By Danny Brady
Many athletes dream about having a professional sports career. Few succeed. Former Springfield College linebacker, Max Nacewicz, is one of the few.
In 2017, Nacewicz was the only Division III football player in one of the top three professional leagues (National Football League, Canadian Football League, Arena Football League), signing with the AFL’s Tampa Bay Storm.
He remembers the moment he got called into the Storm’s head coach Ron James’ office after surviving two rounds of cuts. “My heart was beating so fast,” Nacewicz said. I was so nervous because six years of work led to this moment…When I got the news, I was ecstatic. I remember calling my dad almost in tears and telling him, ‘I did it.’”
During his first season with the Storm, Nacewicz played mac linebacker and jack linebacker, which are positions unique to the AFL. He quickly adapted to the league’s different rules and eventually got the chance to start.
“Arena football felt like backyard football, everything was faster,” Nacewicz said. “I remember going in worried about the speed of the game, but on the first play as it progressed, everything started to slow down and I felt like I was back in college. I started to make plays and gain momentum, and I realized that I could play at this level.”
That year, Nacewicz experienced more than just individual success. The Storm finished the season with a record of 10-4 and later advanced to Arena Bowl XXX, eventually falling to the Philadelphia Soul 44-40.
Six years before signing with the Storm, Nacewicz arrived on Alden Street, where the bonds and connections he made helped him get to this spot.
“The college as a whole was amazing. They gave me resources to be successful, and the alumni network was huge,” he said. “There were a lot of like-minded individuals that helped create an environment where you were able to learn a lot and grow as an individual.”
He thought very highly of Springfield’s football program, which was led by former head coach and current Springfield College Hall of Famer, Mike DeLong.
“[Springfield Football] was run like a Division I program,” Nacewicz said. “The brotherhood and level of accountability that we had was unbelievable…We had a group of 120 guys that you could trust to have your back. We all shared similar goals and an aligned mission.”
Nacewicz had the goal of a professional career in mind, but it wasn’t a real possibility until after his freshman season.
“[The summer after freshman year] I had the best training summer ever,” Nacewicz said. “I put it all together, I stopped hanging out with the wrong kids and told myself that this is something that is very important to me.”
He formed a tight relationship with former assistant coach Cody Flanigan, who played an important role in Nacewicz’s development.
“[Coach Flanigan] pushed me to another level…I would go to practice, hit the cold plunge, lift, get food, watch film with [Coach Flanigan], then I would do it all over again,” Nacewicz said. ”It just kept progressing. I learned how to recover better than the competition, I learned how to train harder, I learned how to watch film more efficiently and it was amazing to piece it all together.”
Nacewicz recorded302 tackles, 57 tackles for loss and 34 sacks in his career at Springfield. In his senior season in 2015, he became Springfield’s first AFCA All-American selection since 2006. That year he was also a Cliff Harris Award finalist, USA College Football First Team All-America selection and Liberty League Defensive Player of the Year.
After his senior year, Nacewicz got the chance to train with NFL caliber athletes in Arizona for three months to prepare for an opportunity on a professional team. On his first day at the facility, former NFL stars Odell Beckham Jr., J.J. Watt and Colin Kaepernick were training in a similar group with him.
“These were some of the largest humans I’ve ever seen, so it made me grow up fast,” Nacewicz said. “I would get in there at 7:30 [a.m.] and I would leave at 7:30 [p.m.] and for those 12 hours everything was structured about you getting ready for your combine.”
During that offseason, Nacewicz was invited to a UMass combine, which hosted 31 of 32 NFL teams, along with a smaller pro day at Yale. While teams like the Jets, Colts and Redskins expressed interest, he was not invited to a camp at the NFL level.
Once the window to sign with an NFL team closed, Nacewicz garnered interest from both CFL and AFL teams, including the Montreal Alouettes and Philadelphia Soul. He remained unsigned.
“It was an emotional rollercoaster,” Nacewicz said. “They would bring you in on an evaluation process or you would go to a minicamp. The possibility of getting signed would get your hopes up, but then it wouldn’t work out. Before you know it you’re back home training all day, everyday, waiting for the next call.”
Near the end of 2016, Nacewicz signed a contract to participate in camp with the Tampa Bay Storm. He made the most of this opportunity.
“I outhustled everyone,” Nacewicz said. “There was nothing that was going to stop me from making that team because I had invested six years of my life into this, and it was my last shot.”
Nacewicz recalls a key difference in moving from Springfield football to pro football: “When you go from playing in front of 2,500 people at Stagg Field to an arena filled with 18,500 dedicated and passionate fans – it’s a whole different thing.”
After his time with the Storm, Nacewicz played a short time for the Albany Empire of the AFL in 2018 before being signed midseason by the Saarland Hurricanes of the GFL 2 (German Football League Second Division).
He described the differences in the style of play. “It was a pass heavy league and there was a bigger talent disparity,” Nacewicz said. “The practices were also more tempoed with less of a sense of urgency.”
The travel and venues were also very different. “We would play in third division German soccer stadiums,” Nacewicz said. “I was going to play a football game, but I was also going to see a brand new city or part of the country that I hadn’t seen before.”
After the 2018 season, Nacewicz took a year off to give his body a break and planned on returning to arena football. However, his plans were disrupted by the COVID pandemic. After COVID, he made a return to football by signing with the Barcelona Dragons of the European League of Football (ELF).
But after signing, he never played a game for the Dragons. Three weeks into training camp, he decided to retire.
“I wasn’t playing like I used to,” Nacewicz said. “I wasn’t as aggressive. I always had a non-stop motor and I realized I had lost an element of that. At that point it was unfair to me, and it was unfair for that game of football for me to play at that level.”
Nacewicz was able to create lifelong friendships and bonds with his teammates, coaches and owners during his football career.
“I always wanted to represent my brand really well because I knew football wasn’t forever,” Nacewicz said. “I still have a lot of teammates specifically in Europe that will come visit me in America and vice versa.My owners in Germany and Tampa are guys that I still keep in touch with as well.”
After his professional career, Nacewicz reflected on what it takes to become a professional athlete from the Division III level.
“You have to be all in. It is physically, mentally and emotionally hard. If you’re not obsessed with it, you are competing against someone who is. You have to believe in yourself and have a high level of confidence. You can earn that by doing things that no one else does.”
Photo courtesy of Max Nacewicz