In every athlete’s life, there comes a time in which he has to hang his jersey up. Sometimes it is extinguishing his hoop dreams or hanging up his cleats, either way it usually marks a sad day for the athlete. Football players experience this day early in life. There aren’t many opportunities to stumble into a fully equipped pickup game of football. As your opportunities shrink trying to make the jump from high school to college and shrink even more trying to get into the NFL, Jeffrey T. Merrits has found a way to keep the competitive juices flowing.
Jeff Merrits is the owner/player of The Mid-State Marauders, a semi-pro football team based in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The Marauders are a member of the Eastern Football Alliance (EFA), which has 38 teams that span the east coast from Connecticut to Georgia. After playing 6 seasons on a team, Jeff decided to start the Marauders in 1991. The roster included 4 sets of brothers, introducing Jeff to one of the biggest obstacles of being an owner, roster instability.
“We used to have games on the same day as family functions and in one shot you are down 2 or 3 players”, Jeff remembers, “guys not only had to be ready to go both ways, but had to know multiple positions on both sides of the ball.” This is the reason that The Marauders implemented a no cut policy, but keeps players that can play multiple positions and will make the effort to the team when it comes to not only attending games but also practices.
Here today, gone tomorrow isn’t the norm for players only, teams and leagues have changed from year to year. “The league is attempting to legitimize an east coast champion as far as semi-pro football is concerned”, Jeff stated. “Instead of having many teams overpopulate an area; teams are encouraged to strive to place a quality product on the field.” As an added bonus the champion from the East Coast and the champion of the West Coast is slated to play in a Championship Game.
This year’s version of the Marauders offers a new challenge to Mr. Merrits, “I think, 2 maybe 3 of the guys on this year’s squad played with me last year, that simple change makes us one of the younger teams in the league.” Its challenges like this that prompted Jeff to say, “Football is the best game in the world, it’s like chess with a physical element. The offense is at a physical disadvantage, and must use its mental capacity to maneuver the defense into a situation that can be exploited, and then the offense has to execute their assignments flawlessly.”
The Marauders are still looking for players, coaches, sponsors and fans; you can contact the team by visiting the team website.
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