Post by Banana Cat on Apr 11, 2012 0:38:09 GMT -5
blog.syracuse.com/orangefootball/2012/04/former_syracuse_university_tac.html
Former Syracuse University tackle Anthony Perkins refuses to give up his football quest
April 10, 2012
by Nolan Weidner / The Post-Standard
Anthony Perkins never had to endure 16-hour road trips by bus when he played college football. At Syracuse, the team chartered flights to road games.
Perkins never had to make his own ice packs, either, which he now sometimes does if he needs to after practice or games, stopping at the corner convenience store to pick up Ziploc bags and ice.
Welcome to the Indoor Football League, a second-level indoor league in its fourth year. The IFL offers players like Perkins — who still harbor hopes of playing outdoor pro football in the U.S. or Canada — a chance to keep their dreams afloat.
The Washington, D.C., native is 1,700 miles from home and six games into his rookie season with the Colorado Ice.
“It’s a stepping-stone to where I want to be,” said Perkins, who is back on the field after spending a long year away from the sport he loves.
The former Orange defensive tackle made his debut for the Ice on Feb. 26, following an eight-hour bus ride from the team’s base in Fort Collins to the Albuquerque, N.M., suburb of Rio Rancho.
The Ice lost its season opener 46-39 to the New Mexico Stars. Perkins earned $225 for his day’s work, which included one solo tackle and a blocked extra point. He had a lengthy “Welcome to the IFL moment” — a 500-mile bus ride back to Fort Collins that ended at 4 a.m. the next day.
“That eight-hour ride home seemed like it was 13 hours. It seemed like it would never end,” said the 6-foot-4, 290-pound Perkins.
It’s not the National Football League. It’s not the Canadian Football League, either. It’s not even the Arena Football League, the more established indoor league. But the IFL is a chance to keep playing, perhaps a last chance to be discovered.
In the 14 months since his senior season ended Dec. 30, 2010, in New York City with a Pinstripe Bowl victory over Kansas State, Perkins has finished work on his SU degree, signed with an agent, hired a personal trainer and joined a gym back in the Washington area.
Like many potential NFL free agents last year, Perkins never got a tryout during the lockout-tainted prelude to the season. Except for a phone call from the Jacksonsville Jaguars that spiked his hopes during the three-day draft in late April, he didn’t get a nibble.
Perkins, who recorded 67 tackles while playing in a rotation on the SU defensive line from 2007 to 2010, took a job driving a tow truck in northern Virginia and earned extra money working the door at a nightclub.
Long days behind the wheel, mostly helping stranded motorists on crowded D.C.-area highways, helped Perkins cover the costs of staying in shape, but the work hours made training difficult. The engaging Perkins said he enjoyed the work because he likes to meet people.
“I was doing repo, roadside assistance. It can get a little dangerous,” he said. But he added that the idea of sneaking up to someone’s residence and stealing back a vehicle is mostly Hollywood glamorization.
The closest Perkins came to playing in 2011 was at a supposed semipro team tryout in the Washington area.
“There were like three people there,” he said. “There was one guy who said he was the coach. There was no equipment. Then they told me I had to pay, like $500, just to play. And you don’t get paid. As bad as I wanted to play, I respectfully declined.”
The hard part came last fall, during the first football season in a decade that Perkins wasn’t playing for a high school, prep school or college team.
“There were nights when I’d turn on a game, and as much as I wanted to support my (former SU) teammates, it was hard to watch,” he said. “They were living the dream that I would die for ... that I want to do. You know that you would give anything to be out there.”
Perkins said he sometimes would look over his souvenirs from the Pinstripe Bowl trip and wonder if he’d play football again.
“I just figured it was not meant to be. I had kind of given up faith and hope.”
But Perkins wasn’t quite ready to stow his football cleats and put his degree in hospitality and food service management to work by searching for a permanent job.
“That’s why I did the tow truck thing,” he said. “That’s something I can do and make good money at, and it isn’t a career move.”
In mid-January, Perkins was on the road in his truck when he received an email on his cell phone. He saw that it was from an organization called the Colorado Ice, but he didn’t open it.
“They put IFL on it, and I’m just not taking it serious. I thought my friends were just goofing around on me. So I just ignored it,” he said.
More than a week went by before Perkins decided he should at least read the message.
“I go into it, and it was the real deal ... a real contract and everything. I was like, uh-oh, I need to call these people back,” he said. “It was weird because I almost threw this opportunity away.”
After talking with the Ice to make sure the team still wanted him, Perkins packed and headed west.
“I drove out here on Super Bowl weekend,” he said of the 25½-hour trip he made with his uncle. The team moved Perkins into an apartment near Fort Collins, some 50 miles north of Denver, and he began three weeks of practicing and learning an unfamiliar version of football.
“I have a lot to learn. This is not like 11-man football,” Perkins said of the game played with eight players a side on a 50-by-28-yard field. “You’re constricted to a smaller rush lane.
Perkins, who plays either noseguard or end as one of three down linemen, said the indoor game moves much faster and requires a lot of on-field communication.
“I thought we had a fast game in the Big East. But this is faster ... it’s a lot faster,” he said.
Ice coach Heron O’Neal said Perkins is picking up the indoor game faster than most. On the defensive line, indoor players have to line up directly across from offensive linemen. In a three-on-three situation, there’s no shooting gaps.
“You’ve got to play pretty much head-up in this league, so it’s a lot to do with your strength, more than just quickness,” O’Neal said. “The biggest adjustment he’s trying to make at this point is understanding that — and knowing how to use certain techniques against certain people. I think he’s miles in front of where we thought he’d be at this point.”
One of the main reasons players go to arena football, O’Neal said, is to work on technique and get video to show teams in the outdoor leagues.
“I would say probably 95 of our players still have dreams of playing in the NFL, CFL, things like that. Our oldest guy, I think, is 27,” O’Neal said. “You’re not going to get rich in this league. It’s basically a six-month process — get film, get seen by different scouts who come to the games.”
Perkins, who returned to the lineup after missing two games with a dislocated right shoulder, has five tackles in four games for the Ice, which is 4-2 and in third place in the IFL’s Intense Division.
Perkins knows he’s a long shot to make the NFL.
“You get the thrill of playing,” he said. “Just getting that opportunity again. And then knowing that if I do well enough, it just may be ... Hey, you never know.”
One of Perkins’ fellow rookies in the IFL this season is former All-Pro receiver Terrell Owens, who is playing part-time with the Allen (Texas) Wranglers, a team he partly owns.
And of course there’s the well-known story of Kurt Warner, a quarterback who went from the Iowa Barnstormers (an arena league team) to Super Bowl MVP.
“It has been done,” Perkins said. “All of us here on this roster want that to be our story. Will it be our story? We don’t know.”
Perkins said he has an extra incentive to succeed, but one that also tugs at his heartstrings.
A 3-year-old son, Anthony Jr., waits for his father back east. The child was born to Perkins and his girlfriend while they were students at SU.
Being away from Anthony Jr., who lives with his maternal grandmother in Brooklyn, does weigh on Perkins.
“It gets to you some days,” said Perkins, who will be reunited with his son after the IFL season ends late this spring. “We just had a guy leave because of his daughter.”
But Perkins is determined to let his football dream play out, whatever the ending. For now, the next challenge is a reprise of the 16-hour round-trip bus ride to New Mexico for a game this Saturday.
“I have a dream. I have a goal. And I want to try and achieve it,” he said.
April 10, 2012
by Nolan Weidner / The Post-Standard
Anthony Perkins never had to endure 16-hour road trips by bus when he played college football. At Syracuse, the team chartered flights to road games.
Perkins never had to make his own ice packs, either, which he now sometimes does if he needs to after practice or games, stopping at the corner convenience store to pick up Ziploc bags and ice.
Welcome to the Indoor Football League, a second-level indoor league in its fourth year. The IFL offers players like Perkins — who still harbor hopes of playing outdoor pro football in the U.S. or Canada — a chance to keep their dreams afloat.
The Washington, D.C., native is 1,700 miles from home and six games into his rookie season with the Colorado Ice.
“It’s a stepping-stone to where I want to be,” said Perkins, who is back on the field after spending a long year away from the sport he loves.
The former Orange defensive tackle made his debut for the Ice on Feb. 26, following an eight-hour bus ride from the team’s base in Fort Collins to the Albuquerque, N.M., suburb of Rio Rancho.
The Ice lost its season opener 46-39 to the New Mexico Stars. Perkins earned $225 for his day’s work, which included one solo tackle and a blocked extra point. He had a lengthy “Welcome to the IFL moment” — a 500-mile bus ride back to Fort Collins that ended at 4 a.m. the next day.
“That eight-hour ride home seemed like it was 13 hours. It seemed like it would never end,” said the 6-foot-4, 290-pound Perkins.
It’s not the National Football League. It’s not the Canadian Football League, either. It’s not even the Arena Football League, the more established indoor league. But the IFL is a chance to keep playing, perhaps a last chance to be discovered.
In the 14 months since his senior season ended Dec. 30, 2010, in New York City with a Pinstripe Bowl victory over Kansas State, Perkins has finished work on his SU degree, signed with an agent, hired a personal trainer and joined a gym back in the Washington area.
Like many potential NFL free agents last year, Perkins never got a tryout during the lockout-tainted prelude to the season. Except for a phone call from the Jacksonsville Jaguars that spiked his hopes during the three-day draft in late April, he didn’t get a nibble.
Perkins, who recorded 67 tackles while playing in a rotation on the SU defensive line from 2007 to 2010, took a job driving a tow truck in northern Virginia and earned extra money working the door at a nightclub.
Long days behind the wheel, mostly helping stranded motorists on crowded D.C.-area highways, helped Perkins cover the costs of staying in shape, but the work hours made training difficult. The engaging Perkins said he enjoyed the work because he likes to meet people.
“I was doing repo, roadside assistance. It can get a little dangerous,” he said. But he added that the idea of sneaking up to someone’s residence and stealing back a vehicle is mostly Hollywood glamorization.
The closest Perkins came to playing in 2011 was at a supposed semipro team tryout in the Washington area.
“There were like three people there,” he said. “There was one guy who said he was the coach. There was no equipment. Then they told me I had to pay, like $500, just to play. And you don’t get paid. As bad as I wanted to play, I respectfully declined.”
The hard part came last fall, during the first football season in a decade that Perkins wasn’t playing for a high school, prep school or college team.
“There were nights when I’d turn on a game, and as much as I wanted to support my (former SU) teammates, it was hard to watch,” he said. “They were living the dream that I would die for ... that I want to do. You know that you would give anything to be out there.”
Perkins said he sometimes would look over his souvenirs from the Pinstripe Bowl trip and wonder if he’d play football again.
“I just figured it was not meant to be. I had kind of given up faith and hope.”
But Perkins wasn’t quite ready to stow his football cleats and put his degree in hospitality and food service management to work by searching for a permanent job.
“That’s why I did the tow truck thing,” he said. “That’s something I can do and make good money at, and it isn’t a career move.”
In mid-January, Perkins was on the road in his truck when he received an email on his cell phone. He saw that it was from an organization called the Colorado Ice, but he didn’t open it.
“They put IFL on it, and I’m just not taking it serious. I thought my friends were just goofing around on me. So I just ignored it,” he said.
More than a week went by before Perkins decided he should at least read the message.
“I go into it, and it was the real deal ... a real contract and everything. I was like, uh-oh, I need to call these people back,” he said. “It was weird because I almost threw this opportunity away.”
After talking with the Ice to make sure the team still wanted him, Perkins packed and headed west.
“I drove out here on Super Bowl weekend,” he said of the 25½-hour trip he made with his uncle. The team moved Perkins into an apartment near Fort Collins, some 50 miles north of Denver, and he began three weeks of practicing and learning an unfamiliar version of football.
“I have a lot to learn. This is not like 11-man football,” Perkins said of the game played with eight players a side on a 50-by-28-yard field. “You’re constricted to a smaller rush lane.
Perkins, who plays either noseguard or end as one of three down linemen, said the indoor game moves much faster and requires a lot of on-field communication.
“I thought we had a fast game in the Big East. But this is faster ... it’s a lot faster,” he said.
Ice coach Heron O’Neal said Perkins is picking up the indoor game faster than most. On the defensive line, indoor players have to line up directly across from offensive linemen. In a three-on-three situation, there’s no shooting gaps.
“You’ve got to play pretty much head-up in this league, so it’s a lot to do with your strength, more than just quickness,” O’Neal said. “The biggest adjustment he’s trying to make at this point is understanding that — and knowing how to use certain techniques against certain people. I think he’s miles in front of where we thought he’d be at this point.”
One of the main reasons players go to arena football, O’Neal said, is to work on technique and get video to show teams in the outdoor leagues.
“I would say probably 95 of our players still have dreams of playing in the NFL, CFL, things like that. Our oldest guy, I think, is 27,” O’Neal said. “You’re not going to get rich in this league. It’s basically a six-month process — get film, get seen by different scouts who come to the games.”
Perkins, who returned to the lineup after missing two games with a dislocated right shoulder, has five tackles in four games for the Ice, which is 4-2 and in third place in the IFL’s Intense Division.
Perkins knows he’s a long shot to make the NFL.
“You get the thrill of playing,” he said. “Just getting that opportunity again. And then knowing that if I do well enough, it just may be ... Hey, you never know.”
One of Perkins’ fellow rookies in the IFL this season is former All-Pro receiver Terrell Owens, who is playing part-time with the Allen (Texas) Wranglers, a team he partly owns.
And of course there’s the well-known story of Kurt Warner, a quarterback who went from the Iowa Barnstormers (an arena league team) to Super Bowl MVP.
“It has been done,” Perkins said. “All of us here on this roster want that to be our story. Will it be our story? We don’t know.”
Perkins said he has an extra incentive to succeed, but one that also tugs at his heartstrings.
A 3-year-old son, Anthony Jr., waits for his father back east. The child was born to Perkins and his girlfriend while they were students at SU.
Being away from Anthony Jr., who lives with his maternal grandmother in Brooklyn, does weigh on Perkins.
“It gets to you some days,” said Perkins, who will be reunited with his son after the IFL season ends late this spring. “We just had a guy leave because of his daughter.”
But Perkins is determined to let his football dream play out, whatever the ending. For now, the next challenge is a reprise of the 16-hour round-trip bus ride to New Mexico for a game this Saturday.
“I have a dream. I have a goal. And I want to try and achieve it,” he said.