That’s it for Sam Stratton. Saying goodbye to a game you love can be painful, and for him it certainly was.
“I’m gonna say right now (I’m done),” Stratton, 23, said last week. “I love playing football and I had the opportunity to go pro. I’m just done having surgeries and I don’t want to risk getting hurt again.”
After 16 fun-filled seasons spiced with a half-dozen levels, five surgeries and playing in multiple states and countries, the former Chatfield star and Wyoming Cowboy is calling it a career. He played part of the past season with the Straubing Spiders, about an hour north of Munich, in the German Football League.
It ended early with a broken leg during the summer. Stratton is still in a walking boot, but he’s not complaining.
“It was like a paid vacation,” Stratton said. “Obviously, the football was a big a part of it, but getting to travel to see another part of the world, experience another culture … playing again was fun; second to that was being in another country.”
The 5-foot-11, 195-pound Stratton was a speedy, athletic quarterback for Jefferson County’s Chatfield High School before he suffered a torn ACL in his right knee in the sixth game of his senior season, in 2009. He scored 54 touchdowns, put up more than 5,000 yards of total offense and was a two-time all-stater by The Denver Post. His speed, 21.8 seconds in the 200 meters and 48.4 in the 400 that remain Chargers records, kept Wyoming interested. But injuries again hampered Stratton, as he was able to see only spot action and mostly special-teams play.
While a Cowboys teammate went off to Stockholm to play, Stratton said he “was kind of done with football and I had a decent job in Denver.” He even had a pro day in Laramie without attracting any NFL or Canadian interest.
However, he was contacted about playing in Germany in March.
“It all so happened so fast,” Stratton said. “And it was a blast.”
Culturally, Sam I Am did not eat green eggs and ham, but a lot of bratwurst and schnitzel. “Pork is everything,” Stratton said. And lots of sauerkraut.
And because it was Germany, he said, “beer is a food group.”
While Stratton said he isn’t much of a partyer, the view from his apartment downtown regularly displayed revelers into the wee hours “because they know they have the finest beer in the world.”
The BMW plant was a short drive away, so he continually saw a wave of those along with Audis and Cooper Minis.
And athletically, while he likened the level to Division III in college, he said it was as fun to play as in high school. The Spiders were 5-2 when he was healthy, and they won one game 73-70 in which he ran and passed for nearly all the touchdowns.
In a land where ice hockey and soccer rule, his team’s games could draw 1,200 fans but were more likely to have 600 to 700 in attendance.
As for teammates, Stratton said “these guys are grown men with kids and families. It’s a hobby for them. It’s a level not anything close to Division I, but I really enjoyed it.”
And he accepts that his career is over. He will go to UCLA next month to be interviewed for a position in the athletic department in development and fundraising.
“I had fun with football,” Stratton said. “But I’m looking forward to this job.”
Neil H. Devlin: ndevlin @denverpost.com or @neildevlin
