ROWLEY ARTICLE
Kyle Rowley preaches F.A.T.E. when it comes to success in football. It's an acronym he uses with quarterback and receiver proteges that stands for "Film And Throw Everyday". The message from Rowley is clear, you make your own fate. The 36 year old has been mentoring and training football players all over the United States for more than a decade. From Boston to Jacksonville to Dallas to Portland, he's been mentoring successful players at every level and of all ages.
"I'm passionate about helping guys realize their dreams. Often times they just need someone who has been there to show them the path."
These days Rowley is highly-touted himself, a much sought after signal-caller in the Arena Football League, but he can still remember a time where things looked bleak. In Rowley's freshman season at Brown James Perry was a Sophomore starter and was playing well for his rank. Rowley found himself sitting during games and wondering if he'd be given a fair chance to compete for the job in years to come.
"They weren't going to let me unseat him. That became clear. That's when I decided to push, whether I had a reason to or not. I wanted anyone who happened to be watching to know what kind of competitor I was."
"I'm passionate about helping guys realize their dreams. Often times they just need someone who has been there to show them the path."
These days Rowley is highly-touted himself, a much sought after signal-caller in the Arena Football League, but he can still remember a time where things looked bleak. In Rowley's freshman season at Brown James Perry was a Sophomore starter and was playing well for his rank. Rowley found himself sitting during games and wondering if he'd be given a fair chance to compete for the job in years to come.
"They weren't going to let me unseat him. That became clear. That's when I decided to push, whether I had a reason to or not. I wanted anyone who happened to be watching to know what kind of competitor I was."
Over the next two years Rowley doubled down, devoting himself to exhaustive film study hours and a consistent post-practice passing regimen. His plan was to play top notch ball if an opportunity ever presented itself. One way to make that more likely was to study the starter. His focus shifted from competing with Perry to studying his every move. He would show up early to film with the upperclassmen and leave late at night, picking Perry’s brain about everything he was seeing out on the game field. Rowley was trying to learn from Perry's mistakes as quickly as Perry himself. He called it "bridging the gap".
"I didn't want to just start for Brown if my chance came, I wanted to dominate the Ivy League, win a national title, and break every national passing record there was."
Rowley finally got the starting nod and what happened next was unprecedented. In his very first game as a starter at Brown Stadium Rowley broke the University's All-Time Single game total offense record with a gaudy 485 yards.
He then went on to lead the Bears to wins against Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, Cornell and Princeton. Rowley finished the season leading the Ivy League Conference in every singular statistical passing category and had made a sizable dent in the college football landscape.
After his career at Brown Rowley became a firm believer in a very particular path to quarterbacking success and took that belief to the pass-heavy Arena Football League, where he continued to practice the winning formula. Immediately he pulled up film on all the greats, every AFL Hall of Famer, which quickly translated to record-breaking passing numbers in the pros. Eight seasons later Rowley would boast two National Championship MVPs and a gang of AFL passing records.
"The secret to having success in the passing game is studying the guys who have done it well before you. Their every move. There is much more to quarterbacking than the physical. It's heavy on the mental side and beyond that you have to have a way about you, a confidence that transcends your current plot. My guys come to understand that and they excel because of it."
Now as a professional quarterback consultant Rowley prepares a new generation of players to win national titles and break passing records. He focuses as much on the mental as the physical with a group of players that he refers to as "his guys". He fine tunes each's game based on their different attributes and he prides himself on being more mentor than coach.
"I see greatness in all my guys. It's my job to help them see it in themselves. Part of that process is pushing them, part is helping them dream bigger. But it's also about letting them know that I have struggled with situations in my own career before I arrived here.
"They will fall at times. The difference is that we prepare them to get back up and fight."
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"You talk about competing in everything you do on and off the field... that's Kyle. Everything becomes a competition. He wants to beat you in a game of tic-tac-toe." - Raul Vijil, Record Breaking AFL WR |
Let's Get To Work.
