User:FootballForFun92/sandbox/Francis Halverson

Francis Miles Halverson (born November 1st, 1992) is an American professional football quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). He previously played for the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League (IFL) where he is credited with popularizing the sport of Indoor Football. Halverson played college football for the New Mexico State Aggies where he became the most prolific quarterback in school history, ending a 56 year bowl drought in 2016 and holding virtually every passing record at the school. Halverson is unanimously considered to be the greatest player in the history of Indoor Football where he won 6 MVP awards, 6 United Bowl Championships, and 6 United Bowl MVP awards in 6 seasons while shattering all existing game, single season, and career passing records as well as several rushing records.

Early years
Halverson was born Miles Christopher Halverson in Mesa, Arizona but grew up in New Brighton, Minnesota. In 2011, he played one season of high school football for Irondale High School in New Brighton. During the course of the season, Halverson led Irondale to two playoff wins, the most in the history of the school. Due to the success of the 2010 season and his later success in the IFL, two statues of Halverson have been placed at the entrance to the school parking lot and Irondale's football field has subsequently been named Frank Halverson Field.

College career
Halverson was not recruited by any teams coming out of high school due to his lack of inexperience, the small stature of Irondale's football program, and a lack of skills thought to be compatible to college football. He spent the 2010 and 2011 academic years earning an Associate's Degree in History from Anoka-Ramsey Community College before transferring to New Mexico State University in 2013.

Freshman year
During late July of 2013, Halverson attended an open tryout at New Mexico State for the quarterback position and was subsequently cut within the first hour. Halverson received a phone call a week later from head coach Doug Martin who offered him the fourth spot on the depth chart, following an injury to a member of the Aggies roster. While Martin thought that Halverson lacked the athletic skills and the arm talent to be an effective quarterback at the college level, he was impressed by his incredible football intelligence and processing speed. Halverson was able to dissect defenses within seconds of seeing a formation and was able to diagnose coverage at a remarkable level.

Halverson spent most of freshman year serving as a pseudo-quarterback coach while slowly working his way up the depth chart. By midseason, he was the backup quarterback on the roster and saw limited action against UCLA where he scored the only touchdown for NMSU in a 59-7 blowout. Halverson would have his first collegiate start against Idaho where he managed the game to perfection and led the Aggies to their second win of the 2013 season.

Sophomore year
Due to his development and his performance against Idaho, Halverson was named the starting quarterback heading into the 2014 season which would also be New Mexico State's first year in the Sun Belt Conference. The Aggies opened the season with an upset over Georgie State before dropping four consecutive games. Halveron's play was wildly erratic in the early portion of the season though his growing improvisational skills kept NMSU competitive in games where they otherwise would have stood no chance. Halverson was the most sacked quarterback in the NCAA in 2014 (63 times) and was often knocked out of games in the third quarter.

As Halverson became more confident with the offense and the speed of the game, NMSU won 4 of their last 7 games, achieving a 5-7 record. He would end the season as the unquestioned starter, having thrown for 21 touchdowns while rushing for an additional 13.

Junior year
During the off-season, Halverson worked aggressively on developing his arm strength and made small progress. Additionally, he bulked up, adding 20 pounds in an attempt to prevent injuries.

In 2015, the NMSU would put together their most impressive season since 2002. Halverson was named to the All-Sun Belt first-team as he threw for 4,000 yards and 33 touchdown passes while running for another 839 yards and 13 touchdowns. Halverson had several electric performances, including a 6 touchdown performance against South Alabama (earning him NCAA Player of the Week honors) and several four touchdown performances. Though the Aggies had went 7-5, they narrowly missed earning a trip to the 2015 GoDaddy.com Bowl.

Senior year
In his senior campaign, Halverson would lead the Aggies to their first NCAA Bowl Game in 56 years, ending a bowl drought that began in 1960. NMSU began the season with a narrow loss to #24 Texas A&M before upsetting a superior Kentucky team on the road. During the season, Halverson broke NMSU's single season records for passing yards and passing touchdowns while also managing to secure the career records for both in the process. Against an Arkansas State team that had humiliated them the two previous years, Halverson would get revenge on the road and seal NMSU's first Sun Belt Championship. In a game that would see the end of the NCAA's longest bowl drought, Halverson helped the Aggies win the 2016 New Orleans Bowl and was named the game's MVP.

Legacy
Halverson is widely considered to be the greatest quarterback and player in the history of the New Mexico State Aggies football program. He is the single season and career record holder in wins, passing yards, passing touchdowns, while also contributing a significant amount of rushing yards and touchdowns. Halverson's role in ending the NMSU bowl drought rose him to legendary status at the school and the state of New Mexico in general, which is not known for collegiate sports in comparison to its neighboring states.

NFL
Halverson received absolutely zero interest from NFL scouts in the lead up to the 2017 NFL Combine and was not invited to the event. Multiple league officials and scouts referred to his skillset, particularly his arm strength, as "laughable". Allegedly, not a single person from the NFL contacted Halverson following the 2016 season despite his attempts to schedule workouts. He subsequently elected to sign a contract with the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League (IFL) for their 2017 season.

Arizona Rattlers (2017-2023)
Halverson was contacted by Arizona Rattlers head coach Kevin Guy soon after the organization seceded from the Arena Football League and joined the IFL. Guy had watched a few New Mexico State games and was impressed by Halverson's accuracy, poise, and ability to diagnose defenses. While the Arena Football League was known for its explosive play and high scoring games, the Indoor Football League was a more offensively conservative league that featured less explosive plays and far less scoring. Guy's vision was to weaponize Halverson's rapid decision making to revolutionize the IFL.

Halverson's debut in the IFL was shocking. He shattered the league's single game passing record by throwing 12 touchdown passes in a single game while running for two more. Halverson continued his performances throughout the 2017 season, demolishing every passing record that the IFL had leading the Rattlers to a 16-0 record. The Rattler's offense was significantly more powerful than their competitors, with Halverson often throwing a touchdown pass on the first or second play of a drive. Halverson would end the 2017 regular season with 127 touchdowns (74 more touchdowns than any other player in the IFL that season). After sweeping the playoffs, the Rattlers would win the United Bowl and begin their first of six consecutive United Bowl Championships.

Following the season, the IFL and Rattlers negotiated a lucrative contract that would tie Halverson to the league and organization for the next 7 seasons. During this time period, Halverson continued to dominate the league, usually doubling the statistics of other quarterbacks and racking up 6 consecutive United Bowl Championships and IFL MVP awards.

Legacy
Halverson's succcess with the Rattlers made Indoor Football a rising sport in the United States. Numerous times from 2018-2023, the Rattlers would outperform the Phoenix Suns in terms of ticket sales and the league expanded from 14 teams to 28 during his time there. While the league had almost no television coverage prior to 2017, by 2023 the league is featured in primetime slots on CBS and NBC with games also being featured on ESPN. The Rattler's thrilling overtime victory over the Iowa Barnstormers in the 2023 United Bowl was watched by an audience of 19.3 million people, more than the final game of the 2023 NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat.

Upon leaving the IFL in 2023, Halverson holds the IFL career records for passing yards, touchdowns, wins as well as United Bowl wins and league MVP awards. In terms of single season accomplishments, no other IFL quarterback has come within more than 60% of reaching Halverson's 127 touchdown mark from the 2017 season.

Arizona Cardinals
Due to his contract with the IFL, Halverson was prohibited from negotiating with NFL teams for 7 years, though following the 2017 season, some NFL teams had shown interest over the years, including the San Fransisco 49ers, the Los Angeles Rams, and the New England Patriots. No team was interested in outbidding the IFL's contract totaling some

Following the end of his contract in 2023, Halverson was offered a contract by the Arizona Cardinals which he signed in July of that year. Halverson, who had previously shown no interest in joining the NFL, signed the contract largely because he would be guaranteed starts by the organization while starting quarterback Kyler Murray recovered from injury.