Swantavius Payne

Swantavius Payne

Swantavius Payne cooking lunch for his teammates
No. 55
Position:	Offensive Lineman
Personal information
Born:	(2028-03-14)March 14, 2028 (aged 38) Kirkland, Washington, U.S.
Height:	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Weight:	325 lb (147 kg)
Username:	Swanty
Career information
College:	UW
ISFL Draft:	2050 / Round:
DSFL Draft:	2049 / Round:
Career history
Roster status:	Active
Career highlights and awards
1 x Ultimus Champion (2056) 3 x ISFL 1st Team All-Pro (2053, 2055, 2056) 4 x ISFL 2nd Team All-Pro (2050, 2052, 2054, 2057) 6 x ISFL Pro Bowler (2052, 2053, 2054, 2055, 2056, 2058)

Swantavius Payne (born March 14, 2028) is an American football offensive lineman who currently plays in the ISFL. He played college football for the University of Washington.

Early years

Swantavius Payne was born in Kirkland, WA to Melissa and Swantavius Johnson, who was a regional collections supervisor at a box company. Payne's uncle, Swantavius Steve was a former college football star, while Steve's son Swantavius Jones (Payne's cousin) was the first of the family to make it to the ISFL, playing for the Berlin Fire Salamanders for ten seasons.

Much like his cousin Jones, Swantavius Payne large stature lended him well to the offensive line position and unlike his cousin, Payne was extremely keen to make it to the highest level of professional football. As such, he was recruited to the University of Washington and played at left tackle for his entire college career.

Payne's other cousin, Swantavius King is also looking to enter the professional ranks at the same time and at the same position.

College career

One of the larger offensive lineman in the college ranks, Swantavius Payne was a reliable tackle in his career but would often get beaten to the edge by a fast linebacker. While he never received any accolades for his college OL play, scouts are excited about the physical attributes Payne possesses and are tipping him for success in the ISFL.

Career statistics

College career statistics

Career statistics			Offensive Line
Season	Team	Games	Pancakes	Sacks Allowed
2045	UW	12	46	5
2046	UW	12	49	6
2047	UW	12	59	4
2048	UW	12	56	5

Professional career

2048

Swantavius Payne was picked up off of waivers by the Dallas Birddogs for their final four games of the S33 season. Payne had a quiet debut performance against Minnesota, picking up 3 pancakes but avoiding giving up a sack. His second game though was where he found his feet, racking up a game high 7 pancakes against the Portland Pythons. Game three was back down to earth, with Payne managing just 2 pancakes against the Kansas City Coyotes in what was Dallas's fourth loss in a row. And unfortunately Payne never managed to taste a win in his brief Dallas stint, with the Birddogs falling to the London Royals in the final week. Additionally, Payne could only manage another 2 pancakes in this one.

All in all, it was a solid if slightly anonymous practice run in the DSFL for Swantavius Payne. He averaged less than 4 pancakes a game but did avoid giving up any sacks or penalties.

2049

Payne was drafted late in the S34 DSFL draft, with teams concerned about his demands. Some scouts branded him as 'toxic' and 'locker room poison', but it was Tijuana who decided to take a chance late with him, slotting him in at right tackle. Payne put in a good showing in the S34 season, making the Pro Bowl in his first full season and ranking 5th in the league in pancakes, though he was bested by his teammate A Kicker. Tijuana finished with the best record in the league but fell in overtime in the first round of the playoffs to the Dallas Birddogs.

Despite just getting settled in Tijuana, Payne had strong ambitions to play in the big leagues, so he knew that the loss to Dallas would be his final game with the Luchadores. It was brief, but Payne was eternally grateful to Tijuana for giving him a home and preparing him for the ISFL.

2050

Payne was drafted to the Philadelphia Liberty in the first round of the 2050 ISFL draft. He was called up immediately and placed into the starting left tackle slot as per his pre-draft requests. With a lot of pressure to perform given his youth and lack of experience, Payne lived up to the expectations, recording the league's 9th best pancake total at 105 and giving up only 1 sack on the final day of the season. Despite this, he racked up 5 penalties, a record that he pledged to work on going forward.

The Liberty exceeded expectations and went 8-8, narrowly missing out on a playoff berth, and Payne was honored in the postseason in the ISFL awards ceremony with the Offensive Rookie of the Year award and a nomination to the SFWG's 2nd-team All-Pro.

Quickly earning a reputation as an immovable object on the Philly line, teammates began referring to him as 'The Lump'. Payne, not liking it, took a page out of Doug Martin's book by instead inventing a new nickname for himself: 'The Payne Train'. It remains to be seen which nickname will catch on.

2051

Swantavius Payne entered the S36 season full of hope, after a fantastic rookie season that propelled him into fantasy relevance. However, it was a horror start for the young offensive tackle, accruing just 11 pancakes in the first quarter of the season. The media were quick to ask questions of Payne, both to himself and to his coaches, but they were dismissed as nothing more than a dry spell. As the season continued, it became clear that pancakes weren't the only issue. By season's end, Payne had conceded 2 sacks and committed 3 penalties.

Week 16 was a lone bright spot as he pancaked defenders 11 times to take his season total to 80, still a huge drop on the year before. Payne addressed his performances finally in the offseason, attributing the drop in stats totals to the team scheme rather than his own efforts, which was not looked on kindly by the Philadelphia management. Payne then backtracked from that argument, giving his word that he would try harder next season and guaranteed his fans that he would break 100 pancakes.

2052

Swantavius Payne went in to the S37 season somewhat dejected and considering his future after a, by all standards, atrocious season for an offensive lineman with his expectations. In training camp, Payne vowed to turn this adversity into positivity, and along with the arrival of a new offensive scheme and quarterback, the 3rd year lineman was suddenly full of hope.

Ths season started of very well indeed, with multiple double digit pancake games. Performances soon regressed to the mean though, but Payne did enough to hold onto a strong season long performance, finishing up 3rd in the pancake rankings and conceding just 2 sacks. Unfortunately his issue this season was penalties, accruing a massive 6 of them. Payne was apologetic to the Philadelphia management after season-end, promising to make himself more of a Role Model going forward. But before that, Payne has vowed to work on his Tenacity in the 2053 offseason, hoping that he can become a league leader in his 4th season.

2053

Big Swanty Payne went into the S38 season expecting big things. Not only had he been working on his Run Blocking technique, his blocking play overall had started being described by his coaches as 'Tenacious'. With those words, he suddenly felt his ability to blocking improve significantly.

While breaking the league record in pancakes remained Payne's ultimate career goal, what he really wanted was to avoid allowing a sack for the first time in his career. And 16 games later, he achieved that. Disappointingly, Payne was unable to help his team to the playoffs as the Liberty got close once again but not quite enough to make the cut. Despite that, he put up a solid 111 pancakes, though he lost ground even more to big Stumpy Jones. He also kept a close eye on future rival JT Kurbis, who is already solidly ahead of Payne's pace to the record thus far.

2054

The S39 season arrived with big expectations for Swantavius Payne as the big offensive lineman entered his prime. He was now viewed as the top offensive lineman in the league and took the top spot in the simulation football writers' guild's S39 fantasy rankings for OL. As such, a lot of pressure was put on Payne.

At the end of the season, it was debatable as to whether he'd lived up to those expectations. While he had a solid season overall, it wasn't one of his best, and he ended up being pipped to the All Pro 1st team by rookie Walrus Jones who had an outstanding debut campaign. Despite that, it was a decent season in Payne's quest to become the all-time pancakes leader, as he kept pace with the legendary Stumpy Jones. Payne himself was disappointed with his output and vowed to work on avoiding penalties and avoiding giving up a sack in the season ahead.

2055

S40 was a fantastic season for Payne as he reached his peak. With his career quest of the all-time pancake record in his sights, Payne recorded 124, best for 3rd in the league that season, but also avoided giving up a single sack. He also recorded just one penalty, which was enough to make him unanimous 1st team All-Pro. Cape Town managed to make a rare playoff appearance, but fell at the first hurdle.

2056

Fresh off the back of an 1st team All-Pro nod in the previous season, Payne was determined to keep the momentum going as he thrived in the peak of his career. Payne stormed into the lead in the seasonal pancake race and finished up with an impressive total of 134. He did conceded his first allowed sack in a few seasons as well as committing a penalty, but it was enough to give him his third 1st team All-Pro spot.

Throughout the season, while the Cape Town Crash were tipped to do well, they marched imperiously to the #1 overall seed, with the highest scoring offense and the 2nd best defense. With a bye to the semi finals, expectations were high for this talented roster. Payne had a fantastic game in the conference finals vs the Sarasota Sailfish, recording 11 pancakes and having a clean game otherwise as the Crash romped to a 34-20 victory to send them to Payne's first Ultimus.

In the big game, it was a tough test against one of the all-time great franchises, the Arizona Outlaws. Payne contributed 7 pancakes and kept out of trouble elsewhere as the Crash narrowly beat the Outlaws 20-18 courtesy of a last minute field goal.

2057

At the peak of his career, Swantavius Payne smashed out of the gate with a stunning Week 1 performance, racking up 19 pancakes and tying the single game record set 4 seasons earlier.

Unfortunately for Payne, he didn't come anywhere close to those lofty heights over the rest of the season, putting in performances that, while keeping his QB reliably out of trouble by avoiding giving up any sacks, were not inspirational in terms of pancakes. He was quickly passed on the leaderboard by the upcoming wave of younger left tackles in the league and it was only with a strong finish in the final week that he made it up to 123 pancakes.

Payne had to settle for a 2nd team All-Pro spot, missing out for the first time in 3 seasons. While Payne has been reported to have questioned the legitimacy of his fellow OLs season-long performances in private, he publicly congratulated the up and coming competition and expressed hope for a bounce back season in 2058.

Pre-draft measurables

Ht	Wt	40‑yd dash	20‑ss	3‑cone	Vert jump	Broad
6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	325 lb (147 kg)

Professional career statistics

Career statistics			Offensive Line
Season	Team	Games	Pancakes	Sacks Allowed
2048 (S33)	Birddogs	4	14	0
2049 (S34)	Luchadores	14	59	3
2050 (S35)	Liberty	16	105	1
2051 (S36)	Liberty	16	80	2
2052 (S37)	Liberty	16	123	2
2053 (S38)	Liberty	16	111	0
2054 (S39)	Liberty	16	117	1
2055 (S40)	Liberty	16	124	0
2056 (S41)	Liberty	16	134	1
2057 (S42)	Liberty	16	123	} Achievements and records