Rocky Moreaux
 Moreaux with the Louisville Cardinals in 2050 | |
| No. 11 – Baltimore Hawks | |
|---|---|
| Position: | Wide Receiver |
| Personal information | |
| Born: | January 11, 2030 (aged 31) Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Height: | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) |
| Weight: | 195 lb (88 kg) |
| Username: | qWest |
| Career information | |
| High school: | duPont Manual High School |
| College: | University of Louisville |
| ISFL Draft: | 2052 / Round: 1 / Pick: 12 |
| DSFL Draft: | 2051 / Round: 5 / Pick: 34 |
| Career history | |
| Roster status: | Active |
Rocky Moreaux (born January 11, 2030) is an American football wide receiver for the Baltimore Hawks of the International Simulation Football League (ISFL). He played college football for University of Louisville.
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Early years
Rocky Moreaux was born in Louisville, KY, where he grew up with his two younger siblings and their parents Becca Moreaux (née Patrick) and former Olympic sprinter Tammy Moreaux. Moreaux attended duPont Manual High School in Louisville, where he succeeded as both an academic and an athelete. Moreaux in track during all four years of his high school career as a sprinter, following in his mother's footsteps. He finished second in the 100-meter dash at the 2048 Kentucky State Championship meet, with a personal best 10.40 second finish. At the same competition, Moreaux also won the 200-meter dash with a personal best 21.69 second time. Moreaux didn't begin playing football until his junior year, where he immediately broke out with second-team All-State honors for his performance on the year. He improved the next year, recording 69 catches for 1,594 yards and 18 TDs. He helped lead his team to the second round of the 6A KHSAA Football Playoffs, where the Manual Crimsons lost 52-49 to the St. Xavier Tigers.
Moreaux graduated from Manual in 2048 as the class salutatorian. He had multiple offers to attend and play for Ivy League schools, but instead chose to stay home and attent the University of Louiville.
College career
Rocky Moreaux was redshirted in his freshman year at Louisville. In his second year with the team, his Redshirt Freshman season, Moreaux impressed in camp and was elevated to a starting role opposite Heisman hopeful and teammate Osiris Williams. Moreaux finished second on the team with 817 receiving yards on 42 catches with 9 TDs scored as a receiver. Moreaux was also used as a rushing threat, carrying the ball 21 times for 227 yards, including a stunning 87 yard TD rush on a double reverse play to put the Cardinals ahead of Wake Forest late in their week 9 matchup.
Moreaux took over starting duties in 2050 after Williams shocked the team with a surprise retirement before the season. Moreaux got off to a rocky start with only 28 yards and one touchdown in the first two weeks as the Cardinals started the season out winless. After warming up with a 214 yard, 2 touchdown performance over James Madison, Moreaux improved considerably. He finished the season with 1,627 yards on 91 receptions with 15 touchdowns. His performance helped the team go undefeated through the rest of the season, securing a berth in the Orange Bowl.
After the 2050 College Football season, Moreaux would declare his intentions to join the S37 ISFL Draft Class. As an early declaree, he would have the chance to make an impact on the DSFL in S35 as a waiver addition before hopefully finding his DSFL home in the S36 draft.
College career statistics
| Career statistics | Receiving | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | Games | Rec | Yards | Avg | Lg | TD |
| 2049 | UL | 13 | 42 | 817 | 19.5 | 75 | 9 |
| 2050 | UL | 13 | 91 | 1627 | 17.9 | 67 | 15 |
Professional career
DSFL Career
A Good Time, Not a Long Time
Rocky Moreaux began his career in simulation football as a waiver pickup, being one of a few elite college prospects chosen to see limited game time at the end of S35. He was picked up on waivers by an ailing Bondi Beach team, who's quarterback had been strugging with limited receiving options. Moreaux did his best to build up synergy with QB Singh, succeeding to break off on at least one long touchdown for the Buccaneers and helping secure their 3rd and final win of the season.
Moreaux would go from one ailing South Conference team to another when he was drafted in the 5th round by the Dallas Birddogs. Insiders reported that Moreaux fell down the draft to the position he did due to a clear focus by the player on reaching the ISFL ranks, stating that the young receiver had told teams that he had "zero interest" in spending more that a single additional season in the developmental league. Still, Moreaux did everything to try to carry the team to victory across the offense from fellow rookie WR Matthew Mara. The two both proved to be explosive once they got the ball into their hands, but the getting the ball to these young players proved to be difficult with the QB carousel in Dallas. The team would struggle to produce on both sides of the ball and ended the season with only 3 wins for the second season in a row. Moreaux played well for 14 games but immediately set his focus on the coming ISFL draft.
ISFL Career
Welcome to the Rockies Moreaux
Rocky Moreaux was selected in the first round, at pick number 12 overall, by the Colorado Yeti. With the selection of Moreaux's Dallas teammate Matthew Mara at number 2 overall and the conversion of quarterback Delores Bickerman, the fourth overall selection, Moreaux was the third wide receiver selected in his draft class. Analysts contributed the later than may have been expected selection to the young star's demands to see significant playing time straight away.
Arriving in Colorado, the mandate from the front office and the fans was crystal clear: return a Yeti team that had been languishing at the bottom of the standings to the level of competitiveness that they'd shown in the previous decade. Through 16 games in S37, however, the team was only just able to match their S36 record. The rookie Moreaux showed immediate promise in the first game though, coming down with a touchdown reception in the redzone midway through the second quarter. Still, Moreaux's usual explosiveness and big play ability were bottled up over the season as the rookie was used primarily in the slot as a short yardage option. With an aging Maxwell going into perhaps his final season, there was a lot of room for Moreaux to grow into bigger role on the outside in his sophomore season.
While the season started off poorly for the Colorado Yeti team as a whole with five straight losses, the promise of Rocky Moreaux as a serious number one receiving threat was emerging. In the first game of the season the sophomore receiver fell just short of the century mark, then found the endzone for the first time of the season in the second game. Moreaux had perhaps his best game of his early ISFL career in week 5 while visiting the Baltimore Hawks, as he went for 126 yards on 5 receptions. The majority of those yards came off two fourth quarter touchdowns, including a 65 yard reception, in a late attempt to try to get back within striking distance after the Hawks started with a massive lead. Moreaux would finish with over a thousand receiving yards at the end of the season, reaching the top 8 in receiving yards for the first time, though the Yeti failed to beat their previous season's record once again.
Going into the 2054 season and hoping to break the pattern of 5 win seasons, Moreaux and the Yeti were eager to show up big, but things started off poorly. Despite winning their home opener in week 1, they did so in a narrow one score game over a hapless Honolulu team on a very long streak of losses before facing off against NSFC favorites Yellowknife and putting up a paltry fight a they lost in a 40-0 blowout. Going in to week 12 at 5-6, the team would need to be as perfect as possible to get into playoffs. The team performed quite impressively with that all in consideration, keeping things even through the end of overtime in week 13 and taking victory in the over 4 games to end the season 9-6-1. With a Chicago loss to the league leading 13-2 Wraiths, the Yeti would have their ticket to the wild card game, however the Wraiths, perhaps focused more on their path to the Ultimus, fell to the Butchers, knocking Colorado out of contention. Speculation abounded about the future of Rocky Moreaux in Colorado as the player declined all offers for a contract extension from the Yeti and entered the off-season as a free agent.
Rocky Takes Flight to Baltimore
After a lengthy back and forth between the Colorado Yeti front office and young growing star Rocky Moreaux stagnated over the 2054 season, Moreaux ended up going into the 2055 off-season as a free agent. The leading receiver in 2054 and a 2nd team All-Pro, Moreaux garnered a great deal of interest from around the league after the legal tampering period opened. It was reported through league sources that Moreaux had narrowed a number of offers down to just a few key options as the draft approached: a return to Colorado, or the start of a new journey in either Balitmore, Honolulu, or San Jose. It seemed Moreaux was going to be going back to Colorado after signing a new contract, but he was then traded to Baltimore, seemingly reaching an agreement to benefit both sides. The 2055 season was a return to a five win season for Rocky with the Hawks, but he showed the same level of promise that he did in Colorado, leading the league once again in receiving as he established strong chemistry with fellow S37 draftee Preston Beatz. Moreaux remarked at the end of the season: "I knew coming here it was going to be a bit of a retool. We're not satisfied with the results this season, but ultimately I'm confident that the foundation of the team that we've built will have us competing for the Ultimus trophy in the seasons to come."
Come the end of the 2056 season, Baltimore and Moreaux had indeed finally made a step forward by making almost no progress at all. The team was once again 6-10 at the end of the show, besting their 2055 season's 5-11 record, but still in line with bottom of the league level records. However, thanks to the decline of the Berlin Fire Salamanders and Colorado Yeti, the team did improve to a fifth place finish in their conference. For Moreaux specifically though, it was almost all bad news as the receiver declined in receptions, receiving yards, and yards per reception over the last season, with his yards total dipping to it's lowest ever as a primary wide receiver. Coming off a strong 1st team All-Pro selection in 2055, the receiver ended up being left off even the 2nd team list in lieu of fellow S37 WR Matthew Mara's sub 1000 yard season in a move that was publicly and critically panned. Moreaux notably made noise in the news after tweeting out his discontent with the season just days after the end of the season saying, "this sh*t aint gonna fly. i'll be back stronger healthier better than ever next year and we're gonna do right by the fans or this sh*t is gonna have some REAL changes."
Hawk This Way
It seemed clear to fans of the Baltimore Hawks throughout the off-season and leading up to the Hawks season opener at home that there was a different energy around the team. The team, in their past decade of consistent poor performance had been awash with finger pointing and complaining from staff and players, but in the lead up to S42, there was an apparent shift in the mentality. Team leaders like Rocky Moreaux and Preston Beatz were echoing the same ideas about taking accountability and setting the standard on the field. The Hawks carried that through to the beginning of the season, following a 44-14 beating of the Yeti up by three straight wins. Moreaux declared at the end of a comeback win against league favorites and eventual champions, the Arizona Outlaws, that he and the team were "the real deal" and "here to stay as a contender." The team would go on to lose to Berlin in the conference championship after finishing with an 11-5 record on the season. Moreaux finished the season with a career best 14 TDs on the season and looked like a clear top 3 wide receiver all season.
Professional career statistics
| Career statistics | Receiving | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | Games | Rec | Yards | Avg | Lg | TD |
| 2050 (S35) | BBB | 4 | 13 | 216 | 16.6 | 80 | 2 |
| 2051 (S36) | DAL | 14 | 57 | 914 | 16 | 86 | 5 |
| 2052 (S37) | COL | 16 | 53 | 582 | 11 | 52 | 5 |
| 2053 (S38) | COL | 16 | 96 | 1325 | 13.8 | 65 | 8 |
| 2054 (S39) | COL | 16 | 84 | 1427 | 17.0 | 89 | 9 |
| 2055 (S40) | BAL | 16 | 116 | 1653 | 14.2 | 65 | 8 |
| 2056 (S41) | BAL | 16 | 99 | 1277 | 12.9 | 67 | 8 |
| 2057 (S42) | BAL | 16 | 99 | 1449 | 14.6 | 83 | 14 |
