South Floridian, previous New York Jet goes from the Gridiron to the Greens
It is hard to uncover two sports that are polar opposites much more than golf and soccer, Stevie Anderson is earning the scenario that there are some similarities between the two sporting activities. Anderson, who used five-a long time completing acrobatic catches in the National Soccer League (NFL), is connecting the dots concerning the athletics by generating severe inroads in his incredibly hot pursuit of a PGA tour job.
Anderson is a single of 3 brothers from Jonesboro, Louisiana – a little bucolic town – who remarkably all played in the NFL. Now he finds himself, in of all destinations, on the hyperlinks, where he is traveling all over the nation actively playing PGA qualifying tournaments.
While it is apparent by the electric power of his swing that Anderson has the bodily merchandise to participate in on the tour, it is even now a gargantuan challenge that he has in advance of him. Anderson has expended his full life-time overcoming obstructions. He defied all odds when he was drafted in the NFL’s eighth spherical by the Arizona Cardinals in 1993, after taking part in at Grambling Point out, an obscure university with an enrollment just shy of 5,000 learners.
Anderson was a really unique participant at Grambling Point out, a historic, black college exactly where he experienced the luxurious to engage in for famous football mentor Eddie Robinson, the second winningest mentor in division one higher education football history. On the other hand, actively playing for Robinson had its disadvantages.
Robinson taken care of a strict rule, exactly where every single senior on the team – whether or not you ended up a superstar or bench-hotter – was given an chance to participate in. In Anderson’s case, this resulted in fifty percent a sport actively playing time. Robinson used this evaluate to give seniors the option to be viewed by scouts.
Although this unconventional coaching philosophy was noble of Robinson, it severely handicapped Anderson’s skill to put up the lofty quantities as a broad receiver usually demanded from players on teams that are not on the NFL scouts’ radar.
Anderson’s senior year was by much his most successful. He designed the most out of everyone of his 36 receptions by converting them into a staggering 12 touchdowns. For math geeks, this interprets into one particular landing for every single a few receptions.
These numbers have been great adequate for Anderson to be invited to engage in in the Hawaiian Hula Bowl – faculty football’s all-star activity – a rarity for players from compact plans like Grambling State, even with their heritage to create NFL alumni, which listing incorporates Doug Williams, the first African American quarterback to acquire a Tremendous Bowl in league record.
Anderson, the 6-6, 215 pound vast receiver – gifted with blazing velocity, size, and duration – was rewarded appreciably for his stellar collegiate vocation when he was drafted in the 8th spherical by the Arizona Cardinals in 1993. Anderson went on to enjoy five-several years in the NFL with the two the Arizona Cardinals and New York Jets.
In his fifth NFL period although competing in opposition to the Seattle Seahawks, he endured a profession ending injury immediately after jogging a regime pass pattern. Anderson’s defender tripped him and subsequently landed awkwardly on his knee – tearing his Posterior Crucial Ligament (PCL). Following his soccer profession ended, Anderson successfully transitioned into a modeling job and his everyday living appeared to be on keep track of.
Now the activity of golf is his avocation. If historical past repeats alone for Anderson – the comeback child – you will see him competing on the very same inexperienced grass as Tiger Woods a person day in the not so distant potential following an illustrious profession on the gridiron.
