How The Football Rolls

An American football has points, which means it doesn’t always bounce smoothly. We saw that quality on display metaphorically and physically in Fort Worth this past week.

?

The College Gridiron Showcase holds its annual event in Cowtown each January. Aspiring pro football players aim to showcase their abilities to punt, pass, and kick the prolate spheroid in front of scouts.

?

The 11-year-old event falls into the “all-star game” category, along with the likes of the Reese's Senior Bowl and the East-West Shrine Bowl. It gives players eligible for the upcoming National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League drafts a chance to audition for a job through drills and interviews. The organization also holds a Pro Gridiron Showcase event for free agent athletes past their draft year who want to catch on with a team. Daniel Trejo, the subject of the video interview that accompanies this blog post, had come to CGS in 2023 and planned to return in 2025 for the PGS session.

?

The shape of a football adds a certain unpredictability to the game. As it turns out, so does North Texas weather. The CGS staff had planned to hold the showcase for three days at historic Farrington Field in the city’s Museum District. But the winter’s first true cold snap began Thursday, plunging temperatures near the freezing point and bringing in a mix of sleet and snow as well.

?

With players, coaches, scouts, and equipment coming in from around the United States and Canada, flight cancellations and subpar road conditions created havoc, though most participants did eventually arrive. And while football is fundamentally an outdoor game, a showcase can’t be easily held in freezing precipitation or on a snow-covered field.

?

In some ways, though, this is on-brand for CGS and for these players. They’re all underdogs. None are likely to be drafted in the early rounds of the NFL Draft. Most of the pro opportunities they secure will come as undrafted free agents or in leagues like the CFL, UFL, or IFL. They all have something overcome, whether it’s playing at an off-the-radar NAIA school, a lack of snaps at a big program, or some personal situation. It’s the job of the scouts in attendance to determine whether these athletes can, in fact, push past the obstacles in their paths.

?

With that in mind, the changing conditions might prove a blessing in disguise for these hopefuls. On Friday, the PGS guys got relocated twice, finally winding up at SMU’s indoor practice facility. Some of the CGS players’ equipment didn’t arrive, so they borrowed some from the school when Saturday’s workout also got relocated to the Dallas campus. Some CGS specialists got their session moved back to Sunday because that was first day Farrington was playable. The ones who fought through those challenges and still performed well certainly didn’t hurt themselves in front of scouts who consider resilience a desirable quality.

?

I’ve personally always loved working with the players at CGS. 2025 marked the sixth year I’ve interviewed them for documentary films we create around the event. The young men all seem to have a hunger to prove they can become pro football players no matter what they’re faced with. You can see for yourself on VICTORY+ - four of those documentaries are now streaming on the free service with two more in postproduction. It’s available on their victoryplus.com website and as an app for phones, tablets, and most smart TVs.

?

Some of the folks from Canada and parts north probably found the Texas version of winter weather a bit quaint as they battled travel delays. Daniel Trejo, a Fort Worth native, had fewer impediments to his arrival, but ironically, never got to compete. Indoor practice facilities aren’t built to accommodate punting, especially by those who legs can produce NFL-quality hang times, and there was no time to cram additional sessions into Sunday’s event. But the CGS organizers will continue to look for opportunities to help them and Daniel has no plans to give up on his dream of playing pro ball. Like many of his fellow competitors, the former Texas Wesleyan University Ram and 美国德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校 Longhorn won’t let a bit of weather stand in his way.

This article originally appeared in the Blotch section of the Fort Worth Weekly's website.

Rush Olson has spent two-plus decades directing creative efforts for sports teams, broadcasters, and related entities. He currently conceives and executes content projects through his companies, Rush Olson Creative & Sports, FourNine Productions and Mint Farm Films. Through MFF, he’s at work on biographical documentaries about Nancy Lieberman, Sidney Moncrief, Pudge Rodríguez, Ed Belfour, and Bob Lilly as well as docuseries about the The College Gridiron Showcase and the history of U.S. soccer and women's sports through the eyes of the University of Texas soccer team called Raising Her Game.

Subscribe to @MintFarmFilms on YouTube to see excerpts from upcoming documentaries.