Now I'm in the New Orleans airport getting ready to watch the Arena Bowl in a few days. I know it is going to be hard to watch cause I know we could've been there. Plus, it was Columbus that made it all the way to the finals. They have been playing well and I won't be surprised if they upset San Jose. I'm going to write an update on this New Orleans trip as well and hopefully include some pictures which I haven't done in a long time.
My first ESPN game was bittersweet. It was definitely fun playing on ESPN and I hope I do it a million times more but we lost so that always puts a sour taste in your mouth.
I've been busy after this season. I've been fortunate enough to get some interviews on TV and on the radio that have definitely been a good experience.
God blessed me with the Rookie of the Year award. That is actually the reason I'm in New Orleans right now. I got Co-ROY with my former teammate from Kansas City, Charles Fredrick, that played in Spokane last year. So I got to do an interview on ESPN News that was an absolute blast.
I just found out a few days ago that I made it in ESPN The Magazine. That was definitely a trip. The article is about ten guys from that AFL that have the best chance to make it in the NFL. I'm number 10 and it is an honor to be in "The Mag". The icing on the cake was that I got an action photo in there as well. I have part of the picture here below. It's the ESPN with David Beckham on the cover and its on page 100.
But the biggest thing that has/is happening to me is that I'm getting married on August 4th. Dana and I have been very busy since the season ended. We still have some stuff to do so its not the best for the wedding planning that we are here in New Orleans for five days the week before the wedding. How many people go on vacation before the wedding? Not many if any. Good thing the AFL is paying for everything while we are down here. I'm ecstatic about getting married. She is wonderful and beautiful and I'm very excited that I can call her my wife in a week and a half.
A lot of people have been asking if I'm going to be in Tampa Bay next year. And the answer is yes. I will be back and ready to take off where we left off. We need to work hard in the off season so we can start the season off better than we did last year.
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Anyway, about the weekend.... We started on Thursday morning for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes breakfast. I had the honor to speak with Commish Baker, Coach Neu, and Will Pettis. I actually had just met Will Pettis before the breakfast and he is a great guy. I've watched the guy on TV for a few years and knew he was a fierce competitor but he really is a great guy. Talking at the FCA with Will really meant a lot to me. That was a great start to the weekend and really put everything else in perspective for the rest of the weekend.
After that I had my first experience with radio row. I had heard the term radio row before but had never experienced it. It is truly intimidating to see about 30 radio stations lined up throughout the room. I had a chance to talk to a few of them throughout the weekend, but it will be something I will never forget.
Friday night was the big awards night that I was actually down there for. The AFL did a great job of putting on a nice big awards show, it looked like it was the Grammys or something. It was very nice. There was a ton of people there and I started to get nervous. I don't know why, I play in front of a lot more people than the number that was at the awards show. It was just different. The Rookie of the Year awards was one of the first player awards to be given out after the coaches and owner awards. That might have had something to do with it. They played a little video of me before they announced me up to the stage. (I'll try to get that posted on this website or at least get you a link to it.) I did pretty good giving my speech, I said pretty much what I wanted to say, except I forgot to thank our owner Mr. Kern. So if you are reading this Mr. Kern thanks for everything you've done!!! The young lady that presented me with the award was Miss America, so that was pretty cool. I really didn't expect the trophy to be as heavy as it was, but its heavy. The awards night was great and I had a blast. It was really well done by the AFL, really the whole weekend was done up. I was impresed.
Now I'm going to skip ahead to the weekend to an event that I was really looking forward to and that was the golf tournament. I'm a big fan of golf and we were playing at one of the nicest clubs in New Orleans. I had the opportunity to play with representatives from both EA Sports and Champs Sports. Those guys were absolutely great and a joy to play golf with even though we didn't win. (We probably should've.) It was good to get out there and play some golf. The rain spoiled the afternoon a bit, but thats okay.
Now, Sunday was the game and I wasn't sure how I was going to like the game because I was watching it instead of playing it. They sat all of the award winnners and their families close to each other and close to other players that came to watch from around the league. So that helped me a little bit knowing that they were going through the same feeling. Once again the AFL did a great job on the game and on the fan fest before the game where we signed autographs for all the fans that came out. PLUS, at the fanfest I met the guys from "Still Football Blog" who write the best Arena football blog in the universe. They are hilarious. They had me read one of THEIR most unique posts that they wrote about me and they posted it on you tube. You can see it here. Their website is stillfootball.wordpress.com. I highly recommend it.
Now about the game... San Jose won and used their great defense and consistant offense to lock up the Destroyers. I was mostly tired throughout the game, probably because it had been a long weekend and I wasn't playing in the game and really wanted to be.
It was a great weekend and I appreciate the AFL for doing it so well with it. I was honored to be apart of it.
But the real week was just starting because the very next weekend after the Arena Bowl was my wedding. It went pretty smoothly except for some minor details. It was very nice and we had a great time. So now I am marriend and we are doing well, couldn't be happier. We went down to Mexico for the honeymoon and had a great time as well.
I'll be sure to update soon....