And A Hell Of A Weekend It Was
Sure there were those who were skeptical about the first ever Madden Games tournament. Sure there were those who thought, why would I risk putting up $400-500 dollars to go to a tournament that probably won't have 10 people there. My, how taking chances changes things.

As coordinator of this event, I am still buzzing three days later its success. I am more impressed that gentlemen like Playmaker, Darth Moulie and members of the firm came from so far, just to be here. You see, Red Rza, and his crew drove 18 hours through the night to be with us. And the first thing he asked me when he got to the hotel was the same thing he asked me two days earlier when I spoke with him on the phone....how many ballers we got Swammi? That was the key, having the guys there.....and that they were.

As much as I have received so much credit for putting this together, it has been a total team effort of all involved. The enthusiasm and willingness of the players was key to making it all happen. Usually when you have a lot of egos, especially male egos, you know, with the testosterone levels high, there is always bound to be a conflict. But what impressed me most about the players is that what ever we decided, it was decided with out debate, or arguing. Sure we differed on certain philosophies in reference to the game itself and how it should be played, but no one argued or disputed anything relating to the tournament. You could see they were going out of the way to keep it simple and not complicated, so we could all enjoy the moment. It was pure Madden-a-holics heaven.

The Fireworks Started Friday Night

The first guy I met at the tournament was 2 Bold (Vern Taylor). He was coming off the elevator as I was getting on to go up to the Cherokee Rose meeting room where the games were being held. It was about 6:30 pm. The owners meeting was slated to start at 8:00. I had my PFL tshirt on, so I could be recognized. I had already envisioned that if some one saw that PFL shirt they would ask, "are you The Swammi?" And sure enough, when Vern saw me, he asked, "you wouldn't happen to be The Swammi would you?" I replied, with my slow Texas drawl accent, "in the howze!"

We met as the elevator doors closed in our faces, trying to holler "we'll hook up later" as the doors closed. As I rolled my computer up to the meeting room to set up "World Championship Communications Control Center" I too was hoping we had a large field. You see, two days before the games were set to begin, I called as many players in the field that I could just to let them know it was on. But yet I too wondered...would Rza drive from NYC? Would Darth Moulie actually come from Phoenix to play? And if not, I was going to be facing some disappointed ballers that did show.

Later Radio Man (Jay Adams) came down and we met personally. I had only talked to Jay once, but it was my first time seeing him. Putting the name with the face was always the coolest part of the tournament.

The highlight of the night was when a brother came in eating an apple, with his lady on his side. He just walked in, and said nothing, chewing the hell out of this apple. By that time, the other ballers in the PFL had made it down, Creator, Fox, Drake, plus 2 Bold, Radio Man, and a couple of others. After standing there for about 30 seconds just looking, chewing, and biting, one of the fellas finally said, "can I help you?" The gent not saying nothing, took another big bite out of the apple, and continued to just look around. His wife at his side, she just looked and smiled. So someone asked him his name and if he was here to play. He took another bite out of his apple. Finally it dawned on me. Early on Thursday, I was talking to Vince of the BFL about assisting us to secure some game monitors for the event. He informed me later in the conversation that he would be know as "the fruitman." So I finally blurted out and said..."Oh...you must be the fruitman!" He turned and pointed at me as if to say, you're right. We all fell out laughing. Here it was, we didn't know if this brother was about to pull another Atlanta tragedy on us, maybe because he was mad EB didn't have anymore shipments of 2000 left. We didn't know what the heck to expect. But we laughed and shook hands.

A few minutes later the guy I found most amusing the entire weekend arrived. The infamous Winky White. You know with a name like Winky, there was something interesting about this guy. He was a true character. He has a personality about him that you just like from the time you meet him because he keeps you laughing. So the trash talking begin when Winky arrived. Wink's trash talking wasn't dished out in a personal cheap shot way, he was cool with it. But it was still trash talking. And he and The Creator began to go at it, along with Fox, and the war of words were on, and before you knew it, Creator and Vince had a TV hooked up and were going at it.

The Birth of a Rival

Well with Creator and Vince henceforth known as "the fruitman" getting it on, it was The BFL vs. The PFL, from day one. I'm pretty sure there was some side wagering going on between leagues, but I won't call names, to avoid incriminating anyone. It was an excellent played game with both players slugging it out to the end. With less than a minute to go and the score tied up at 35, The Creator was driving deep inside Fruitman's territory, when, The Creator was picked off, and the fruitman gained possession, drove down and kicked the winning field goal with seconds left.

That my friends is how the weekend began. So with everything in place, we handed out the tournament packets, which included a Inaugural Games Madden Tshirt, the schedule of events for the weekend, name badges, and etc.. The players all said good night and went to their rooms to try to get some extra practice before the big day. However, The Westin had sleeve protectors on the TV'cable wires, and the guys couldn't hook up their consoles. They were not happy Madden Ballers to say the least let me tell you. I had to stay at Communications headquarters to work out the schedule and set the groups. You see, Rza, Ade, and ALL Star had yet to arrive, because they were driving through the night, and Darth Moulie wasn't scheduled to arrive until 12:30 sat, Brooks, Sat also, his flight arrived at 10:20, and Playmaker, was coming in from Oakland that night, but at about 10:00 pm. So I still had issues to think about. At any rate, I put the schedule together.

Lonnie Hill (BFL), came through later with his big 32" monitor for the games, and he happened to have his multi tap adapter. What did he bring that out for. Before you know it, as I worked on the schedule, I was being entertained by Lonnie, Ron W. DeRob all of the BFL going against Eric B. Teddy Brown, and 3rd and long. It was three on three yall....they were like kids in a candy store. "Throw the damm ball man, why you waiting so long, I was wide open!" Those were the kinda comments I heard for the next three hours. I finally left them at 3:00 am, with my schedules printing, so they would be ready for Saturday morning. I was told they didn't leave until about 4:00 am.

Tommorow would be the big day. The day we measure our skills against the rest of the competition. Who would be the world's best player by Sunday evening. I was switching my train of thinking all through the night between, what I needed to do for the tournament, and what I needed to do for my game plan. Which profile should I use? I wonder if the Allendale Ballers are actually coming? How will I stop those deep passes I saw Fruitman throwing? We need a couple of extra players. All this going through my head before I eventually drifted off to sleep.

I rolled over, and...holy *@#% its 9:20, I got to be ready to start at 10:00, so I popped out of bed showered, and, it was off to get the show on the road. Later in the week, I'll tell you about game day.