Tag Archives: cleveland gladiators

Arena

Richardson, Jeramie

tntafl14 jrichardsonCard: TNT AFL 2014
Acquired: In Person, 5/3/2014 Talons vs. Barnstormers.

Jeramie began his indoor football career in 2010 with the San Angelo Stampede of the IFL. Since then, he’s played for the Utah Blaze, Cleveland Gladiators, Orlando Predators, and New Orleans Voodoo, before landing a home in 2014 with the San Antonio Talons. A versatile player, Jeramie has rushed 29 times for 46 yards and 16 touchdowns from the fullback position, while collecting 17 tackles and 1.5 sacks.  The Talons in 2014 relied on him heavily to contribute along the defensive line. He finished the season with 29 tackles and 5 sacks in 17 games. San Antonio went dormant after the 2014 season.

Arena

Bassuener, Matt

tnttal14 baussuenerCard: TNT AFL Talons 2014
Acquired: IP, 7/2014  San Antonio Talons v. Jacksonville Sharks

Matt is a very well-traveled quarterback. He’s seen action on 4 different continents, including stops with the Seinajoki Crocodiles, Fluminense Imperadores, Gold Coast Stingrays, Upsalla 86ers. A mobile and savvy veteran of gridiron and the Arena leagues, Matt was back on his second stint with the Talons in 2014.  During his tours in the Arena leagues, Bassuener (pronounced: Baw-zing-r) had also played for the Louisville Fire, Amarillo Dusters, and Fairbanks Grizzlies. He got his first crack at the AF1 league in 2011 with the Tulsa Talons throwing for 1,803 yards and 27 touchdowns. A dangerous and crafty scrambler, Matt had 12 TDs rushing that year as well. He’d earn a tryout with the Barnstormers in 2011 before landing with the Gladiators in 2012.

Arriving roughly halfway through the 2014 season, Matt spent most of the time fighting Shane Boyd for the starting job. Allowed to finally lead the team during the final few contests, Bassuener, led the Talons to wins over the LA Kiss and New Orleans Voodoo in the consecutive final two contests. Matt also helped power San Antonio’s highly ranked rushing attack, finishing 4th in the league in rushing with 228 yards on 48 attempts and a TD.  After settling in Matt ended up with 23 TDs to 8 INT while throwing for 1,207 yards on 107 completions.

100MEDIA$IMAG0840Coming to games every week and giving cards to the team’s COO paid off, as he upgraded myself and my wife up to field seats before the game. With a few minutes to decide, I chose to sit at the 30, then moved down just a bit to the 25. A few minutes later a young woman came and sat beside us. After striking up a conversation, we found out the young woman turned out to be Matt’s girlfriend. Occasionally she’d lean over the front and scream at him in Portuguese, cheering him on or yelling at the Sharks’ players. A few minutes later I caught an errant pass from Matt in the stands. It’d be a nice memento to keep of our adventures with the Talons and the Arena league.  After the game I gave Matt his card. He was almost as excited as his girlfriend to get his own football card, and put it up on his Twitter account. He lives in Austin, and continues to train and play as an ambassador to the sport of football.

Of note, Matt was a stunt double for J.D. McCoy from the TV show Friday Night Lights. Over his college time at Georgetown, Bassuener threw for 3,233 yards and 23 touchdowns, while also gaining over 400 yards rushing on a healthy 5 YPC average.

Arena

Holmes, Brent

Card: TNT AFL 2011, TNT Talons 2014
Acquired: In person, 3/1/14  Talons Season Ticket Party, 5/3/14 Talons vs. Barnstormers.

After playing college ball at Texas A&M-Kingsville, Brent joined the AFL in 2008 splitting time on the roster of 3 teams: Georgia, Tampa, and Philadelphia. Still he managed to haul in 69 receptions for 745 yards and 11 touchdowns.  Holmes joined the roster of the Cleveland Gladiators in 2010, where he had his finest season to date, recording 1,299 yards and 22 touchdowns on 110 receptions. In 2011, he’d split time on the roster of the Milwaukee Iron and the Kansas City Command. There he’d bag 70 catches for 772 yards and 10 TDs, before heading over to San Antonio for the 2012 season, tallying another 62 receptions and 4 TDs. Holmes has rejoined the San Antonio Talons in 2014 after spending 2013 with the New Orleans Voodoo. An accomplished return man as well, Brent has returned 178 kicks for 2743 yards and a TD.

tntafl14 bholmesI was really surprised to see how many players were in attendance to rally support and it really goes to show how much the AFL wants the Talons to succeed. When Brent saw my custom card, he got very excited and hugged the card to his chest. After telling me that the card made his week, he asked me to send him a copy of it since he had never had one before. Brent even got excited about the fact that it was from his time with the Milwaukee Iron. He gleefully signed the card and gave me his email so I could send him a digital copy for himself. I was really happy that my effort could touch his life in such a profound way.

Later at the Talons game, Brent had made his way onto IR due to a broken forearm, but he recognized me, and welcomed me with a beaming smile. I gave Brent the cards of himself in his San Antonio uniform and had him sign this TNT AFL 14 card for me.  He was instrumental in helping me get down to the field after the game so that I could snag a few autographs before the crowd hit.

I think a lot of NFL’ers have lost sight of what really makes the league: the fans. It’s not just the paying fans, or the kids, or the money- it’s all the fans they entertain.  I wish the NFL would take a page out of the Arena leagues about this, because there’s not much ceiling left for the #1 sport if they aren’t trying to foster the base.

Subtle changes were made between the 2011 AFL Starter set and the 2014 Talons release. I removed the team name, and moved the player name up. This was done for bleed and tangent purposes. In addition the player name, number, and position were also colored, as opposed to the flat white. The final thing I did was give a light poster effect to the photo to make it pop a bit from the dark image. I think the 2014 effort is a quiet refinement of the original design, but now that I’ve had time to let it set in, I’d tweak it some more too.