gettin ugly with duglyive had lots of people askin the same questions about my whole austin wranglers situation and because it takes a while to explain i got sick of it so im sayin it once more. once you read it youd understand why i dont like repeating it over and over.
so as most of you know i went was recruited for the wranglers and asked to workout for them last week. this was totally out of the blue and didnt plan on pursuing a football career at all...i didnt even think it was realistic. coaches were lookin at some tape on chance mock in practice while he was at ut (he's a qb for the wranglers now) and i caught their eye and they found out who i was and thats how i was contacted. also thru my friend aj who is the assistant director of athletics there.
i trained and trained by myself for the last few weeks and got in somewhat decent shape but by no means anywhere near where i used to be. i went to the workout which was a total of 4 days M-Th starting at 6am every morning. we started with 19 players working out and by 10am on that same morning it was down to 4. the 4 being a guy just waived off the jacksonville jaguars and one waived off the arizona cardinals. the third guy was this 30+ year old dude comin from the cfl wanting to try afl out. my stats were better than i thought theyd be for my workout but i realized exactly how much i fell off since i last played. 40 time - 4.49. vert - 25". bench - 13x. fastest in short and long shuttle. broad jump - 7.5' and others but those are the ones people always ask.
so tuesday rolled around and i ended up putting someone in the hospital but it was a total accident. i threw him on the ground and his helmet was off and his head whipped back and hit the ground really hard. he had a concussion and the doctors were scared bc he had some bleeding in the temporal lobe but he was released thursday so he's fine now. so then there were 3 after tuesday.
wednesday was interesting cuz i got in a fight on the field with one of the other guys. and all three of us made it again.
thursday was the day when they said we want all of you but the max they were gonna take was 2. and they said beforehadn the minimum was zero.
so i waited and waited and got a call from my agent and he gave me the news of contract negotiations for this tuesday (yesterday) but it didnt necessarily mean i was on the team yet they just wanted to see how much i was wanting to get paid or something. so there are 3 people with 2 spots and the coaches want all of us and we are all strong in our own ways.
they gave me quite a bit of options that i can do but basically i CANT play afl in austin. if i want to play for the wranglers i sign a 3yr deal with them, where the first year i get my wrist and knee surgery and rehab the entire year and get paid appx 8k for the season before tax and agent fees which is shit. then the second year i play in the afl2 which is the minor league and get paid 24k + 1050 per game which comes out to 40.8K before agent and tax. then if im still healthy i move up to the wranglers during year three and i was offered 90.5k + 2500 per which comes out to be about 130.5k for year 3 plus potential performance bonuses of up to 92k coming out to about 220k for the entire year 3 if i play like a champ.
another option given is to be traded. 5 other teams want to see me for some reason (columbus destroyers, georgia force, arizona rattlers, dallas desparados, and las vegas gladiators). some of these teams will give me the same deal as the wranglers making me play in afl2 for a little more money. and some will give me a chance to play without having the surgeries bc ive been cleared to play but theyll pay only around 50-60k and if i get put on IR or waived then the lumpsum release percent is only at 22% so again if i get hurt ill be screwed.
also all these numbers have bonus potentials pending performance. and workouts for those other 5 teams are comin up some within 3 weeks and some 3 months away. they gave me til tuesday for our next meeting to give a counter offer, so i have to figure all this out w/jim (agent). (we decided that he owns 9.2% of me - so he owns my left arm - i dont need it anyway). i dont know i think im leavin out a lot but who knows. meeting was from 9-1p and was boring as hell. but basically i got a lot of thinkin to do and if i didnt need surgery the 90.5K deal would be a right now thing, so that totally sucks.
so im debating all this right now bc i have a chance at this money and being a pro player which is something ive always wanted, but it is an insane amount of risk for just my chance bc there are clauses in teh contract stating that i can be released from the contract by paying me a percentage of my salary. the wranglers have it set at 38% right now so if in year 2 i get hurt ill get a shitty .38 of 24k. it also requires me to leave austin soon so since i cant break my lease bc josh is still gon live here for the next 11 months i have to cover that cost. thats the 8k for the first year spent just right there. so the question is how the hell am i gonna live for the first year in washington? and my parents wont help me cuz if im not doing school then im on my own which is fine i dont want to ask for help. so here i am....i know what i SHOULD do but how can i pass on something ive always wanted?
oh yea. not to get ahead of ourselves but if i perform well and stay healthy for the next 3 yrs then most likely ill get a contract of over a 400K. my 90.5K deal is actually kinda low bc im a liability at all times cuz of all of my injuries.
finally, thanks to everyone that came out last night to party w/me. and sunny is a moron.