The Other Side of Football

Posted by Carron J. Phillips on September 7, 2011 · 1 Comment 

For the past week, football fans across the country have been happier than Tyler Perry at a cashmere V-Neck sweater blowout sale as America’s most popular sport has returned.

The college season kicked of last week while the big boys will get started on Sunday. Most fans are completing last minute fantasy football drafts or ordering the Sunday NFL package, but to others this is the worst time of the year.

While sitting at the dining room table a few days ago, I was busy reading the sports section of the newspaper as I usually do. But, on the last page was a section that featured a bold headline; TRANSACTIONS.

It was a team-by-team breakdown of all the guys who had been recently cut at the end of training camp. While this is part of the business, as teams have to trim their rosters down to 53 men every season, some of the names I saw on the list surprised me.

While considered undersized for their respective positions, I thought guys like Ahmad Black and Trindon Holliday could carve their niches in the league. Holliday was a two-sport athlete at LSU as he was one of the best track & field sprinters in the country and a deadly kick returner. Black was one of the leaders of Urban Meyer’s defense at Florida as the vertically challenged defensive back always seem to make huge plays in the biggest games. The Rams cut former Cincinnati WR Mardy Gilyard, someone who I thought was a steal in the draft. Out of the trio of Gilyard, Black and Holliday, Gilyard’s situation maybe the one to find work the quickest as he could be a viable commodity on the free agent market.

As the abovementioned trio thrived in their moments of fame, they were by no means household names. But guys like Dan LeFevour, Ian Johnson, and Ryan Perrilloux were at one time or another the faces on their school’s media guide.

LeFevour might have played at a small school, Central Michigan, but his numbers were on steroids. After starting all four years for the Chippewas, LeFevour threw for 12, 905 years and 102 touchdowns. He also rushed for 2,948 yards and 47 scores.  In 2007, he even joined Vince Young as the only player at that time to pass for over 3,000 yards and run for over 1,000 yards in a season. But now LeFevour is looking for work, as his gaudy numbers from the spread offense he ran at CMU haven’t transferred over to the league.

I think its pretty safe to say that Boise State has been on the scene for a while now. Their days of being a feel good story or a Cinderella team are over. But Ian Johnson is one of the reasons why the Broncos are consistently competing for a BCS National Title. It was Johnson who scored on the infamous Statue of Liberty play when they beat Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl. And it was Johnson who dropped to one knee and proposed to his cheerleading girlfriend on the sidelines when the game was over. Johnson was “That Guy” as Boise. He had the girl, was one of the best backs in the country, and cemented himself in college football history with that memorable highlight. But that all changed when Kellen Moore got to campus and the focal point of the offense now depended on Moore’s arm instead of Johnson’s legs. The former Bronco was trying to make the Detroit Lions’ roster before he was cut last week.  

When Ryan Perilloux graduated from East St. John High School he had thrown for 9,024 yards and ran for another 3,680. During his signing day press conference he said that he would win four Heisman trophies, and while it was far fetched, you couldn’t tell me that two weren’t possible. But while most people refer to Perilloux as a bust who ended his collegiate career at Jacksonville State, most of us wonder what would have happened if he would have chose Texas over LSU that day. Hindsight is 20/20, but as the Louisiana native was just given his walking papers by the New York Giants, I bet if he had to do it all over again he’d be a Longhorn.

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