Diego López De Castilla

Diego López De Castilla

Unconfirmed image of the player, c. 2057
No. 14 – Chicago Butchers
Position:	Wide Receiver
Personal information
Born:	(2036-10-12)October 12, 2036 (aged 29) Lima, Lima, Peru
Height:	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight:	160 lb (73 kg)
Username:	Dl14
Career information
High school:	Colegio Newton
College:	Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas
ISFL Draft:	2059  / Round: 1 / Pick: 1
DSFL Draft:	2058  / Round: 1 / Pick: 1
Career history
Dallas Birddogs (2057 (S42)-2057 (S42)) Baltimore Hawks (2061 (S46)) Orange County Otters (2062 (S47)) Chicago Butchers (2063 (S48))
Roster status:	Active

Diego López de Castilla (born October 12, 2036) is an American football wide receiver for the Chicago Butchers. He played college football for Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) before being drafted by the Austin Copperheads in the 2059 ISFL Draft (S44). Prior to this, he had been drafted by the Dallas Birddogs in the 2058 DSFL Draft (S43).

Early years

Diego López Alonso de Castilla was born in Lima, Perú in the year 2036. He was born as a healthy and somewhat normal child to middle class parents. From an early age he seemed to have a keen interest in learning new things and sports, so he did well in school and even started playing some youth sports in his home country. After trying many sports, such as tennis, swimming, basketball, football, voleyball, handball, gymnastics, etc. he ended up settling on track and field, as he was a very good runner from an early age. While he has said he thinks he may have been able to make a career out of it had he committed, truth is, he never did because of school and a lack of motivation, although not before winning a few competitions. Although he was a very quiet kid at school who made few friends, very few people had anything bad to say about him as he grew out of his shell in his later years and kept good grades all around, exceeding in english and history classes.

College career

Because of the different academic system in his home country compared to the USA's and a lack of interest for American football such as that played in the NFL or ISFL, he was generally unaware of the sport while making his choice to become a diplomat through the UPC, a university that was renowned for being forward thinking and bringing a good quality education to its alumni. While college sports are nearly nonexistent as a concept in this part of the world because of the existence of professional sports from a young age, he still chose to join the track and field and soccer teams "just for fun". He was generally described as "Very good" and he is rumored to have received calls from his the Peruvian Federation for both sports as well as professional contract offers for playing football. Nevertheless, thinking his sporting days were behind him, he committed to following his academic path. However, he was then sent to the University of Arizona for an exchange program as a rewards for his good scores and his ability to speak english fluently, There, he looked at what sports he could join. He joined the same two sports as in his home country. However, he was spotted by the American football team's coach, who thought he'd give him a shot at kicking or returning since he was lacking in manpower and he thought he was a really good athlete alll around. Thanks to his football background, kicking was very easy for him, as he went without a miss in his practice drills. Just as the coach was thinking he'd found his new superstar kicker, he decided to give him one try as a return man before letting him settle as a kicker. On his very first return attempt, he was at first clueless as he hadn't played the sport before and didn't know what to do. But he managed to regain composure while the ball was still in the air, and as soon as he caught it, he looked to return it as far as he could. Not having developed the same self-preservation or "common knowledge" as other return men due to his inexperience, he didn't call for a fair catch or kneel as soon as he saw a sea of players running at him. Rather, in a play much akin to that of Dante Hall against the Broncos, he ran around evading tackles, found a gap near the sideline, and accelerated at full speed towards the endzone. After scoring, he thought he'd done something wrong as there was noone within 40 yards of him and the coach was speechless. He was then tried at every position the coach could think of. While he couldn't excel at highly physical positions like LB, OL and the like, he proved very proficient for someone who hadn't yet fully learned the sport at every other position. He was even thought of by the coach as a possible QB prospect who'd revolutionize the league should he learn to throw accurately, although this claim is possibly exaggerated. Nevertheless, he became the team's go-to player for receiving and returning during their practices. Despite the coach hoping he'd be able to stay and revolutionize their fleeting programme, he had to return home to Perú as he still wanted to finish his education. However, during the middle of what would be the equivalent of his junior year at university, he went back to the USA to visit a friend. There, he was approached by a man in a trench coat despite the heavy sun who introduced himself only as "Gadget" who gave him a calling card telling him to call the number. It was a number to the Dallas Birddogs, who had sent a scout to Arizona whem he was there to oversee him, and they'd seen potential in him. After some talks and an agreement to join as a Post-TDL signing, he arranged for his studies to be put on pause until he returned. He intends to one day finsh his studies when he returns home

College career statistics

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Professional career

DSFL career

Once joining the Dallas Birddogs for the final stretch of the season, he wasn't given many snaps given his minor role. He didn't do anything notweworthy as the Birddogs failed to make the playoffs. He was given a shot at the Prospect Bowl to shine, and he more than shocked a few people, as he went off. Averaging over 1TD and 100YPG, he was a star in the making, which led him to be taken (x) overall in the S43 DSFL draft

During the S44 DSFL Draft, he unexpectedly went on a very long draft slide. While by talent alone he could have been a first round pick, he reportedly had "character concerns" rumours that ultimately led to him falling to the very last pick of the 5th round at 40th overall, where he was picked by the defending champions the Norfolk Seawolves. It is reported they were very close to passing on him, which could have led him to falling to around 60th overall, but the GMs decided to pick him because they were scared of him not being available later. During DSFL S44, DLdC was 2nd in the WR depth chart behind team captain Tyler Hunt. He performed very well, not recording a single fumble and the least drops amongst all starters, as well as 1067 receving yards and 6 TDs. However, team struggles led to Norfolk missing the playoffs, and ultimately, Diego's exploits didn't net him any awards.

For the S44 ISFL Draft, his stock had dropped to perhaps the second best receiver in class behind fellow rookie Orange Julius, but rumors about character concerns still abound in many of the War Rooms of the ISFL. Ultimately, this led to another big draft slide as many teams were afraid of picking him, so much so that half the teams never even scouted him. By the third round, it is rumored that only 4 teams were interested in drafting him: The Orange County Otters who would have liked to have a WR3 on hand but had no picks that they could pick him with; the Yellowknife Wraiths, home to his former Norfolk GM Gumbaman who thought they could use another WR; the Cape Town Crash, who had a favourable scouting conversation with him; and the defending champions Baltimore Hawks, who were the first to show interest in him during the scouting process and who held pick 32, the first amongst all interested parties by this stage of the draft. They decided to pull the trigger and draft him, although he was surplus to requirements and sent back down to the ISFL for a second season

While regression was expected in Norfolk with the callup of many if not pretty much all of the prominent members of the championship winning team being called up to the ISFL for the season, there was still a small sliver of hope that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. However, this was not meant to be. The team had no offensive identity and while it had great defensive flare ups at times such as a 7-6 win in week 1 against the Buccaneers, it just wasn’t good enough to win any games. The Seawolves struggled massively through the new regime and growing pains of a new younger core who didn’t develop as ideally as one may have hoped, and ended the season with the second overall pick. DLdC was hoping for title success after his first season had ended in a heartbreaking playoff miss, but ultimately it wasn’t meant to be. He enjoyed a great year on the personal level with the one-dimensional Norfolk offense running through him and ending up 2nd in total yards amongst receivers, but a lacklustre running game, a bad Offensive Line, and an overall underwhelming performance by his QB limited his output. An All-Pro selection was ultimately little consolation in what was a very frustrating season, although there was hope going into the end of the season that the new draft picks and continuity from a few members at a crucial time could propel the Seawolves to an unlikely title run.

That hope, however, wouldn't materialize. Quite the opposite in fact. It would prove to be a disastrous season for the Seawolves, as the eternal rebuild seemed to only get worse in its 3rd season. They finished dead last of the entire DSFL, and as such had the first overall selection going into next season’s draft. The season was quite miserable as there were very few if any standout performances. While the main problem lay on the defence, the offense wasn’t exactly stellar either. Due to a conduct related incident after the first few weeks of the season, Diego was demoted to WR2 behind Benny Hana and as such his production greatly suffered, having the worst season of his career by not breaking even one thousand yards for the first time. Otherwise, he had the same amount of Touchdowns as last season and only 7 drops while having only 70 catches all season. At the very least, he saw some succes as a returner, earning first team all-pro honors with 1000+ total return yards. He wouldn’t stick around to see Norfolk try to move their way out of the bottom of the pecking order though, as he was called up to the Baltimore Hawks after Sam Mercury´s unexpected trade to Sarasota.

ISFL career

After his somewhat unfruitful spell at Norfolk in which he was unable to accumulate any silverware or personal awards, he was finally called up to his parent team, the Baltimore Hawks, for his 4th season as a professional. Baltimore were one of the contending teams in the so called “weaker” conference of the ISFL, competing with the Cape Town Crash and the Yellowknife Wraiths for the 1 seed. However, they put up a very good season, going 12-4 and being one of the best teams in the entire ISFL. Diego wasn’t instrumental to the team’s success, as he had a much limited role as a WR3 on a team that was starting to heavily rely on RB Anakin Skywalker. His lacklustre 772 yards and his inability to make a play on most balls thrown his way made it a miserable season. In their Conference Championship matchup against the Wraiths, the Hawks seemed to be heading to the Ultimus. However, a few plays late in the game changed that outcome, leading to YKW being the one heading to the Ultimus to be slaughtered by Arizona. After the season, contract negotiations between BAL and Diego broke down, as BAL were looking for a blockbuster trade that would allow them to go all in for one more season. However, this trade meant that BAL did not have the cap space to resign Diego, so he became a Free Agent. A few teams asked around, but negotiations broke down quickly due to a misinterpretation in his original contract demands. Ultimately, he was picked up by the Orange County Otters for a one season rental, as they looked to go all in for one more season.

For his second season in the ISFL, it was yet another team. Due to several misunderstandings during the FA process, he somehow landed in OCO, who were going all in but had originally abandoned all hope of signing the emerging receiver. Due to being the 5th target on a stacked offense that used the run quite a lot and had an underwhelming quarterback behind an underwhelming O-Line, Diego didn’t exactly get the best chance to shine. His highlights of the season were two separate 3 game TD stretches, the latter stretch including multiple of OCO’s do-or-die games to bookend the season. Brief spells of greatness however were not enough for personal stats or to help OCO achieve their goal of going all the way, as they fell in the final hurdle and missed the playoffs entirely with a W16 loss. Overall, it was a second underwhelming season for Diego in the ISFL. He finished with less than 1000 yards once again, and was arguably much less efficient with his yardage thanks to his increased number of targets. However, boosted by his two green patches of form during the season, he managed to finish inside the top 20 for Touchdowns amongst receivers. At the end of the season, OCO decided to blow it up as the team was getting old and Diego, who was already only signed to a one season contract and exploring Free Agency, settled on leaving the team for greener pastures. While he managed to garner interest from both the Silverbacks and the Butchers, he ultimately settled on the Butchers when the Silverbacks pulled out of negotiations. Even as they had an old QB in his last year in the form of Painted Penguin, they had still been the 1 seed in their conference last season and looked solid outside of QB and WR, so it was possible that Diego’s arrival could give them the push to maintain themselves atop the conference.

Pre-draft measurables

Ht	Wt	40‑yd dash	20‑ss	3‑cone	Vert jump	Broad	BP	Wonderlic
6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	160 lb (73 kg)	4.25 s	4.15 s	6.67 s	38 in (0.97 m)	1 ft 0 in (0.30 m)	21 reps	30
2059 ISFL scouting combine (S44)

Career statistics			Receiving
Season	Team	Games	Rec	Yards	Avg	Lg	TD
2057 (S42)	Birddogs	4	18	198	11	19	0
2058 (S43)	Seawolves	14	72	1067	14.8	55	6
2059 (S44)	Seawolves	14	87	1216	14	62	5
2060 (S45)	Seawolves	14	70	899	12.8	54	5
2061 (S46)	Hawks	16	60	772	12.9	75	4
2062 (S47)	Otters	16	61	795	13	69	8

Achievements and records

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