notacon
01-18-2023, 01:19 PM
Deep feature article from ESPN.
Yeah, it’s long and I know how much some of the youngsters here have an aversion to reading anything longer than 280 characters. :D: A warning, this story is a lot longer than even 280 words.
Rich with detail and anecdotes.
Untold tales on the making of Bills star Josh Allen (https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35427940/buffalo-bills-josh-allen-rise-career-journey)
Here are just the opening paragraphs.....
THE MOST IMPORTANT detail of the day that Josh Allen (https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/3918298/josh-allen) knew -- he just knew -- he was going to be an NFL superstar is the location of the field where it happened.
Allen was 17 years old at the time, getting ready for his senior year at Firebaugh High by attending a camp at his hometown college, Fresno State. Josh, now in his fifth season as the Buffalo Bills (https://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/buf/buffalo-bills) quarterback, famously had zero interest from FBS schools during his high school career. Not "very little" interest. Zero interest, even from Fresno State. He hoped this camp would change that.
That didn't happen. On Day 1 of the two-day camp, Allen was electric as he led tiny Firebaugh on a surprising romp to the championship game of a 7-on-7 tournament. The team won its first two games, then ran into Bakersfield Christian, alma mater of then-Fresno State QB Derek Carr (https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/16757/derek-carr). Carr was there that day, and Firebaugh coach Bill Magnusson asked him to swing by their team tent, set up by Allen's dad, Joel, to keep the players out of a horrific heat that had some parents' sandals melting to the turf.
Carr was a California A-lister at that time. His brother, David, had been the No. 1 pick in the 2002 NFL draft, and now Derek was a star at Fresno, a year from getting drafted himself. He posed for pictures with the unknown Firebaugh squad, and when he got introduced to Allen, the school's starting quarterback, Carr said, "Take it easy on my old school out there, OK?"
Allen smiled, then went out and single-handedly tore up Bakersfield Christian. Carr saw him on the sideline afterward and said, "Hey, I thought I told you to take it easy on my guys?"
Allen didn't even blink. "I did take it easy," he said, and he and Carr both got a good chuckle out of that.
Firebaugh eventually lost in the championship game, but Allen had created some momentum for himself heading into Day 2 of the camp for skill position players. Or so he thought.
When the 25 or so prep quarterbacks showed up the next day, they gathered between Fresno's main practice field and a smaller side field. The Fresno State coaches ran through the list of which quarterbacks would go where. When they got to the end of the list for the primary field, all of the best quarterbacks had been picked -- and Allen wasn't one of them.
"Everybody else, head over there," one coach barked, pointing to the small field. The Firebaugh crew couldn't believe it: Allen was on the "everybody else" list.
The blue-chip kids went over to the big field and started throwing long balls to receivers in front of most of the coaching staff. A bewildered Allen wandered over with the second-tier kids to their small patch of turf, which was only big enough to throw swing passes and 10-yard routes.
"I'm better than these guys," Allen said to Magnusson, who nodded and walked over to the coach who had read off the list.
"Can you talk to somebody and get my kid up with the other guys?" Magnusson said. "That's where he belongs."
Without even looking up, the coach said, "He's fine right there," and Allen spent the next two hours throwing dump-offs in front of no one who mattered. That is when he knew that someday he would play on the biggest sports fields possible, and he'd be fine right there.
"I was extremely mad," Allen said in 2017. "I really wanted to be on that field with the guys that they thought were the better guys. I couldn't even focus on playing football in that moment."
Allen's remarkable rise -- from the farm country of Firebaugh, California, with no FBS offers in 2014, to potential NFL MVP eight years later -- is one of the biggest, most surprising stories in modern football history. But that story exists only because of lots and lots of small stories. ESPN interviewed over a dozen of Allen's friends, family members and coaches to get 16 vignettes about the making of Josh Allen.
Much more....
I love this pic of a very young 18 year old Josh Allen (https://www.instagram.com/p/w5IvklRfYa/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading).....
19675
Yeah, it’s long and I know how much some of the youngsters here have an aversion to reading anything longer than 280 characters. :D: A warning, this story is a lot longer than even 280 words.
Rich with detail and anecdotes.
Untold tales on the making of Bills star Josh Allen (https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35427940/buffalo-bills-josh-allen-rise-career-journey)
Here are just the opening paragraphs.....
THE MOST IMPORTANT detail of the day that Josh Allen (https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/3918298/josh-allen) knew -- he just knew -- he was going to be an NFL superstar is the location of the field where it happened.
Allen was 17 years old at the time, getting ready for his senior year at Firebaugh High by attending a camp at his hometown college, Fresno State. Josh, now in his fifth season as the Buffalo Bills (https://www.espn.com/nfl/team/_/name/buf/buffalo-bills) quarterback, famously had zero interest from FBS schools during his high school career. Not "very little" interest. Zero interest, even from Fresno State. He hoped this camp would change that.
That didn't happen. On Day 1 of the two-day camp, Allen was electric as he led tiny Firebaugh on a surprising romp to the championship game of a 7-on-7 tournament. The team won its first two games, then ran into Bakersfield Christian, alma mater of then-Fresno State QB Derek Carr (https://www.espn.com/nfl/player/_/id/16757/derek-carr). Carr was there that day, and Firebaugh coach Bill Magnusson asked him to swing by their team tent, set up by Allen's dad, Joel, to keep the players out of a horrific heat that had some parents' sandals melting to the turf.
Carr was a California A-lister at that time. His brother, David, had been the No. 1 pick in the 2002 NFL draft, and now Derek was a star at Fresno, a year from getting drafted himself. He posed for pictures with the unknown Firebaugh squad, and when he got introduced to Allen, the school's starting quarterback, Carr said, "Take it easy on my old school out there, OK?"
Allen smiled, then went out and single-handedly tore up Bakersfield Christian. Carr saw him on the sideline afterward and said, "Hey, I thought I told you to take it easy on my guys?"
Allen didn't even blink. "I did take it easy," he said, and he and Carr both got a good chuckle out of that.
Firebaugh eventually lost in the championship game, but Allen had created some momentum for himself heading into Day 2 of the camp for skill position players. Or so he thought.
When the 25 or so prep quarterbacks showed up the next day, they gathered between Fresno's main practice field and a smaller side field. The Fresno State coaches ran through the list of which quarterbacks would go where. When they got to the end of the list for the primary field, all of the best quarterbacks had been picked -- and Allen wasn't one of them.
"Everybody else, head over there," one coach barked, pointing to the small field. The Firebaugh crew couldn't believe it: Allen was on the "everybody else" list.
The blue-chip kids went over to the big field and started throwing long balls to receivers in front of most of the coaching staff. A bewildered Allen wandered over with the second-tier kids to their small patch of turf, which was only big enough to throw swing passes and 10-yard routes.
"I'm better than these guys," Allen said to Magnusson, who nodded and walked over to the coach who had read off the list.
"Can you talk to somebody and get my kid up with the other guys?" Magnusson said. "That's where he belongs."
Without even looking up, the coach said, "He's fine right there," and Allen spent the next two hours throwing dump-offs in front of no one who mattered. That is when he knew that someday he would play on the biggest sports fields possible, and he'd be fine right there.
"I was extremely mad," Allen said in 2017. "I really wanted to be on that field with the guys that they thought were the better guys. I couldn't even focus on playing football in that moment."
Allen's remarkable rise -- from the farm country of Firebaugh, California, with no FBS offers in 2014, to potential NFL MVP eight years later -- is one of the biggest, most surprising stories in modern football history. But that story exists only because of lots and lots of small stories. ESPN interviewed over a dozen of Allen's friends, family members and coaches to get 16 vignettes about the making of Josh Allen.
Much more....
I love this pic of a very young 18 year old Josh Allen (https://www.instagram.com/p/w5IvklRfYa/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading).....
19675