Day 53 - The Georgia Force Tryout

I'll cut to the chase - I feel like I did very well. But I won't know anything for a few days.

The Force ran their tryouts differently than Tampa did theirs. First, they split out the "fast guys" and the "big guys" into two separate sessions, ours starting at 10:15 AM and ending at noon. Second, they didn't do any cuts today at all - instead, they videotaped the entire field during the entire tryout from four cameras, one on either stands' pressbox and one at each endzone. They will evaluate the tapes and get back to us for a 2nd workout if they want to see more.

There was a huge difference in today's tryout and the one I did in Tampa, and that came down to just pure confidence. In Tampa, I knew I'd worked hard but had NO IDEA what to expect at all - from how things would run to who I'd run against, to what the heck the coaches were looking for. Today, though, I had at least a rough idea of what they'd be looking for and how I needed to perform to stay viable.

So having said all of that - I cut nearly a full second off my time in the Short Shuttle today, I ran a 5.7 forty yard dash, and I kept my head up, my butt low and my hands right in the chest of every guy I went against. I hustled everywhere I was asked to go, volunteered and stepped up for every single drill, and overall just made sure they knew I wasn't there to waste time (or 80 bucks).

After the tryout, I went up to the offensive line coach and thanked him for the day, and he said "Hey, great job from you today - you had the best hands I saw all day (meaning I got my non-snapping hand out and locked my guy every single time... Oh yeah, if I didn't mention it before, I play Center). We'll be in touch."

I have no idea if that meant "hey, we're going to call you about the 2nd workout" or if that meant "bye, take care, we'll call you if we're interested!" But I'm hoping the first :)

So what now?

Well... I'm not going to stop working out. I'm not going to stop training. I'm going to treat this like I didn't get anything whatsoever from Tampa or Georgia, and that the real deal is in December. I'm going to keep updating this journal with my workouts and possibly make another video or two.

I'll probably find other things athletically that pique my interest, and if nothing comes from the pro team guys now or in December, I'll just jump on something new and make the best out of it. It's been, oh, 8 years since my last Judo tournament - maybe that'll be next?

Who knows. Overall... I'm just glad I didn't go out and look like a 30-year-old moron with Sunday Dreams and a lot of talk.