NLL Insider

When a failure between the NLL and the players’ association to reach a new collective bargaining agreement caused the apparent cancellation of the 2008 season – a decision which, of course, was later reversed – different players dealt with the possibility of not suiting up this winter in different ways. For the New York Titans Greg Peyser, he saw it as an opportunity to find out where he stacked up in another realm of professional sports: the Arena Football League.

Peyser, who hadn’t played organized football since his days at Cold Spring Harbor (NY), where he was a running back and linebacker that drew interest from several Ivy League and DI-AA schools, recently tried out for the AFL’s New York Dragons, making it all the way to the final cut before finding out that it was the end of the line for his football experiment.

“It was completely on a whim,” Peyser said of his decision to try out. “I didn’t really have any aspirations or anything in mind. I really just wanted to see where I stood.”

“It turned out my whim was wrong,” he joked.

Peyser had hoped to make the team as a cover corner, the closest thing the AFL has to a natural safety position. The former Johns Hopkins standout said the tryout process consisted of football combine standards including the 40-yard dash, three-cone agility drills, standing long jump, hit drills, and defensive drills more specialized to the cover corner position.

“It was stuff that’s pretty relevant to playing D in lacrosse,” said Peyser. “They wanted to see how you open up your hips, how you play one-on-one, and how you listen to direction and pick up on things as well.”

Had he made it past the final round of cuts, Peyser said that he was fully prepared to give a career in the AFL a serious go.

“I certainly would have taken it [the opportunity to play],” said Peyser. “I would have foregone my lacrosse season to try and play football; not that I disliked lacrosse, but it was something different.”

Now that the NLL season is restored, Peyser said that he is turning his full attention back to the Titans and the game where he has made his name, with no intentions of making another run at the AFL.

“No, that was a one-shot deal,” Peyser said. “I got in decent shape for the tryout, but it would be a lot harder to get back to that shape.”

Funny thing about whims though; you never know when they’ll pop up again.

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