Playing for the Love of the Game

Nearly ten years ago Joey Crawford seemed destined for the National Football League. He spent his junior season playing for Kickapoo High School in Springfield, Missouri to focus on football. But homesickness settled in and the urge to play with his cousin. So in his senior season, Crawford tore up 3A high school football while playing for the Bristow Pirates as a star tailback playing along side Michael Thompson. Rushing for 1,332 yards and 11 touchdowns with only one fumble in 245 carries, Crawford was drawing serious interest from college coaches. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound tailback/defensive end also made 111 tackles in his senior season. The powerful Crawford signed a letter of intent with the University of Oklahoma in 1998, a class that consisted of Rocky Calmus and Trent Smith. But when he wasn't academically eligible to play for the Sooners, head coach John Blake placed Crawford at NEO. It was there that Head Coach Dale Patterson moved Crawford from tailback to his position now, at linebacker.

While at NEO, Crawford ran into trouble and withdrew from school after only three games. Crawford then transferred to Langston University but suffered a foot injury that sidelined him for the majority of his sophomore season. In his junior season Crawford led the Lions in tackles with 75, 21 for loss and two interceptions. But a coaching change at Langston and the "party atmosphere" had Crawford looking for another option.

He landed at Bacone College in Muskogee. Head Coach David Ross gave Crawford another chance despite a less than stellar past. But Ross believed Crawford had the talent of former Sooner and Green Bay Packer Torrance Marshall, whom Ross had coached at a previous job.

Crawford's path wasn't quite the one he had intended when he was in high school and had people telling him he was the next great thing. However those were the first people to disappear when times got tough. But Crawford believes high school student-athletes can learn from his story.

"It was tough," Crawford explained. "Coming from such a small place and being glorified as a big time athlete and going through what I went through it was a real tough time. But right now I'm in the church and I have to thank God for where I am and the type of athlete I still am.

"Because when I went through those tough times and the incarceration you really feel isolated and alone. But to be back out and have your family and to just feel that my life has been restored. It feels good to be going on with life and making progress."

Now Crawford can be founding playing for the Oklahoma Thunder of the World Football League, still chasing his dream of playing in the NFL. His coaches and teammates on the Thunder believe he has the ability to play at that level but Joey is the first to understand what NFL general managers must be thinking.

"I think it's a little far fetched at this stage," he said. "I definitely think I have the athletic ability. But taking into consideration the baggage and how much of advancement it is to give a player all this money with the age. It's definitely achievable I think that. But I do think that it's far fetched but maybe it's possible. But it's always a dream as a football player to play in the NFL."

The opportunity to showcase his talents on the gridiron while playing for the Thunder is something that Crawford is grateful for.

"I look at it as a blessing," he said. "It's highly organized and it's an opportunity to play football again. It's an opportunity to advance and play football at a higher level."

But he has a new outlook on the game now. In the past football was a way to get a break from life but it also it was his life. Now it's all about the love of the game for him.

"It's just about fun and enjoying it," Crawford stated. "There's no getting away from life. That's all it is the love of the game. I love the game. That's another thing for high school kids is it's just a game. Don't make it more than a game.

"I made it more than the game. I knew I was going to the NFL, they couldn't tell me no, everybody pumped me up and talked about the NFL. But I didn't make it to the NFL and I hit the brick wall but those people that pumped me up I don't know where they were. But that's it, it's just a game."