Running Away in Fantasy Land
On playing EA College Football 25 unsuccessfully
I was in the mood for some escapism. The best kind of escapism and one that I hadn’t partaken in in more than a decade. I’m referring of course to the time honored tradition of buying a sports game, going to the “Create a player” mode and making a deity version of yourself then tearing up the game with it.
I bought EA Sports NCAA College Football 25 and started the “Road To Glory” mode which is has the player playing the role of an individual college recruit who picks a school and then tries to take that school to a national championship. You don’t have too much control over your individual statistics in this mode but you can choose what level of recruit you are from a 5 star recruit which is the highest to a 1 star recruit. I made myself a 4 star recruit, because even in this fantasy I couldn’t go THAT far. I picked being a running back, a power back a real bruiser and to continue the realm of “Fantasy but somewhat grounded in reality” I chose to go to my alma mater. Many people refer to it as “The Harvard of The Borderland” I’m referring to THE University of Texas El Paso, aka UTEP.
UTEP is not a good football school, I didn’t know it at the time but I was a student during it’s glory days. Those glory days amounted to three consecutive bowl seasons and a Top 25 ranking for one of those years. Jordan Palmer the QB at the time ended up being a back up in the NFL for a few years and is now a trainer for QBs entering the Draft. The second best player on the team WR Johnnie Lee Higgins played in the league for a few years, and the absolute best player Thomas Howard was a very good linebacker in the NFL until his life was tragically cut short in a high speed crash. Since then the team hasn’t been good with one exception in Aaron Jones who is STILL in the league. I was going to follow in his footsteps and not only carry UTEP to national prominence, I was going to be a Heisman winner, at the very least an All-American. After all UTEP hadn’t had a 4 star recruit…ever? Until your boy.
It was amazing, I was tearing up the field. I was bigger and faster than everyone out there. Not only that but I looked super cool, I had the soft squishy helmet and the badass facemask with the dark visor. I had the thickly taped up ankles and the sleeves, mismatched gloves. I could run over anyone, or hurdle anyone. That is, if my Oline ever blocked for more than a half a second.
Each game during my first year was a whole lot of running into people that weren’t blocked for 90% of the game and 10% huge runs when I could break out of it. I made it to a bowl game anyway, and got second in the conference. No awards, No recognition. We lost the bowl game.
Second year, the same. Run for loss, run for loss, run for 45 yards. Won the conference though! No awards, no recognition. Third year, I was still the best player on the team and the team wasn’t growing around me. The O Line was still not blocking, the QB missing wide open throws. I lowered the difficulty, and it didn’t help much. Conference title, bowl win. No all american. No invite to the playoffs.
After the third year in my fantasy college life I graduated from UTEP. I don’t know what my degree was in but at some point I took a Marketing final. So probably marketing. Since I kept my GPA above a 3.7 for three years I graduated early. Now that I’d fulfilled the promise I made to my parents of graduating from college, even in fantasy land. I had to consider what to do with the last year of my football playing career.
I had to give up on the dream of taking UTEP to national relevance. I entered the transfer portal. I went to Ohio State. I did what so many people from the Borderland have done, I did what REAL LIFE ME did. I had to leave El Paso because the opportunities that existed there wouldn’t allow me to achieve the goals I wanted to. The difference was immediate, the Oline gave me more than enough space to rip off 10 yard runs when I would get 1 at UTEP. The talent around me was so much better too that I didn’t have the weight of having to audible everything to a run so I could do anything good. Your boy rushed for more than 1000 yards, and became an All-American, A Heisman finalist, The top RB in the country! IN ONE YEAR. Not only that I won the National Championship!
Still, I failed at my fantasy.
I wanted to do in this fake world what I couldn’t do in real life. I wanted to stay home in El Paso and win there. Triumph there. I wanted some sign that if I had enough of an advantage I could overcome the fact that El Paso is overlooked and ignored and lacks the opportunities afforded to people in other larger cities. I wanted to imagine even in this fake world that I could have stayed there forever and been just fine. Where I didn’t have to miss my parents and have to hop on a plane to see them. Where I could eat colita de pavo whenever I wanted and enjoyed those desert sunsets every single night. Where I wouldn’t have to settle for earning half of what I earned in my first job out of El Paso. I wanted to live in a world where “Brain Drain” wasn’t a thing…but even in EA College Football fantasy-land that wasn’t possible.
I suck at escapism. I’m not supposed to feel bummed after it.
Ohio State Me joined the NFL.
Real Life Me started a new Road To Glory, with another version of Me. This time I made myself a 5 star recruit and picked UTEP again.