Daily News | Nick Sirianni’s introduction to ‘pro’ football: Checks bounced, coaches quit, and players boycotted
UpdatedThe starting quarterback quit during the fourth quarter of the season opener, the coaches walked out a few weeks later after their checks bounced, and the turf was so thin that it felt like concrete. This — the inaugural season of an indoor football league — was Nick Sirianni’s introduction to professional football, where the players made $300 if they won and $200 if they didn’t. And that’s if the checks cleared.
“In practice, if someone wanted to sub out, you would take your helmet and shoulder pads off and give it to somebody else when they came in,” said Brandon Carter, one of the team’s defensive backs. The players held jobs during the day and practiced late at night at an indoor soccer facility. Larlham would arrive home after midnight and wake up early the next morning to teach high school algebra. It wasn’t glamorous, but it was a chance for a bunch of 20-somethings to keep their football careers churning. And then the checks bounced.
Larlham said he often had to decide between getting tackled by a 275-pound defender or running into the wall.The Legends won just three of their 10 games that season, saving the owner money with each loss. The game ball, Larlham said, felt like it was purchased at Walmart, but the uniforms were decent.
“It’s a really cool, old arena and a special place to watch an event,” Larlham said. “But it’s the most unsafe playing surface you could imagine for a football game. Shoot, I’ve seen better indoor-outdoor carpet on my grandma’s back deck. It was rough. But heck, it got rolled out and you’ve been playing it long enough that you say, ‘We get to throw this thing around and get tackled and play still.’ They probably knew it, but I would’ve paid to play. We had a blast.
Sirianni backed the talk up on the 55-yard indoor field, never shying away from contact in a league where the hits were heavy. Carter played Division I football at Toledo and said Sirianni — who followed his two brothers to Mount Union — had the skills to play at that level.
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