Your Dream of Being Injured Playing Pro Football May Not Be Dead

Jim Herd

Could this be you?

​San Francisco's participation in the fledgling United Football League was brief -- three home games and some surreal memories of a 90-percent empty AT&T Park populated by fans wearing highlighter-green uniforms.

But that's no reason that San Francisco-area old farts and hangers-on can't dust off their pads and risk grievous bodily harm to chase the dream of earning a check playing pro football.

The UFL's Sacramento Mountain Lions -- nee the California Redwoods of San Francisco -- are looking for a few good men (the great men play in the NFL). For locals, your opportunities to show 'em what you got are May 15 in Sacramento at Natomas High School and May 23 at San Mateo Community College.

If you ever wore a two-bar helmet, you're probably too old. And if you can't walk up the stairs without getting winded -- well, you're too much of a schlub. But you don't need to be a former blue chip athlete to consider trying out for the league, says one official.

Jim Herd

POP! My back!

​"Most of the guys who make the club got looked at by NFL teams and, for some reason, the were let go in training camp or didn't get signed to a free agent contract," notes Joe Waggoner, the Sacramento Mountain Lions' director of business management. "But there are always those wonderful stories, those people who weren't quite given the look they deserved. I hope we do have some of those at these tryouts."

So, while your chances may be a million to one -- you do have a chance.

Sign up on the Internet here, and show up in your shorts and cleats. "They're looking for speed and someone who can get aggressive," said Waggoner. "But, basically, it's speed. It all starts with speed."