Former Fire Intern Ready For First NFL Camp
Kevin Sedelmeier
Monday August 1, 2005
Many of us have heard the story and seen the feature on ESPN. LeFors is the only member of his immediate family blessed with hearing. We know how he was co-offense player of the year in Conference USA his junior year only to enter his senior season battling for the starting job. We witnessed the class he showed when he sat out during parts of most games last season, including the Tulane game, where masses of family and friends traveled from Baton Rogue to New Orleans to watch him play.
If the semi-shared playing time bothered many fans, it had to irk such a deserving player, but he never let it show publicly. That wouldn’t be LeFors’ nature. Instead, he proceeded to lead the nation in three major passing categories and lead his school to its best finish ever in the yearend football writers’ polls.
LeFors is a mix of humility and effort, talented yet unassuming. When asked what specifically he did for the Louisville Fire, LeFors answered with his usual modesty. "I really didn’t do much. I really didn’t" he said almost embarrassed. "I had to do it for school credit. They had me set up mostly during game day, the pads, putting up the banners, the posters."
While he may not have had a major hand in the team’s day-to-day operations, he obviously left his mark on the Fire staff. Adam Luken, Ticket Manager/Director of Media Relations, has great things to say about Stefan. "One thing about Stefan is that he doesn’t like to take all the credit for everything. He is without a doubt a team player," said Luken.
Luken recalls a particularly challenging job that had to be done last season. "When we had to construct a platform for the Ashley Furniture recliners, we decided to build one on our own. And the next day Stefan comes in with blueprints and everything for the platform. Some major college athletes would think hands-on-work is below them, but from watching Stefan play you know he is not afraid to get his hands dirty and sacrifice for the overall good of the team."
Luken’s story is testament to LeFors’ leadership on the field. He makes the players around him better. More than once at U of L, he threw a fullback-like lead block to spring a runner on a reverse. And Cardinal fans recall - in only his fifth game as starter - in the second overtime against South Florida in 2003, LeFors threw an interception, but chased down the defensive back some fifty yards down the field. It was a game-saving tackle if just momentarily, but it showed Cardinal fans the type of player he is.
Fire coach Tommy Johnson saw enough of LeFors on and off the field to know that "Stefan takes charge and doesn’t sit around and wait for directions," Johnson said. "If you need something done, he will figure out how to get it done without waiting to be told how to do it." Johnson is right; LeFors leads by example. He doesn’t have to be demonstrative because he lets his actions speak for themselves. He exudes calmness not cockiness.
As a rookie, could he bring that calm demeanor to the potentially nerve-racking Panthers mini-camp this spring? "It went well. It went real good," he said. "It was a learning experience. I’m looking forward to what’s coming up next." He speaks favorably of the Panther offense but admits that its playbook is not the most intricate he has seen. "The one here at Louisville is more complex than the one we have in Carolina, so it was an easy transition for me. It’s just new terminology," he said. "So, I’m picking it up fairly easily, but I’ve still got more to learn."
What else did LeFors take from mini-camp besides a new number, 15? Is it true what people say about the jump from college to the pros? "Faster, bigger, stronger," he said, referring to the players. "Everything that you hear is true. It’s just that everybody’s so good and so smart, and they know their position so well."
Reads, routes, personnel, and audibles aside, let’s get to the really important stuff. What is it like to have your own football card? "It’s neat," he said with a grin, "especially collecting cards growing up. Now seeing my own, it’s cool."
So what about the arena football, the sport that gave him college credit and honed his architectural and contractor skills? "They say it’s good. They throw the ball every down," he said with a smile. What quarterback wouldn’t like that?
LeFors wound up going in the fourth round of this year’s NFL draft. At the combines in Indianapolis, he ran the fastest time for a quarterback in the 40-yard dash. The knock from scouts was his six-foot height, a stature that is not that of a prototypical NFL quarterback. But check the record books and compare the success of the barely six-foot Fran Tarkenton and the 5’10 Doug Flutie to the unfulfilled hype of 6’5 Ryan Leaf and 6’7 Dan McGwire to see how height is not always an indicator of success.
The intangibles LeFors brings to a team can’t be measured in height. And the NFL combines are yet to find a way to measure a player’s heart.
Kevin Sedelmeier is a native Louisvillian. A graduate of the University of Louisville with a B.A. in Communication and M.A. in English, he works as a technical writer and has written fifteen screenplays and numerous short
stories. He lives with his wife Elizabeth, son Lukas, and their dog Springsteen.