No Father's Son

Post by **redsox907** » 15 Dec 2025, 19:46

Introduction

Some talk about football in ways of destiny. "Ever since I picked up a football, I knew what my calling was." Others use it as a tool to escape their circumstances, whether it be a broken home or poverty. While football became both for me, it wasn't always that way. When I was young, football was something we did for fun, that my friends cared about and I participated in. Not because I loved it, or really liked it more than a way to spend the afternoon, but because I didn't want to be left out. Didn't want to go home where the only escape from my reality was inside my head. To the home that I knew felt off, but wouldn't understand why until years later.

When I got older, it was a means to an end. I wanted to fly, and in my mind, the easiest way to get there was an athletic scholarship. I dove into it wholeheartedly—not for a love of the game, but for a love of what it could deliver me to.

But in the end, maybe football was a part of my destiny.

Eventually, it became my way to prove that I was a better man than my father. To prove I was worthy of the opportunities I had made for myself, regardless of the ones he had taken from me. But more than that, it was my way to connect, to share my story with others. To show them that regardless of their past, they can make their own path.

I read a book in 7th grade, a rather unremarkable work of literature titled "The Goblins of Eros." But during our "nomad years," during the nine-hour drive from Jamestown, North Dakota, to our final destination in Havre, Montana, I needed something to do. I'd checked it out from the library before we left, knowing I couldn't return it but planning to mail it back someday. I couldn't tell you why the book caught my attention. I was neither fascinated with goblins nor the idea of Eros, the Greek god of love. But a quote in the book stuck with me in a way I didn't understand at the time and honestly wouldn't understand until much later in life:

"We are born with our father's names. We are not responsible for their failures. We are responsible for what they made us believe in. That is our only obligation. And it is even then a choice which we may sometimes be wise to ignore."

The failure I perceived at the time was in fact a small tip of the proverbial iceberg of my father's failures. But at the young age of fifteen, I was unable to see beyond the scope of my current discontent. As I sat in my mother's Jeep Grand Cherokee gliding down I-94, the only thing I could focus on was how I, in my skewed view of the world, had kickstarted this whole predicament, and how much I despised my mother for not only ripping me out of the only home I'd ever known, but also leaving my father behind. But most of all, I was focused on how the man who was never around was suddenly gone more than I ever thought possible, without ever saying goodbye.

Years later, when I was at my lowest, I found words that finally made sense of what I'd been running from. "Born a Crime," an autobiography by Trevor Noah, was published in 2016 and with it a quote that I've repeated more times than I can count:

"You cannot blame anyone else for what you do. You cannot blame your past for who you are. You are responsible for you. You make your own choices."

That quote became an inspiration for me in a year of personal redemption. But it also awakened distant memories of the quote from "The Goblins of Eros", words I'd buried under years of self-pity. Suddenly, the understanding that had escaped me at fifteen was finally staring me in the face.

Two different books, two different times in my life, but the same truth:

A name doesn't make you. The absence of a father doesn't make you. What you do with what you're given whether it's a name, an opportunity, or a burden, that becomes your legacy. Not what came before you, but what you leave behind.

But before we get to the arduous trek that brought me from Las Cruces, New Mexico, into what felt like the end of the world as I knew it in Havre, Montana, we must understand how the chain of events unfolded.

Las Cruces, New Mexico
April 10th, 1992
Armando James Leon is born.

Post by **redsox907** » 15 Dec 2025, 19:47

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter One: The Spaceship
Chapter Two: Unraveling
Chapter Three, Part One: The Departure
Chapter Three, Part Two: Running
Chapter Four: Blue Skies
Chapter Five: The Academy
Chapter Six: Sins of the Father
Chapter Seven: Hello, Darkness
Chapter Eight: You're Only As Sick As Your Secrets
Chapter Nine: Return to Havre
Chapter Ten: Return to Havre Part II
Chapter Eleven: Building the Foundation
Chapter Twelve: Setting the Standard
Chapter Thirteen: Bozeman, Bobcats, and Babies
Chapter Fourteen: This Ain't the Academy
Chapter Fifteen: Family Matters
Chapter Sixteen: The Sum of Our Choices
Chapter Seventeen: Build the Dam!
Chapter Eighteen: From the Ground Up
Chapter Nineteen: Process Thinking
Chapter Twenty: Growing Pains
Chapter Twenty-One: Making A Difference
Chapter Twenty-Two: The Weight of a Promise
Chapter Twenty-Three: Check Cashed
Chapter Twenty-Four: First of Many
Chapter Twenty-Five: Timing Is Everything
Chapter Twenty-Six: Selling the Brand
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Return to Autzen
Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Only Standard
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Good Enough Isn't Enough
Chapter Thirty: Play It Safe or Risk It All?
Chapter Thirty-One: On the Move Again
Chapter Thirty-Two: Fearlessly Forward
Chapter Thirty-Three: Damn Good Recruiter
Chapter Thirty-Four: Pequeño León
Chapter Thirty-Five: Charred Duck
Chapter Thirty-Six: Turn and Burn
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Sooner Savior?
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Hell Or High Water
Chapter Thirty-Nine: El Legado del León
Chapter Forty: Consistency
Chapter Forty-One: Consistent To A Fault
Chapter Forty-Two: Glory Lasts Forever
Chapter Forty-Three: Houston, We Have Contact
Chapter Forty-Four: Context Is Everything
Chapter Forty-Five: Double Trouble
Chapter Forty-Six: St. Regis
Chapter Forty-Seven: St. Regis Part II
Chapter Forty-Eight: Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire
Chapter Forty-Nine: Like A Fiddle
Chapter Fifty: The Truth, For Now
Chapter Fifty-One: Together
Chapter Fifty-Two: The End Of A Legacy
Chapter Fifty-Three: Back To Business
Chapter Fifty-Four: New Beginnings
Chapter Fifty-Five: A New Legacy
Chapter Fifty-Six: Bacchanalia

Post by **redsox907** » 15 Dec 2025, 19:47

Armando Leon Coaching Record

2026 - Oregon State DC
Record: 10-4
Conference: 6-1
Weeks Ranked: 1
Highest Rank: 25th
Record Vs. Top 25: 1-2
Pac-12 Champion
Holiday Bowl

2027 - Oregon State DC
Record: 11-3
Conference: 6-1
Weeks Ranked: 7
Highest Rank: 12th
Record Vs. Top 25: 2-0
Pac-12 Champion

2028 - Maryland Terrapins HC
Record: 11-3
Conference: 6-2
Weeks Ranked: 6
Highest Rank: 8
Record vs Top-25: 3-2
1st Round CFP Win

2029 - Oklahoma Sooners HC
Record: 15-1
Conference: 7-1
Weeks Ranked: 12
Highest Rank: 1
Record Vs Top 25: 8-1
SEC Conference Championship
Fiesta Bowl Win
Sugar Bowl Win
National Championship Win

2030 - Oklahoma Sooners HC
Record: 16-0
Conference: 8-0
Weeks Ranked: 21
Record vs Top 25: 9-0
SEC Conference Championship
Sugar Bowl Win
Cotton Bowl Win
National Championship Win

Career Stats

Head Coach (2028 Maryland, 2029-2030 Oklahoma)
Record: 42-4
Conference: 21-3
Record Vs Top 25: 20-3
Conference Championship Record: 2-0
Bowl Record: 4-1
National Championship Record: 2-0

As Defensive Coordinator (2026-2027)

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Player Awards

2027 Oregon State MLB Manu Hasty - Bednarik, Nagurski, Dick Butkus
2029 Oklahoma HB Oscar Robledo - Heisman, Maxwell, Walter Camp, Doak
2029 Oklahoma MLB Kyle Brink - Bednarik, Nagurski, Dick Butkus
2029 Oklahoma CB Ralph Saylor - Jim Thorpe
2029 Oklahoma DT Karlos Vigil - Lombardi
2029 Oklahoma HB Isaac Adcock - Jet Award
2030 - SS DeMarco Slayton - Jim Thorpe

Player Records

2026 DE Ka'eo Akana - 16 Sacks (Oregon State Single Season Record)
2028 QB Malik Washington - 36 Touchdowns (Maryland Single Season Record)
2028 QB Malik Washington - 13,073 (Big Ten & Maryland Career Passing Yards Record)
2028 QB Malik Washington - 104 Touchdowns (Maryland Career Passing Touchdown Record)
2028 WR Emanuel Ross - 15 Touchdowns (Maryland Single Season Record)
2029 HB Oscar Robledo - 1,941 Rushing Yards (Oklahoma Single Season Record)
2029 HB Oscar Robledo - 26 Touchdowns (Oklahoma Single Season Record)
2029 DT Karlos Vigil - 19 Sacks (Oklahoma Single Season Record)

Post by **redsox907** » 15 Dec 2025, 19:47

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Record Vs Coaches As Defensive Coordinator (2026-2027)

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Post by **redsox907** » 15 Dec 2025, 19:47

Armando Leon By-Year Recaps

2026 - Oregon State Beavers DC

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2027 - Oregon State Beavers DC

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2028 - Maryland Terrapins Head Coach

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2029 - Oklahoma Sooners Head Coach

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2030 - Oklahoma Sooners Head Coach

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2031 - Oklahoma Sooners Head Coach

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Post by **Soapy** » 16 Dec 2025, 06:58

WELCOME TO THE CLUB!

Post by **djp73** » 16 Dec 2025, 07:18

Intrigued. Following.

Post by **Caesar** » 16 Dec 2025, 09:22

New contender in the ring. Soapy getting run off the block?!

Post by **Captain Canada** » 16 Dec 2025, 11:46

Yes sir

Post by **The JZA** » 16 Dec 2025, 16:06

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