Previous New York Jet Can take a Shot at the PGA Tour
South Floridian, previous New York Jet goes from the Gridiron to the Greens
It is tricky to find two sporting activities that are polar opposites additional than golf and football, Stevie Anderson is creating the scenario that there are some similarities involving the two sports. Anderson, who used five-a long time finishing acrobatic catches in the Nationwide Football League (NFL), is connecting the dots involving the athletics by building major inroads in his warm pursuit of a PGA tour occupation.
Anderson is just one of three brothers from Jonesboro, Louisiana – a tiny bucolic city – who remarkably all performed in the NFL. Now he finds himself, in of all places, on the backlinks, where he is touring all through the region actively playing PGA qualifying tournaments.
Although it is noticeable by the ability of his swing that Anderson has the physical goods to play on the tour, it is nevertheless a gargantuan obstacle that he has ahead of him. Anderson has used his entire lifestyle-time beating obstructions. He defied all odds when he was drafted in the NFL’s eighth round by the Arizona Cardinals in 1993, following playing at Grambling State, an obscure college with an enrollment just shy of 5,000 pupils.
Anderson was a really distinctive participant at Grambling Condition, a historic, black college where by he had the luxurious to perform for legendary soccer coach Eddie Robinson, the next winningest mentor in division a person school football background. Even so, enjoying for Robinson had its drawbacks.
Robinson managed a rigid rule, in which every single senior on the crew – whether you have been a superstar or bench-hotter – was specified an possibility to engage in. In Anderson’s circumstance, this resulted in fifty percent a activity taking part in time. Robinson used this measure to give seniors the option to be seen by scouts.
When this unconventional coaching philosophy was noble of Robinson, it seriously handicapped Anderson’s means to place up the lofty quantities as a wide receiver frequently necessary from gamers on groups that are not on the NFL scouts’ radar.
Anderson’s senior year was by much his most productive. He created the most out of absolutely everyone of his 36 receptions by converting them into a staggering 12 touchdowns. For math geeks, this interprets into one landing for each individual three receptions.
These numbers were very good ample for Anderson to be invited to play in the Hawaiian Hula Bowl – university football’s all-star sport – a rarity for players from small packages like Grambling State, inspite of their heritage to create NFL alumni, which checklist incorporates Doug Williams, the first African American quarterback to acquire a Tremendous Bowl in league historical past.
Anderson, the 6-6, 215 pound broad receiver – gifted with blazing speed, sizing, and length – was rewarded appreciably for his stellar collegiate occupation when he was drafted in the 8th round by the Arizona Cardinals in 1993. Anderson went on to participate in five-many years in the NFL with both equally the Arizona Cardinals and New York Jets.
In his fifth NFL season even though competing in opposition to the Seattle Seahawks, he suffered a vocation ending injuries soon after functioning a regimen move sample. Anderson’s defender tripped him and subsequently landed awkwardly on his knee – tearing his Posterior Crucial Ligament (PCL). Just after his soccer vocation finished, Anderson effectively transitioned into a modeling profession and his lifestyle appeared to be on monitor.
Now the activity of golfing is his avocation. If historical past repeats itself for Anderson – the comeback child – you will see him competing on the exact eco-friendly grass as Tiger Woods a person working day in the not so distant upcoming right after an illustrious profession on the gridiron.