to show off my skills to the professional recruiters.  When they
visited our school, I was able to go over game tapes with them and show them
what I could bring to their team.  I then showed them how strong I was in the
weight room.  Finally, I showed them how talented I was by snapping the ball
perfectly to a quarterback, who was positioned 20 yards away from me.

Selection Showcase Week had finally
arrived.  I watched the program from my house because I wasn’t quite good
enough to be flown out to the show like Mike had been.  I watched anxiously
with my parents, my girlfriend, and my offensive line coach, who were all there
to support me.  The event lasted three days.  The first day was dedicated to
the first two rounds, the second day was the second two rounds, and the last
day would be the last three rounds of the draft.

The first day seemed to take
forever as each team slowly made their first pick.  The Knights didn’t pick
until halfway through the first round because they ended the previous season
with a better record than half of the teams in the league.  After not being
picked by any of those teams, I was anxiously waiting for the Knights’
decision.  They desperately needed a talented lineman because they wanted to
run the ball more often.  They got their lineman but, sadly, it wasn’t me.  I
went the rest of the day not being picked.

As the second day arrived, I
figured I had a better chance of being picked because five linemen had already
filled slots.  The second day went a little faster, but my anxiety continued to
increase.  During the Knights’ two picks that day, my anxiety turned into
disappointment; and for a second day, they weren’t the only team that didn’t
have a use for me.

By the third day, my last and only
chance at being selected by a professional football team had come.  The three
rounds that day would give me an additional chance to be picked.  After the
first six rounds, I was the last lineman still available from the group of
athletes selected by the Major College Football Committee.  That made me the
best available lineman from the major college level.  All I needed was for one
team to have a need on the offensive line.  By the end of the day, not another
lineman was selected.

I tried to get some clarity from my
offensive line coach.  Why didn’t they pick me after making it to the first-team
in the conference, the second-team in the league, and the best student-athlete
in the conference?  He told me that I had nothing to be disappointed about
because I earned every award I received.  I worked hard, and played a key role
in the success of our team.  He then gave me an answer that I was already
familiar with; my success was too late.  The reason I wasn’t recruited by any
major colleges after high school was that my success only came towards the end
of my season.  If my entire high school career was as successful as my senior
year playoff run was, I would’ve been a scholarship athlete for all four years
of college.  The line coach said something along the same lines.  Even though I
had more accolades than an Olympic swimmer, I only received them during one
season.  All of the linemen that went ahead of me during the Selection Showcase
had the same awards I had, but had earned them over the course of multiple
seasons. 

Even though my life as a football
player was over, my life outside of football still went on.  Christine and I
both maintained our good grades, and both graduated with bachelor’s degrees
from the University of Southern Michigan.  Her degree was in education, while
mine was in business.  Our joke was that we would be able to start our own
teaching business after college.

As much as it was a joke, we really
did have to think about life outside of college.  Once college was over, what
would we do?  My parents were in northern Michigan, while hers were in
Indiana.  Without school, we lost the only place that we could call ours. 
Clearly, going back to our own families was not an option.  Our relationship
had gotten very serious and there would be no splitting us up.  The only
question was where did we want to go?  We were both family types.  Neither of
us wanted to be far from our families, so neither one of us wanted to move to
the other’s home town.

Our decision was to move to a city
that was reasonably between her hometown and mine.  That, coincidently, put us
about 30 minutes away from where Mike lived, just outside of Lansing.  I felt
that if we were to live together, we would be taking a very serious step in our
relationship.  I wanted to make sure that we were serious about each other.  I
couldn’t think of a better way to find that out then to ask for her hand in
marriage.  After her parents gave me their blessing, I proposed on the first
day of living in our new place.  She said yes.

Mike came in for a small engagement
party.  After much celebration, he wanted to talk about football.  He told me
that even though I didn’t get selected by a pro team during the Selection
Showcase, my football life could still exist.  If I was still serious about our
goal, I would have to again work hard to achieve it, and would have to get to
the next level in another non-traditional way.  Just like at USM, the Knights
also held try-outs for walk-on players.  Unlike college, the walk-ons were
allowed to participate in spring training with the rest of the team.  After a
long process, most of the walk-ons would be cut.  Even if a walk-on was able to
survive the exhausting process, they usually only made it as far as the practice
squad; used to help the real team prepare for upcoming games.  However, on a
rare occasion, a member of the practice squad would be called up to be a part
of the regular roster.  Even though my best shot would only land me on the practice
squad, I was willing to make the commitment.  But as a man about to be married,
my decisions weren’t made on my own anymore.  Christine and I were suddenly
presented with our first major decision as a couple.

She knew how badly I wanted to play
professional football, especially with Mike.  She also knew how much I would
regret it if I chose to cut my career short after a difficult six years of creating
my own path.  Our biggest obstacle was money.  We were living together and had
to pay a monthly rent.  As recent graduates, we didn’t have much money.  Even
if I made the practice squad, I wouldn’t make nearly the kind of money that
Mike was making.  Additionally, I would only be paid during the football season
and wouldn’t make any money during the off-season.

Christine’s solution was to use the
money that I put into savings during college to pay rent while she found a
job.  Once she found a job that paid enough money, she would be willing to pay
our rent, and other bills, while I chased my dream.  If I didn’t make the team,
I would need to find a real job.  If, however, I did make the team, I would be
making enough money to help with the bills.  During the off-season, I would
have to use my degree to find a job outside of football which would help
support to our new family.

Once a plan was agreed upon, Mike
made a suggestion of his own.  He enjoyed my commitment to play in the pros. 
He also enjoyed the support Christine had shown in making sure I got there. 
Once he knew that we were in this together, he decided to include her in our
team.  As a member of our team, he decided that he would invest in my dream.  As
a new millionaire, he spent his money foolishly on expensive cars and a large
home.  The building was so big that it could’ve easily been divided into two houses. 
He offered to move the two of us into his place so we wouldn’t have to pay rent
at all.  And just like that, I was ready for the next stage in my life.

While waiting for us to move in with
him, Mike was getting his house ready for us.  Although his house was big
enough for the three of us, he wanted to make sure that we had our own
privacy.  To do that, he built an addition to his house that would give us
twice the living space we had in our apartment.  As a gift, he also
custom-tailored his home-gym to my personal workout routine that I adopted from
the University of Southern Michigan.

I spent the entire month of June
preparing for the new challenge ahead of me.  I assumed that professional
football would be more intense than college football, so I knew that I would
have to keep up with my conditioning and strength on my own time  That was easy
to do while living with Mike.  His gym was spectacular.

With my own personal equipment, and
the workout routine that had helped increase my strength in college, I worked
out nearly every day.  When I wasn't in the gym, I was spending time with Christine
making plans for our wedding the following summer.  A summer wedding was an
easy choice for us because we knew, if things went well, we would both have the
summer off.  She had already accepted a teaching job at a local elementary
school. 

The evenings were also fun in our
new shared housing arrangement.  Some nights I spent with just Christine, while
other nights I spent with Mike and his teammates.  His idea was for me to meet some
of the guys on the team and for them to know what kind of a hard worker I was. 
He wanted me to hear their stories so that I knew both the incentives of
playing professional football, as well as the dedication and hard work that it
took.  It was a great plan, however, I couldn't get over the fact that I was
hanging out with celebrities.  Mike was too young to hang out with the veterans
who were legends in the state of Michigan, but the young guys at our house were
still heroes to me.  They were the guys who I watched play football every
Sunday afternoon.  They were also the guys who made our driveway look like a
foreign car dealership.

One afternoon, while hanging with
my soon-to-be teammates, they started talking about the process of training
camp.  Apparently, it was something that everyone planning to make the team had
to endure, even those who were on the team the previous season.  Training camp
was a two-week process used to evaluate the young players, while giving the
veterans a chance to get back into shape.  After those two weeks, teams played
in four exhibition games used to give anyone surviving training camp a chance
at playing professional football.  Those games would be played at real
stadiums, against real teams, but only the new guys would get most of the
playing time.  After the exhibition games, the team’s roster would be cut down
from 90 players to 75.  A few days later, they would have to cut another 22
players.  Of those not making the 53-man roster, eight were offered a job on
the practice squad.