The Latin Bulldozer diary (Madden 07 SS as RB)

[Icy]

The Latin Bulldozer diary



Here i am, at the door of the Hall of Fame building in Canton, Ohio. I can smell the football history from here. I can only dream about having a shirt with my name inside, it’s just a dream… but as my mum says, the dreams can become true if you fight enough for them, and she really knows about fighting.

My name is Ivan Carrillo, I’m a Latin kid from Toledo, Ohio. I’m 6’ 0” and 231 pounds and I have a good shaped body, full of muscle. Probably I inherited it from my mother, who was a great amateur boxer, yes, you read it well, my mum. She retired from boxing when my parents decided to have kids and those days, she was the state amateur women champ of boxing. That was 26 years ago, but she still has a good shaped body close to her 50’s. I have seen videos and pics from her fights and she was pretty muscular, with massive muscled arms and shoulders for a woman, but with a pretty face and curved body, strong but feminine. I have her shoulders and huge arms, but probably my father genetic helps too, he was an high school golf champ and attended school with a golf scholarship. He had also a great IQ of 124 and excelled on his studies, so he ended leaving the sport and never became pro. He had a powerful drive stroke and muscled arms too.

I have also a brother, Mario, who is 25 years old and who also played football in high school and college as DE, but a bad injury on his shoulder turned off his pro football dreams. Even only being 4 years older than me, he is my best trainer. He is so determined and doesn’t let me stop to workout until I’m totally exhausted, he doesn’t care if i puke because the effort, he just keeps yelling at me, KEEP RUNNING MOFO!!

I practiced a lot of sports since I was a kid, but didn’t decide about football until I entered high school. In fact when I was younger, I wanted to become a pro boxer, but my mum was never so happy about it. She knew how it hurt to be hit and hit night after night and that in pro boxing, without the protections, you can suffer from brain damage. It was the high school coach who looked at my muscled body, pretty developed for a kid already, and told me, hey kid, do you play football? Yes sir, I play it from time to time. Nice, we need a powerful RB in our school team, I would like to try you if you want. Sure sir, I would love it. Ok, this afternoon after classes we will be at the football camp, come there and let’s see.

And that was how I started to play in high school. My big body helped me to hit hard the holes open by my offensive line. I never was a really fast guy, but I was agile and could avoid the tackles easily, and if a defender wanted to tackle me hard, I wouldn’t ever try to avoid the hit, in fact I enjoyed the sound of the helmets and pads when crashing hard. I also played middle linebacker in high school, I was so strong and a hard hitter who forced a good amount of fumbles.

The high school years past and I was starting to get attention from some major schools. I had some scholarship offers, even the Gators showed some interest but I decided to stay close home and to attend to the Toledo university. The Rockets were my favorite team, and the MAC was a fun conference to play in.

My college years were fun, but I had already decided to become a pro player so I didn’t party a lot, I was also a shy guy, not the typical popular football player in the college. I was always the last guy to leave the gym and expended hours and hours on the track trying to improve my speed. In the team I was the short yardage RB, it helped me to get a good amount of TD’s as I was the powerful RB chosen to run when we were into the red zone. Those days they started to call me the Latin bulldozer as I looked like trying to demolish the walls when I hit the defensive line. About studies… well… I prefer not to talk a lot about them. I ended with an Athletic Training degree from the Exercise science/kinesiology college but I must admit that my football skills helped somewhat to get it.

Then the college season ended, I returned home and kept training hard with my brother and father. We knew that my best attribute was the power and we kept improving it with really heavy workouts and a good diet ( I never tried enhancement drugs even when I was offered them in the school by some team mates, the health or suspension risk was not worth for me).

Suddenly a voice woke me up from my dreams. Hey kid, we are closing the doors, you can come back tomorrow if you want to keep studding the HOF history. Oh I’m sorry, I said, I’ll be back, you can be sure, but hopefully it will be in a few years to show my kids my own shirt inside. The guard smiled at me, sure kid, keep your dreams and fight for them.

As I’m walking down the stairs of the HOF building I’m thinking about how the time has past since i was in high school. I remember most of the important stuff but I miss some details, so a thought came to my mind; Hey, why not to write a diary from now? Maybe someday I’ll show it to my kids so they will learn how hard his father pursued his HOF dreams.

And this is how this diary started. I hope you readers will enjoy it. I’m not a good writer, in fact I’m not even an average one. As my parents are Latin, we used to talk Spanish at home and as kid it was nice and made me feel we had something special but now I see it was not a good idea when you need to study in English later at school. So my English writing will be far from perfect but I’ll try to do my best to tell you about my football career.


Note from the author: Well this is my first attempt ever at writing a game dynasty. As some of you know I'm from Spain and English is not my main language. I'll try to do my best to not to make a lot of grammar mistakes but you are welcome to correct me anytime as I'll use this also as a good way to improve my English knowledge. My English vocabulary is a bit limited so probably I'll repeat some phrases a lot but I'll try to avoid it. I haven't ever been in Toledo (Ohio) or most of the places i'll name in this dynasty but to make this dynasty more enjoyable, I'll try to make a good documentation job about the cities, newspapers, places etc and will use real names and situations as much as i can. I hope you guys will enjoy this and that i could keep your interest high during the full dynasty.

[Icy]

April 4th 2006 “The first press release”

My brother woke me up early. Come on lazy bastard, it’s time to run. Oh man, leave me alone I’m so tired. No way, I want you ready in 5 minutes. We went out and ran slowly for 30 minutes, then he timed me a few 40 yards runs and we ran back home.

There my mother was cooking the breakfast and I saw my father sitting close to a guy whose face sounded familiar to me. Hi, this is Mr Pedro Rodriguez, my father said, from the “La Prensa” newspaper. “La Prensa” is the older Hispanic newspaper edited here in Ohio state. Mr Rodriguez wanted to ask me some basic questions; there aren’t a lot of Latin kids from Ohio in this draft so they had some interest on me. I was asked if I thought I could be drafted above Bush and of course I said no way, he is awesome and probably the best in the draft. Mr Rodriguez asked me also about my favorite team and I said the Dolphins, but that I wouldn’t mind being drafted by any other team, I just wanted to play pro football. After the interview, my father told me that I did a good job, maybe I was a bit shy and lacked self steam but I’m not an arrogant guy and I prefer to be looked as a good team mate, not as a superstar.

[Icy]

April 5th 2006 “The agent”

Today we had a talk with my parents and my college coach. We decided that we should look for an agent to drive my pro career. As I was not going to be a top draftee, I had zero chances of hiring a top agent. My father contacted some, even my mother phoned some old friends from her boxing days, but no luck. Then my coach told me about a new agent looking for young players, he was not so experienced but better than nothing. My father scheduled a meeting with him, he was named Jimmy Powers and looked a nice person. I liked what he told me and also liked the situation, he needed a young player with good upside to boost his agent prestige and I needed an agent hungry for new contracts so we ended agreeing and I decided to hire him.

[Icy]

April 12nd 2006 “The Individual Workouts”

Afew days past and i kept training with my brother. Also my mother told me some boxing tricks that i could use then avoiding to be hit.

This morning i woke up so excited, had an early breakfast with my family. We all were in the kitchen on silence. My mother was the first to talk, Ivan, you have fought so hard to reach your goal, now it’s the day to give the rest, show them how hard you can hit, how fast you can run, how you can avoid tackles, how you can read the blocks, and that you are the running back that they can miss. Yes mum I said, I’ll try to do my best. No she said, you won’t try, you WILL DO your best. My father agreed, Ivan, you are lucky of having that body, it’s a gift and you need to honor that gift. Yes I said, I will, I’m going to impress them, I’ll hit as hard that the defenders will feel fear of me. This is my brother Mario said, and remember, you can become what I really wanted, you are part of my dream now, I’ll be with you. I felt so lucky of having this family, but at same time I felt an high pressure, I can’t fail them and I can’t fail myself.

The field was full of kids wearing pads and helmets, of personal trainers, of scouts and of course also the press. A guy walked to me, it’s your turn kid, go to the track, the 40 yards dash is going to start. I was so excited, but this had to be my day. As I said before, I was not a really fast guy, my best 40’s time was 4.61, not so bad but also not good for a RB. I need to give the rest, I need to show that at least I’m not a slow mule and then I’ll show how good I am on the next test, the ground attacking one.

I had three chances to run, in the first one I didn’t want to risk a lot with a false start. When I heard the signal I started to run, as fast as I could, and the timer stopped at 4.61. Not bad I thought, at least I just made my personal best time. After some time to recover, then the second chance came, ok, it’s time to risk, I can’t probably do better than before but I have nothing to lose. This time I had a better start, almost committing a false one but it was valid. When I stopped i asked my dad, how was it this time? My father smiled, my kid, you just beat your personal mark, 4.59!! I couldn’t believe it, I made it!
For the third attempt I was already tired and it ended so bad, 4.66, but at least I showed them I’m not that slow.

The following test was called the Ground attack. I had a FB to block for me, and two LB’s trying to stop me. Also a line of columns acting as a fake line of scrimmage. This had to be my test, where I could show how powerful I am and how I can perform as RB.
It started well, on my first run I followed the route behind the FB, he did a great block, knocking down one of the LB’s, the other one ran towards me, I lowered my head and tightened my teeth, getting my body ready for the impact, you will see how painful is to hit me. A big crash was heard, a few faces turned to look at us, I hit the LB in the middle of the chest, he couldn’t handle the bully charge and was thrown back to the field, then I had a highway open to the end zone, to score my first TD!

I helped the LB to get up from the grass, he looked at me, wow man, you hit so f*king hard, this is just a test, you don’t need to kill me. I’m sorry I said, but this is not just a test, it’s the beginning of my dream and nobody will stop me now. The next rushing attempts were nice too, I scored a few TD’s more as the LB’s were not that happy of having to tackle me and I’m not sure, but I think that sometimes they were afraid of a direct hit. Looking at my father and brother faces I knew I was doing a good job, they were proud of me.

The next test was a kick return. I don’t think I could be a good returned because my lack of speed on the open field, but on the other hand I’m hard to tackle and with a few good blocks I could get good gains. In fact it was that way, I was not able to score on any kick return, but had good gains that boosted my trusting on my own agility.

The last text was route running. Not my thing, I’m not a great receiver and didn’t do so well. Two CB’s were covering me, I had to try to get open and then call for the ball but they were damn fast and the QB who was trying to throw me was not so accurate either so this was a bad test, nobody will draft me as a receiving RB, but it was never on my plans either.

With that my workouts ended, I felt exhausted and sore, but happy overall. My father told me that he talked with my college coach and a local press guy and both said that I did well, especially on the ground attack and kick return, where I showed my potential avoiding the tackles and hitting the defenses so badly. I have some days to recover now, and then, the IQ test.

[Icy]

April 13rd 2006 “National press release”

My father woke me up this morning to go to the Toledo Hilton Hotel where my agent had a press release scheduled. Most of the press guys there were from the Ohio State press and TV, but there was also some national coverage. I was so nervous and my father noticed it. Calm down Ivan, you need to be like you are, don’t try to act or they will notice it and will try to put you down. Ok dad, I’ll try it.

The press started to fire questions, most of them were just the usual questions but some looked like poison darts thrown to me. This is one of the hardest part of being a future draftee, you have lots of pressure and you can’t relax for a second as every word you say anywhere is recorded and reviewed later by the scouts, that want to try to determine your character. I was asked again about which team I would like to join, and I said that I don’t’ mind, I just want to play. I was compared with some other players, but I didn’t bath mouth any of them, I always showed respect. I was also asked about what would be the first thing I would do once drafted, and I answered that to go to the training camps to work hard for my new team, I’m pretty sure that scouts loved that answer.

The press release lasted only 30 minutes, but I was exhausted, even more than after playing a game. My agent was satisfied with my answers, he said that I look like a guy who won’t cause problems in the looking room and teams love that.

[Icy]

April 14th 2006 “The IQ test”

Damn, this test was so hard. Did I say I was not a very good student? Ok, now everybody knows it, I scored a low 60%. I hate it, but I’ll be looked now like the muscled guy with empty head. My mum told me to not to worry a lot, everybody understands that there is a lot of pressure on that kind of tests, that is really hard to judge your IQ with just a few tests and that anyway I was not going to compete at QB’s or MLB’s spots, where there IQ score is more valued. I’m not sure, I think she only wants to raise my moral but I’m pretty sure this will lower my draft value, let’s see, the draft will take place in 15 days from now.

[Icy]

April 29th 2006 “The NFL Draft”

This was the day. My whole family plus my agent Mr Powers were the hotel room. Kid, Mr Powers told me, we are going to start to receive phone calls soon, the scouts trying to get he last details about you, the press trying to find something to write for their late mocks drafts, etc. I’ll pick up the phone, then I’ll pass it to you if I think you should talk ok? Sure sir, you’re the boss, I said. We turned on the TV and my brother logged into the NFL website with his notebook.

The draft started, the first pick goes to… DE Mario Williams. The second pick is… RB Reggie Bush…I was so impatient but anyway I knew I probably were not going to be picked until the late rounds, 5th or 6th maybe. My mum told me, Ivan, I have the feeling that today is going to be your day, you will go in the 3rd round. We laughed, thanks mum, I know you love me, but sadly you are not the scout for any team.

The first round past, then the second with some press phone talks in the middle, my agent took care of them. The third round started and I received a phone call, my agent took the phone and looked interested and surprised, yes sure, the kid will talk with you now. Ivan, it’s a phone call for you, from the Jaguars head coach…I was shocked, I knew a call should come but not this early, I was not ready.

Er.. umm.. hi sir, It’s Ivan Carrillo. Hi Ivan, as you know we have the 3rd round 16th pick from Dallas and we are thinking on using it to pick you, what do you think? Uhh…wel… it’s…er… great sir, I’m sorry but I didn’t expect this. Hehe kid I know, this is a personal decision, my scouts don’t fully agree, you are not so fast and your IQ test was a bit low but… I saw you hitting the defenders and rushing for a few TD’s using your power and I like that kind of power RB’s. As you know Taylor is getting old and we need a future replacement. Well, what do you say? Umm…(I looked to my agent who already told about it to my parents, then to my father and mum and finally to my brother, all them saying yes) yes sir, I would love to be your future RB and I’ll fight for the team as you haven’t ever seen a player do. Hehe he laughed, ok kid, then see you later, keep your eyes on the 16th pick this round. I was shocked, a 3rd rounder?? My mum smiled like saying, I knew it. My father hugged me, my brother started to jump while shouting, my mum started to cry and I did too.

We played attention to the TV… and with the 3rd round, 16 pick, 80 overall, the Jasonville Jaguars select the RB from Toledo University, Ivan Carrillo.

[Emiliano]

Niiice! First!

Jax seems a good fit, doesn't it??? Fred Taylor is going to retire soon I think, and then all the carries will be for the Latin Bulldozer...

Keep going!

[Icy]

May 1st 2006 “Welcome to the Jaguars”



The days after the draft were so busy. I started to receive a lot of calls from the press, from friends and family to congratulate me, etc. My agent, Mr Powers, was so happy as like me, he didn’t expect a 3rd rounder pick. He started to work looking for possible sponsors and press releases to create more hype about my rookie season. My brother was even ore excited than me, I was going to play in the NFL, the dream that he could not reach would be reached now by his brother and we decided that he would keep being my mentor and personal trainer. In the afternoon I received an email from Wayne Weaver, the Jaguars GM who welcomed me to the franchise. I had also a phone call with Mr Jack Del Rio, JAX head coach. He also welcomed me to the team and told me that this season I would be the second RB after Fred Taylor, but that I would have also to fight with RB/FB Greg Jones for the main RB spot once Taylor retires. My father thinks that I chose the right team, with Taylor being 30 years old, I would have chances to start in a year or two.

[Icy]

August 1st 2006 “The season is getting closer, flying to Jax”

Three months have past since the draft. I took that time to relax and also to get ready for the incoming season. My brother kept waking me up early to run and to go to the gym. He wanted me to gain a bit more of muscle. Bro, they are going to use you as power RB so you need to be really strong. The defenders in the NFL are not like in college, they are not kids, they are so strong and heavy, but also so fast. My mother kept also training me to improve my agility, she as ex-boxer, knew how to avoid hits. Ivan she said, you need to learn how to avoid the tackles if you don’t want all your bones broken at the first contact. You need to be smarter than them, to keep your brain cold and to use their bully charge to make them lose the position with fast and agile moves.

Yesterday night I ended packing my stuff and after that, we had dinner, the whole family plus my agent, who was becoming more and more a family member. We talked about future, dreamed together and also planned the trip to Jacksonville. We decided that my brother would travel with me and would be my mentor there, keeping me focused on the upcoming season. This morning we all went to the airport, my mum was about to cry but she made the effort to avoid it. I hugged both of my parents, Ivan, my mother said, good luck in the new life that starts today, stay strong and fight, fight with your heart until the extenuation, you need to reach your dreams, for you and for us. Then we heard that our plane was about to go, so my brother and me ran to the boarding area to start our new life in Jacksonville.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Emiliano

Niiice! First!

Jax seems a good fit, doesn't it??? Fred Taylor is going to retire soon I think, and then all the carries will be for the Latin Bulldozer...

Keep going!

Thanks for reading mate, it motivates me to keep writting

About the team, yeah, it's a perfect fit knowing tha Taylor will retire soon.

[fantastic flying froggies]

I'm reading too, Ivan

[Icy]

Originally Posted by fantastic flying froggies

I'm reading too, Ivan

Thx

[Icy]

August 2^nd “The locker room“




After finding a good hotel in Jacksonville to live with my bro until we buy a home here, I left him there unpacking and I went to the Alltel Stadium where I had a meeting scheduled. An old guy was waiting for me at the stadium doors. Hi, you are Ivan right? Yes I am sir. Welcome to Jax, I’m John Lowell, the equipment manager, I was waiting for you. I’m going to guide you through the stadium to the locker room, where I will provide you your new Jaguars football clothes, if you have any question, just shoot them. Thanks a lot John. John showed me the whole stadium and told me a few things about the team and how they where organized etc. Then we entered the locker room. It was huge compared with the one in college and smelt and looked really clean. John stopped in front of one the locker doors and smiled. I looked at it and I could read “Carrillo, Ivan”. I was shocked, he looked at me and I felt stupid, of course my name was there, what else could I expect, I was a Jaguars player. Don’t worry kid, John said, I understand, it’s always the same with all the rookies, you still can’t believe that you have made it, but you have. Take your time to wear the equipment and tell me if everything fits you.

I started to put on the new clothes, and once dressed, I looked in the mirror, wow, this is not a dream, I’m in the NFL.

[condors]

i am reading too, good luck!

[Icy]

August 3rd “The first team practice”

I met the team mates early in the morning, Mr Del Rio gave us the first team talk and after that we went out to the field. We are 5 rookies in the team:

TE Marcedes Lewis (6’6’’ and 271 lbs, from UCLA): Really good TE and already developed a lot. He will get good playing time this season in all the 2 TE formations. He is probably the best rookie.

LOLB Ingram (6’2’’ and 245 lbs, from Oklahoma): Good LB, especially in coverage where his high speed will help him a lot. He is also a heavy hitter as i could see on the practices; he tackled me hard a few times.

CB Dee Web (5’11’’ and 187 lbs, from Florida): So fast CB and good covering, needs to become a stronger or he will have problems tackling big WR’s

RB Maurice Drew-Jones (5’6’’ and 207 lbs from UCLA): He is the less developed rookie, a bit undersized in my opinion but damn fast and agile, the typical small RB.

We practiced a few basic plays and I learned fast how hard they hit in the pros, they are so big and incredible fast for their size. During the first plays I didn’t know what was going on until I was already on the grass with a few guys over me.

All the rookies but Lewis played in the reserve team. I could talk a a bit with Taylor, he is a nice and open guy, but a real machine when running. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot from him. On the other hand, FB/RB Greg Jones ignored me, I think he is a bit worried about the new competition for the future main RB spot.

In the afternoon we watched some videos and each one of us got a copy of the playbook to study it. The first thing I noticed is that it’s way more complex than the one we had in college, with tons of plays and variations. I’ll have to study a lot but not tonight, I’m exhausted and need to sleep.

[Emiliano]

Originally Posted by Icy

Simply great.

First question: why #46?

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Emiliano

First question: why #46?

Not any special reason, It's just the number the team asigned me.

Glad you liked the Bulldozer photoshoped pic

[MrBug708]

Woot! UCLA team! The 5'6 RB is Maurice Drew-Jones. He has the homerun threat but rather small. Probably more of a special teams player.

[Icy]

August 5th "The first NFL game"

Click here for the full box score and stats for both teams

NOTE: It took me a bit to post this first game as had to setup the game stats, box scores, html page, images and format it all. It will be faster from now as i have all the templates created.

[PackerFanatic]

Very cool, I like it so far, keep it up!

[Izulde]

Snazzy setup.

Nice to see the 'Fins win too.

[Kokoshin]

Yesssss.... nice job Ivan... I'm anxiously reading

JL

[Northwood_DK]

Bump?

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Northwood_DK

Bump?

I got tired soon of Madden and it's bugs so i have not played it for a while, maybe one day ill keep this dynasty as i put a lot of effot on it and was my first one ever, but not sure when. Thanks for the bump and showing interest, i really appreciate it.