Interview with Roshan Lobo, EFLI MVP - "Parents didn’t really want me to join a dangerous sport, but I would sneak out and go for practice"

Before the season started, how many months of total preparation did you have?

I guess, five to six months, in total.

In the beginning, we just had one coach coming down. Only from the second month onwards we got another coach coming down. Then we had a lot of Indian coaches taking over after they had spent some time with the American ones.

So these former coaches who came to train you were former players?

Yeah, most of them were former players, having played college football and I guess, two or three, were former NFL players.

Roshan, you’re a Running Back right? Tell us a little bit about what major role a Running Back plays and your role in the game.

So, yeah, a Running Back’s major job is to take the ball and run with it. It is slightly different from the Wide Receivers, as the ball is not thrown to me. The Quarterback basically offloads the ball to me and then I just run with the ball, dodging the defenders on the way.

So basically it’s your job to make the yards?

Yes, kind of. Actually, you can make the yards either by passing or running. The Quarterback can either throw the ball directly to the Receiver and help the team cover the yards, or give it to a Running Back like me who then runs with it.

If you ask me, that’s more fun, you know, dodging the defenders and escaping from everyone.

Apart from the MVP award, you also received the Best Running Back award right for the first season?

Actually, I was not supposed to play Running Back initially, I was supposed to play in defense. The three guys who were supposed to play Running Back couldn’t make it to Sri Lanka. Two of them had government jobs – one was in the Army and the other guy couldn’t get a passport done to get to Sri Lanka.

Then my coach came up to me and said ‘You know what, you’re the only guy who can play this position now’. And he asked me to come back into offense and play there. That’s when I started playing Running Back and there was no one else to play that position in the team, offense as well as defense.

Were there any backups for you?

There was a guy but he was not too experienced, and the coach didn’t let him play first up.

That’s quite something isn’t it, the doors kind of just opened up for you.

Yeah! The coach came up to me and told me to play offense. I told him that I have no practice and he just asked me to take the ball and run. I was like ‘Okay cool! I can do that’.

So how did your friends and people around you react to that? Going from being third or fourth choice to starting and eventually winning the MVP trophy?

They were quite amazed because I was not even an option till December and they kept asking me how I made it to the starting spot and get the MVP award for the Running Back position. And I told them that I was just made the Running Back, the team had no other option.

And I ended up with the longest running yards as well, about 534 yards. So yeah, it was kind of crazy.

For a Running Back, what do you think are the most important qualities to have both physically and mentally?

I think reactions, speed and you got to have strength. You got to have reactions because it’s not like one or two people chasing you, you have so many running after you, you’ve got to make fast decisions and know how to react, check the people around you, increase your speed, be aware of incoming tackles.

The linebacker is the main danger to a Running Back, because they just want to kill the Running Back. So you need to have so much strength that even when someone comes and tackles you, you give them a hit that they don’t forget. Basically, your job is to keep the ball, but also its about sending a message to the opposition linebackers.

So in the first season of EFLI, which was the meanest defense that you faced?

That would be Kolkata. Meanest in the sense, they used to hit you hard and I really got belted in the game against them. They lost all their games and came last in the league, but some of their players used to tackle really hard and it was difficult for me. I would run away, but every time they tackled it used to hurt a lot.

The Colombo defense was also good.

I was actually reading about your first season, and it was kind of unfortunate right, that you lost only one league match and in the semi-finals you lost to Delhi?

Delhi, they had a lot of rugby players from Delhi and nearby areas like the Hurricanes and Lions team. So since they were used to playing rugby earlier, they found it easier to adjust and read some of the passes and they defended really well.

Also, we had lot of injuries at that time. A lot of our major players were injured. After that game against Kolkata, we had lost close to four main players. So basically, some of the coaches had to come in and play for us in the semis.

I think I now understand why you said they had such a mean defense!

Roshan, you not only won the MVP trophy, but you also got selected to go the US for trials right where a lot of scouts came to watch you play?

Basically, the American coach who coached the Bangalore team, Chris Stafford, knew a friend back in the US who conducted this tournament called the Scout Bowl. This tournament basically takes the top 80 players or so from third and second division college and makes them play together. Here the scouts from the NFL teams, Canadian football teams come to watch and if they like any of the players then they select them.

So, even some international players are brought in for this. Last year, about three foreign players got chosen, one German guy, one from Mexico and one from Asia. So, I was the player chosen from Asia. So these 80 players were split into two teams and a game was played between these teams in Alabama.

The teams were split into North and South – I was in the North team – and the South team won.

How was the experience playing with these players?

It was really hard, but it was a great experience. Of course, these guys have been playing for so many years since childhood and I have been playing just for the last two years. First of all I was really confused, because their game was so fast and then they had all these names for plays which I was not used to.

What was the biggest difference for you Roshan, from playing here in the first season of EFLI and then mixing it with some of the best from college football in America? Was it a sea change and a huge difference?

There, you know, in practice itself you could feel the pressure and the level of play that the athletes over there operate at. So in practice, everything was so fast for me initially, because in India it is not so fast. Even college and school kids there play really well. They are so experienced and used to it and you just get a split second to react and you need to get into the gap.

So when the game happened, it was really exciting because everyone was pumped up and everyone wanted to play well as they wanted to be spotted by the scouts. So, it went really well. I only got to play a few times as Running Back, but it was really fast and I loved the experience.

So after having played there, and coming back now for the second season of EFLI, you would have learnt a lot of new things, many plays, how are you looking to incorporate that into the Bangalore team?

Yes, I am now playing with more confidence than before. Before, I was kind of the same player as everyone else, because a lot of us were playing for the first time and stuff, but once I went to the US and came back, I really feel confident and believe I can do more and I’m eagerly waiting for the second season to start so that I can implement everything that I have learnt.