Thrown to the Wolves

These pictures are from the scrimmage, that I just found a way to be in...

The last two days at work have been very, experiential, to say the least.

Yesterday, we had our inter-squad scrimmage yesterday, which was held at the stadium and free to the public. Since it was free to attend, the team didn't employ anybody to work the game- such as referees. One of the assignments that are normally occupied for regular games, but wasn't yesterday, was the chain gang. So guess who got to be a part of that yesterday? You got it- myself (along with two other guys). This was my first time doing chain gang for any type of football. If you are unfamiliar with football, the chain gang are the three bright orange marker sticks on the sideline that determine where the original line of scrimmage, current line of scrimmage and first down are. And, if you are unfamiliar with the arena league, 4 1/2 to 5 feet tall walls surround the playing field, meaning there are no "out of bounds." If you are thinking to yourself right now, "so where do the chain gang workers stand?" that is a very valid question. In arena football, each marker stick has an "anchor" tied by a rope to the stick. When the stick is in place, the "anchor" is thrown over the wall holding the stick in place. Now comes the tricky part. I had to go ten yards down field to place my marker stick. Once I had it set, I had to run back behind the offense before the play was called. For the majority of the time, I was already behind the offense by the time they were leaving their huddle. However, one time I had just set the marker when I heard the QB signal to the motion man to start. I instantly knew I had less than two seconds to get back. Those two seconds quickly turned into a fraction of a second as I heard the play beginning. I continue to sprint back when I see a receiver come straight towards me. I think to myself that the ball will not be thrown in my direction. I was 100% wrong. I see that ball come towards me, so I continue to run along the wall while ducking. I did not notice at the time, but after watching the film, I was less than two yards away from the defender hitting the receiver into the wall. Two professional athletes wearing pads sandwiching me, without any pads, with the wall definitely would not have felt good. However, I escaped the rest of the game unscathed and not running for my life anymore.

The second time I was thrown to the pack of wolves happened today. My boss called myself along with two other guys into his office and explained that our team had to keep in contact with free agents to determine if that player was still an option. He then told us things to talk about with the player, told us to get our phones out while he started to give us players' numbers. Then, one by one we had to call the players and talk to them to determine possibilities. This was definitely a learning experience as none of us had heard it being done prior to that meeting. We definitely were able to get some practical experience in the player personnel side of football today.

Well, I hope you were able to enjoy this post and have a little bit more understanding of how both the playing side and personnel side work for football. Have a great week.

Adam