Madden Superstar, Year I: Prolouge - jWILL253's Blog

jWILL253's Blog

Madden Superstar, Year I: Prolouge

Posted on May 7, 2009 at 06:31 PM.

(4)

Monday, April 20th, 2009. 8:00 AM

"Name?"

"Jarrel D. Williams."

"Age?"

"23."

"Year?'

"Junior."

This is the day I've been dreading. For a week, I've been doing nothing but training for my upcoming Pro Day, and every single night, I've been throwing up. And staying up late studying playbooks has made me more exausted than President Obama after he leaves to a GOP lunchen.

"Height?"

"6 feet, 1 inch."

"Weight?"

"Two-hundred forty-five pounds."

"Kinda heavy for a QB, don't ya think?"

"Belive me, most of that is muscle. But, I do like to eat!"

The scout smirks. "I'll say. Okay, me and a bunch of other scouts are gonna take you through some drills, and afterwards, we are gonna interview you. After all of this is done, we will analyze you and see if you fit in the NFL. Got all of that?"

"Yes, sir."

"Okay, good. So, let's start with a couple 40-yard dashes..."

Yes, I think to myself. This is the only drill that I'm really looking forward to. Mainly because I want to show that a 245-pound QB can run with the best of recievers.

So, we walk to the sideline, where a black mat of some sort has been placed. There is a long thread attached to two poles that I'll break when I finish. The mat has been lined up along the inbounds line on the field, going up to the 40-yard line.

"Get ready!"

I crouch down and put my right hand on the ground, while placing my right leg back. I then place my left hand behind me, in the air.

"Get set!"

I raise my back a little.

The scout blows his whistle. Then everything turns to blur.

I explode as hard as I could. I like this feeling of running, and being able to outrun others. As my arms pump violently with every churn of my legs, my eyes can only see that thread clearly. My ears are listening to the music of the wind swooshing past my face. I can barley see the scout, who is at the end of the mat, looking at his stopwatch.

I know that I'm blazing right now, but the world has slowed down in my head. All negative thoughts are popping in for a quick word: I'm not fast enough, my legs are straining too hard, I'm gonna trip and fall. But all I listen to is the thread straining to hold itself against my midsection.

Then the thread breaks, and the whistle blows. Back to normal speed...

"4.35 seconds...great job, Jarrel. Not many QB's can run like that. Now, let's make sure it wasn't a fluke. Again!"

I did the run a second time, and this time it was 4.28. My leg speed didn't improve, but my explosion did, slightly.

"Wow. Great times, my man. Worst case scenario, you'll be running the Wildcat. Now, on to passing drills..."

I hate the Wildcat, by the way.

We walk to about the 30 yard line near the souther endzone. There are a stable of wide outs that came for their Pro Day.

"You know what to do, Williams!", said the scout. It always makes me feel important when people call me by my last name.

One by one the receivers take turns lining up on my left. The first route was a "curl". When the wide out turned around to catch the ball, the ball was already darting towards him. He tried to put his hands up quickly, but he could secure the ball and dropped it. The reason that the ball was out so early was because at the University of Washington, we ran a West Coast Offense. The recievers I played with had a good relationship with me, so we had good timing. But, I never played with this guy, so our timing was off.

The next route was an "out" route. These routes I like to put more touch on. I threw an easy ball with just a little zip on it to the receiver and he caught it just as he reached outside the numbers toward the sideline.

Then there was the "in" route, which I hate. I thew a bullet that rose on me a little bit and put the ball over the receivers head, but he caught it. Because of my throwing motion, which is overhand, I tend to throw a little too high the in route. Can't really lob it either, because a linebacker will pick it off in zone coverage

My favorite route came next, which is the "slant". The receiver made a quick cut and I threw the ball on a needle. Landed right in his waiting hands, and he never lost a stride.

Then came the ever-so-overused-in-Madden "go" route. The receiver running the route was my good friend D'Andre Goodwin. Pretty small guy, but he had the best hands on the team last year. He ran as hard as he could up the field. I waited until he was far enough, then threw a huge lob up the sideline. I thought I threw the ball with enough touch to let the reciever run under it, but I ended up overthrowing him, but I didn't miss by much.

We practiced every route three times before moving on to what the scout called a "Skill on Skill" drill. Basically, it was me and my stable of receivers and tight ends versus two cornerbacks, two safties, and 3 to 4 linebackers. We did this drill to see if I could read defenses and coverages.

Needless to say, I had them begging for mercy. When they ran Cover 2, I threw dart after dart to wide outs running beneath the mid-zone covering linebackers. When Cover 3 was called, I threw darts to any receiver going over the middle. When man-to-man was called, I lead receivers perfectly in stride. When they sent a blitz, I threw the ball to the tight end, who was almost always open.

After the drill, the numerous scouts gave us the interviews.

"So, Jarrel, is there a specific team you want to play for?", asked one scout.

"Uh, to tell you the truth, I want to play for the Browns. I like their jerseys.", I answered.

The only reason I even said that was because the scout had a Steelers hat on. Nothing better than pissing off the scout of a Super Bowl-winning team.

"What do you do if a 3-4 defense called a blitz from the MIKE and SAM in between the 3 and 4 gaps while the linemen crash out?"

"I'll slide the protection out, audible to a running play that goes through the middle, or, since the SAM usually covers the tight end, have him run a 3 to five yard curl.", I said.

"What number do you want to wear in the NFL?"

"10. It symbolizes the level of perfection I want to reach."

"Have you ever had any off-the-field issues? Any arrests, suspensions, expulsions? Fights?"

"Uh, I got into a thumb wrestling match over a girl, if that counts." The scout and I burst in laughter.

After about 60 more minutes of this, the Pro Day was finally over. I took the long drive across I-5 to get back to Tacoma. I walked inside to smell gumbo. My mom must have came over and cooked, and then left.

I sat on my sofa and played Madden NFL 09 and got destroyed by this cheeser online who kept using the Direct WR Snap glitch. Then I watched ESPN's NFL Draft coverage.

As I was watching, I kept hearing names like Matthew Stafford, Mark Sanchez, Michael Crabtree, amongst others. I had heard some local scouts say they expected me to go in the 3rd or 4th round, maybe later.

This whole week, I have been bombarded with e-mails, letters, and shout-outs from old high school classmates and relatives. But, I enjoyed it. Its good that people notice me for what I'm good at. But, that's not why I play the sport. I love football. All I can remember was that Seahawks game where Jim Zorn had given me that autographed football. I've been hooked ever since.

When I went to sleep that night, I kept dreaming of Mom...

Jarrel, don't worry about me...I'll be fine. Just make everyone proud. I don't care if you never made it past high school. No, the doctors haven't noticed any improvements, but they say I'm not getting worse... No, Jarrel, my heart is fine... No, it's not hereditary. Just...just don't worry okay. I'm going to sleep now. Bye, son.

Sunday, April 26th, 2009. 8:00 PM

Not one single team drafted me!

I spent the rest of the day crying. I'm glad Mom was sleep in her bed that Sunday in the hospital room, I would've been embarrased if she saw me in tears.

Then my agent called. A good friend from my old high school, Jason Highman. He said he had some teams lined up for me to sign as a free agent. He said it would be better now because I get to choose the team and negotiate the deal.

I thought of the day before and how the Oakland Raiders made my day. Derius Heyward-Bey? Seriously

Sincerly

Jarrel D. Williams

Comments

# 1 deaduck @ May 9

Freak of nature stats on the drills and you didn't get drafted?

What'd you get on the Wonderlic? A zero?

Be about the only thing to explain it.

# 2 jWILL253 @ May 10

That's the difference between an NFL Scouting Combine and a University of Washington Pro Day. Add that to the fact that the character was a second stringer to Jake Locker, and...

# 3 deaduck @ May 16

Maybe I missed it...why didn't he got to the Combine then?

# 4 jWILL253 @ May 16

You can't just go. You have to be invited...