Brennan AngelBeing cut at any level in athletics is a tough situation to handle. The athlete may dabble in depression, participate in risky behavior or make excuses about what went wrong and what could have been.
Then there’s the Kyle Shotwell approach.
The former Cal Poly linebacker and Buck Buchanan Award recipient received a call from the Oakland Raiders on Sept. 2 that informed him that he would not be on the team’s eight-man practice roster. But despite the disappointing news the humble and confident Shotwell is already taking what he has learned from the experience and looking ahead to a future away from football.
“It was a good experience,” Shotwell said. “It was a really challenging experience but I think I learned a lot about football in that short amount of time. I learned a lot but I also learned a lot about myself and I learned a lot about the differences between, you know, college and professional football (of) which there are many.”
Displaying no animosity toward his experience, Shotwell said that student athletes at a smaller school like Cal Poly rarely, if ever, see the business elements of the game such as television contracts. However, at the NFL level, Shotwell said he saw business decisions about the team and its players being made every day.
“That’s really what a lot of the cuts come down to is that a lot of them are just business decisions and when you’re talking about that much money . at the end of the day it’s all about the bottom line,” Shotwell said. “I realize that that’s how it is. I didn’t necessarily hear it from when you first start going but I got to see it first hand and it made me realize what’s important about football.”
Before the phone call, Shotwell played in four NFL preseason games for the Raiders and participated in their training camp. In the four games played, he made 10 tackles – eight of them solo. Seven of the 10 tackles came in the Raiders’ 19-14 preseason finale loss to Seattle. He had five solo tackles in the game.
Though Shotwell hasn’t completely given up on football, he’s not banking on it either. The immediate future is still somewhat unknown but he expressed a thorough interest in pursuing a master’s degree and possibly a teaching credential.
“I would like to come back and do it at Cal Poly if I could,” Shotwell said. “I love San Luis (Obispo). I love Cal Poly athletics and I love the school. And, I have two younger brothers who are here right now so it would be fun to be back here with them.”
As for the long term, Shotwell said he would eventually like to move in the direction of becoming an athletic director at the university level but he’s open to other opportunities as well.
“I could very easily see myself getting into coaching too,” Shotwell said. “I feel really fortunate because football has opened a lot of doors for me, as far as the connections and people I’ve been able to meet. I’m going to try to exercise some of my opportunities.”
Shotwell hasn’t ruled out football completely, but he’s not banking on it either. He feels fortunate to have reached the level of play that he did.
“For a lot of my friends, it ended in high school,” Shotwell said. “I got to go on to college and play . I got to do some cool stuff like play in a cool All-Star game, move up to a new area and go through an NFL mini-camp and OTAs (organized team activities) and training camp and play in four NFL preseason games.
“It’s been almost a year since I finished playing for Cal Poly but I’m still going. I got to do it a lot longer than most people do it,” Shotwell added.
The Oakland coaching staff told him to “stay ready because you never know what can happen in the season.” Though he’s not sure whether he will get a call, Shotwell said he plans to stay in shape not so much for football but primarily to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
“There’s going to come a point where I’m going to have to close the door on football,” Shotwell said. “Football is going to have to come back to me. I’m not going to keep banging on the door but I’m going to keep myself available and ready.”
Shotwell is Cal Poly’s all-time record-holder for tackles in a season with 158 in 2005 and he is second all-time in career tackles (392) behind Jordan Beck. In addition to the Buck Buchanan Award, Shotwell played in the 82nd Annual East-West Shrine Game where he picked up seven tackles, five of which were solo, and the Pat Tillman Award.
“I feel my body of work that I’ve compiled in college, then the All-Star game (East-West Shrine Game) and Pro Day, and at training camps and my games that I’ve played, I think it speaks the fact that I can play football,” Shotwell said. “Whether people are going to want to give me a chance is up to them.”