Thomas Robinson

Thomas Robinson

No. 21 – Sarasota Sailfish
Position:	Wide Receiver
Personal information
Born:	(2029-22-04)October 4, 2029 (aged 31) San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Height:	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Weight:	230 lb (104 kg)
Username:	Infern8
Career information
High school:	Saint Mary's Hall
College:	Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
ISFL Draft:	2051 / Round: 1 / Pick: 10
DSFL Draft:	2050 / Round: 3 / Pick: 17
Career history
Norfolk Seawolves (2050 - 2051) Orange County Otters (2052 - )
Roster status:	Active
Player stats at ISFL.net

Thomas Robinson (born April 22, 2029) is an American football wide receiver who plays for the Sarasota Sailfish. He played college football for Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT) and played in the DSFL for the Norfolk Seawolves.

Early years

Thomas Robinson was born in San Antonio, TX, to parents Theodore and Elena Robinson. Theodore, himself an Olympic athlete (Men's Skeet), heavily encouraged his son's athletic pursuits. Though he played a variety of sports, Thomas' primary sport in high school was volleyball. He competed at the club level for the entirety of his high school career, winning multiple regional tournaments and leagues. In his senior year, his club team placed 9th at the U-18 National Championships, held in Dallas, TX. His other sports were were somewhat less praise-worthy, with few accolades to note. Football, in particular, was a distant afterthought. Thomas' natural athleticism allowed him to excel, but small school size prevented him from gaining any recognition.

In addition to his athletic achievements, Thomas was regarded as a strong student, earning a number of national academic honors in addition to both a perfect SAT and a perfect ACT. The relative obscurity of his chosen sport meant that he saw very little recruitment (if any) out of high school.

College career

Robinson attended college at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, IN, a school he chose not for athletics but for its reputation as a premier STEM university. In his freshman year, he switched his primary sport to football; RHIT has no official men's volleyball program, but competes in football at the D-III level in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. Almost immediately, he made his mark, catching 45 receptions for 693 yards and 8 touchdowns en route to a 10-2 season (8-0 in conference play) in 2047. Robinson proved himself a quick learner on the field, achieving at a high level as a true freshman despite not having focused on football previously.

In 2048 Robinson proved that his freshman season hadn't been a fluke. With a year of experience under his belt, he began setting records. 1243 yards and 18 touchdowns both stood as all-time highs, while his 80 receptions was good for second place on the leaderboard. The Fightin' Engineers rode that performance to a 12-0 finish (8-0 in conference).

2048 was spectacular, but 2049 was truly incredible, serving as a case study in what a genuine ISFL talent is capable of doing at the D-III level. Over the course of twelve games (every single one of them victories), Robinson hauled in 103 total catches, going for 1517 yards and an absurd 24 touchdowns, shattering all three previous records. Over the course of the season, Robinson recorded more touchdowns than drops.

After his junior year, Robinson graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and declared for the DSFL draft.

College career statistics

Career statistics			Receiving
Season	Team	Games	Rec	Yards	Avg	Lg	TD
2047	RHIT	12	45	693	15.4	55	8
2048	RHIT	12	80	1243	15.5	74	18
2049	RHIT	12	103	1517	14.7	68	24

Professional career

Pre-draft measurables

Ht	Wt	40‑yd dash	20‑ss	3‑cone	Vert jump	Broad
6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	230 lb (104 kg)

2050

Robinson was selected in the third round of the 2050 DSFL draft, seventeenth overall, by the Norfolk Seawolves. He impressed Norfolk coaching staff during preseason workouts and games, and was named WR1 before Week 1 of the regular season. He wasted no time in proving that his coaches' trust was well-founded. Although Sconnie McSix served as the headliner for Norfolk's run-first offense, Robinson provided an oft-overlooked dual threat through the air. Over the course of the regular season, Robinson lead all rookies in yards and TDs, and was the overall DSFL leader in receptions. He earned the most praise, however, for his hands; he hauled in 84 total passes and recorded only 4 drops, by far the highest ratio in the league, as the Seawolves cruised to a 10-4 record and a playoff berth. While Robinson had a relatively standard game against Tijuana in the SCC, he dominated the Ultimini. Robinson gashed Kansas City's secondary for 126 yards on only 6 catches, including one near-touchdown that was overturned on review. Norfolk hoisted the Ultimini trophy, and Robinson was named OPotG. Following on the heels of his success, Robinson declared for the 2051 ISFL Draft.

2051

Robinson was selected in the first round of the 2051 ISFL Draft, tenth overall, by the Orange County Otters, who nevertheless sent him back down to Norfolk for the season. Robinson returned to a much-depleted Norfolk roster. From the squad that won the Ultimini, Norfolk returned only four starters on offense, including Jasper Fontaine, who switched to Safety in the offseason. The Seawolves faced a similar, though less pronounced, predicament on defense. Thomas was named Offensive Captain in preseason, and the Seawolves rode the duo of Robinson and QB Pete Zuh to a middling 3-3 start to the year. Week 7 proved to be a turning point in Norfolk, but not for the better. The Pythons slaughtered Norfolk 27-3, forcing the Seawolves to abandon the run entirely, locking down Robinson, and exploiting Zuh's below-average passing ability. Norfolk collapsed in the back half of the season, dropping 6 of 8 as opposing defenses began to use the same tactics. Thomas finished the season in the top 10 in most metrics, but was plagued by a poor catch rate against aggressive secondaries, while the Seawolves missed the playoffs at 5-9. Robinson spent much of the ensuing offseason working out away from Norfolk facilities in Los Angeles, clearly expecting to be called up to the Otters.

2052

True to expectations, Robinson joined Orange County for the 2052 season, replacing an aging Ken Oath as the Otters' WR3. However, Orange County itself had undergone dramatic changes between the draft and Robinson's callup, with a brand new GM and coaching staff having arrived in the 2052 offseason. Robinson struggled to find opportunity in OCO's new offensive system, especially after the Otters traded away franchise quarterback Tron Carter to start a lengthy rebuild. He averaged just above 30 yards per game over the course of the season as part of the consensus worst passing offense in the league. Despite the historically-poor play under center, the Otters finished 7-9, two games out of the playoffs, and wound up with only the 5th pick in the 2053 Draft. Despite his on-field struggles, Robinson continued to receive praise off the field, described by teammates and coaches as "incredibly driven" and "one of the smartest football minds in the league."

2053

That drive to succeed lead Robinson to be named Offensive Captain for the Otters during the 2053 preseason. Although Orange County's offensive system still relied heavily on the run and featured the league's lowest passing volume, Robinson improved considerably over his abysmal rookie season. He lead the Otters in receptions, targets, yards, and touchdowns through the air; a 1000-yard season marked more than twice the total yardage of the 2052 campaign. Robinson also improved in basically every advanced metric, progressing from one of the league's worst receivers to merely average. Meanwhile, the lengthy rebuild many experts had expected in Orange County failed to fully materialize. Despite trotting out the ISFL's second-worst defense, the Otters somehow managed to post a winning season at 9-7, missing the playoffs by a tiebreaker to New York.

Robinson signed a one-year extension with OCO early in the season, leading league media to speculate that he intended to sign a long-term deal with Orange County at some point in 2054.

2054

The regression that Orange County had somehow avoided the previous year came back with a vengeance in 2054. The Otters' defense remained bottom-3 in essentially every metric while the offense, previously unusually lucky when it came to scoring points, was instead unusually unlucky. Robinson, in particular, appeared to regress slightly after a passably average sophomore season, recording fewer receptions and yards, as well as a worse YPC. His advanced metrics still showed improvement, though, and many analysts blamed Robinson's down season not on his skill level but on scheme. The Otters again featured one of the lowest-volume passing offenses in the league; Kaguya Shinomiya was also the only QB in the league to complete fewer than 60% of his passes.

True to expectations, Robinson inked an LTD at the beginning of the season, publicly announcing his intent to stay with Orange County until his retirement. Behind the scenes, however, it was rumored that Robinson had been vocally complaining throughout the season about the poor QB play he'd suffered over his career in Orange County.

2055

Orange County entered the 2055 season with low expectations and managed to overperform by a fairly healthy margin. The league's best running offense combined once again with the league's worst passing offense to produce an on-field product that was decidedly average. The reverse was true on the defensive side of the ball: a terrible run defense and a great pass defense made for something near the middle of the league. Even then, "decidedly average" was enough for the Otters to sneak into the playoffs in the chaos of the ASFC at 7-8-1. Robinson once again performed decently only in light of Orange County's offensive style, and even then his ability to score touchdowns was drastically reduced compared to previous seasons. One commentator described Robinson's quest for a third consecutive 1k-yard season as requiring "a heroic effort." Robinson was essentially invisible in the wildcard round at Austin, although that could be said for most of the receivers in that game; only Deshawn Penne, a tight end, and Zane Cold, a running back, managed to catch more than four passes on the day as Orange County's ground game rumbled its way to an upset win. His performance the next week in the ASFCCG against Arizona was more respectable, although the Otters as a whole were demolished by the eventual Ultimus champions.

That offseason, Robinson finally got his wish for a different quarterback, as Orange County announced the signing of marquee free agent quarterback Adrian St. Christmas.

2056

Somewhat surprisingly, St. Christmas and Robinson struggled to form any kind of connection over the 2056 season. Robinson posted some of the worst numbers of his career in terms of pure receiving, with his first sub-1k yard season since 2052. Orange County, on the other hand, enjoyed continued success on the ground as a team, and went 10-6 en route to a wildcard berth. In interviews, Robinson downplayed his own marginalization, saying "winning fixes everything." Still, there were positive signs. Robinson was the only wide receiver in the league to record a perfectly dropless season (min. 20 catches). While the Otters failed to advance in the playoffs (losing 26-34 to Arizona), team morale remained high; the wildcard berth itself was widely considered another overperformance from a very young Orange County team. Analysts cited Orange County's much-improved defense as a major catalyst for their success, and predicted even further improvements in the years to come.

2057

And then it got worse...

Robinson showed up to training camp in the 2057 having lost a good amount of weight over the summer. In talks with media, he claimed that he wanted to slim up and work on his speed, instead of trying to bully his way through cornerbacks. Regardless of the reasoning, it appeared to bear at least some fruit during the season. Robinson's YAC improved tremendously, and he also managed to pick up kick return and punt return duties for the Otters. As a whole, though, Robinson's season was "abysmal," as one analyst put it. During the 2057 season he recorded the fewest pass catches, total yards, and touchdowns of any WR1 in the league. Orange County's offense, as a whole, was the league's weakest (a stark contrast with their defense, which was above average and might have been better if ever they were capable of staying off of the field). St. Christmas' much-anticipated second year with the Otters turned out to be a dud, with a league- and career-worst passing rating and, once again, the fewest air yards of any team in the league. Despite starting off at 2-0 with a pair of dominating wins, the Otters ended the season at 5-11, far out of the playoff picture (and having traded away their first-round pick to boot!) It was hardly a surprise when, after week 11, OC Eric Cord was unceremoniously fired, but his interim replacement could not manage much better. Robinson repeatedly declined to answer questions from the press regarding his opinions of Orange County's playcallers, but one report claimed that, after Cord's firing was announced to the team, Robinson bowed his head and thanked God under his breath.

2058

Robinson had a bit of a bounce-back to start off 2058, but after the previous season improvement was almost inevitable. Rookie Lloyd Bannings took over from St. Christmas and was out of the gate noticeably better than his predecessor. Still Robinson struggled, as Big Mclarge Huge emerged as Bannings' favorite receiver. Through twelve weeks of play, Robinson earned over 250 fewer yards than the youngster as well as five fewer touchdowns, despite actually catching more of his targets. Orange County's offense as a whole was poor. Despite Bannings' greatly increased passing ability, OCO's passing volume was still one of the lowest in the league, while the run game was solid but not incredible. At the trade deadline, the Otters sat at 5-7 in spite of strong defensive efforts; they lead the league in Yards Allowed, but short fields and bad luck meant they were 9th in PA. Facing another season stuck outside the playoffs, while witnessing the ascendance of Huge, the Otters dealt Robinson to Sarasota for draft capital.

The Sailfish at the time boasted the best passing game in the league, and Robinson caught fire almost immediately. His yards/game jumped from just under 60 to just above 90, and his yards/catch leapt nearly two entire yards. He also scored three touchdowns in four games, compared to just four over the previous twelve. It was hardly a perfect ending to the season (the Sailfish missed the playoffs on tiebreakers), but Robinson played like he was eager to silence the doubters and prove OCO wrong for giving up on him, and in that he largely succeeded.

Professional career statistics

Career statistics			Receiving
Season	Team	Games	Rec	Yards	Avg	Lg	TD
2050 (S35)	Seawolves	14	84	1017	12.1	51	9
2051 (S36)	Seawolves	14	75	1034	13.8	76	8
2052 (S37)	Otters	16	54	496	9.2	27	5
2053 (S38)	Otters	16	86	1070	12.4	75	8
2054 (S39)	Otters	16	82	1004	12.2	54	9
2055 (S40)	Otters	16	89	1017	11.4	61	3
2056 (S41)	Otters	16	91	962	10.6	59	6
2057 (S42)	Otters	16	78	823	10.6	74	6
2058 (S43)	Sailfish	16	99	1073	10.8	44	7

Achievements and records

Awards

Team

• Ultimini Champion (1): 2050 (S35) (XXXIII)

Individual

• DSFL All-Pro (1): 2050 (S35)

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