Three times, Major League Baseball teams drafted Erik Meyer.
Meyer, now 31, is still playing professional sports. In fact, he’s coming off his best season ever. Despite a 90-plus mile-an-hour fastball, Meyer opted to take his talent to the gridiron and not the diamond. The Eastern Washington Eagles are glad he did.
Meyer, who quarterbacked Eastern Washington from 2002-05, led the Eagles to two Big Sky Championships, threw for 10,261 yards and 84 touchdowns, and won the 2005 Walter Payton Award, ranks 12th on the list of the Big Sky Conference’s “50 Greatest Male Athletes.’’
“It’s an honor to be that high up with all the players who’ve come through the Big Sky,’’ Meyer said. “More than just as an individual achievement, it shows the teams and the guys I had the chance to play around.’’
The 6-foot-1, 215-pounder from La Miranda, Calif., wasn’t highly-recruited as a football player. He visited UTEP and Eastern Washington. The Eagles were his only scholarship offer. In the spring of 2001, the Cincinnati Reds selected the right-handed pitcher in the 37th round of the Major League Baseball amateur draft.
“There was a lot of thought about going into baseball,’’ Meyer recalled. “It was a tough decision. I stayed home from school my senior year the day of the draft and waited for the phone calls, but when it came down to it, football was my passion, and I couldn’t see myself giving up football at all.’’
Meyer saw limited action in 2002, behind co-Big Sky Offensive MVP Josh Blankenship. In 2003, he threw for 2,301 yards with 20 touchdowns. He started the year competing with Skyler Allen, but eventually took command of the offense.
“I had some playing time my freshman year as a backup,’’ he said. “I started my redshirt sophomore year, and at first it was tough. I’m not going to lie. We had a little bit of a quarterback battle going, and it was the first time in three years I’d started. It was a lot different than high school, especially getting used to the timing of the collegiate level.’’
Meyer’s breakout campaign came in 2004, when he guided the Eagles to the co-Big Sky Championship, and earned Offensive MVP honors, as well as First Team All-Big Sky honors. He threw for 3,707 yards and 31 touchdowns.
The season also included two of his top memories. In a classic battle with Montana State QB Travis Lulay, Meyer threw for 372 yards and five touchdown passes as the Eagles rallied from a 37-23 deficit late in the third quarter to win 51-44 in overtime Bozeman. Meyer tied the game with 12 seconds left in regulation, throwing a 5-yard TD pass to Eric Kimble.
“We faced so much adversity that game,’’ Meyer recalled. “It was hard to see us winning that game. We came late in the third quarter and it started clicking.’’
In the first round of the
2004 postseason, the Eagles upset top-ranked and top-seeded Southern Illinois 35-31 on the road. Meyer threw for 437 yards and three touchdowns. After fumbling on his way to the end zone – a turnover that allowed the Salukies to drive 99 yards and take the lead – Meyer marched his squad down the field in the final minute for the game-winning score.
“That was a pretty big win for our program,’’ Meyer said. “We had the chance to put the game away. I took off scrambling and dove for the end zone, and fumbled. Had we lost that game, knowing that I fumbled, that would have been heartbreaking.’’
Heartbreak came the next week when the Eagles let a 20-point lead slip away at home, losing on the final play of the game 35-34 to Sam Houston State in the quarterfinals.
“I think about that game every day, every single day and night’’ Meyer said. “When we played Southern Illinois, I thought they were the best team. When we beat them, I thought we were. We were up 20 with 10 minutes to play.’’
Meyer returned in 2005, but not before the San Francisco Giants drafted him in the 37th-round and he partook in one baseball workout. The session in front of scouts was something out of the movie “Major League.”
“It was like when Rick Vaughn was on the mound,’’ Meyer recalled with a laugh, referring to the fictional hard-throwing, control-challenged “Wild Thing’ played by Charlie Sheen. “I didn’t have baseball pants that fit me. I wore EWU shorts and a T-shirt. I didn’t have baseball cleats. I hadn’t really thrown in three years, and my first pitch went over the catcher’s head, and the two guys with radar guns fell to the ground. I was laughing a little bit out there. I ended up throwing pretty good.’’
Meyer clocked 94 miles-an-hour on the pitch, and hit 96 during the session.
During the 2005 season his laser-arm helped him become just the fourth player in league history to throw for 4,000 yards in a season. He finished with 4,003 with 30 touchdowns and just five interceptions. He was named the league offensive MVP for the second straight season, guided the Eagles to the Big Sky Championship, and captured the Big Sky’s sixth Walter Payton Award, edging New Hampshire’s Ricky Santos in the closest vote in award’s history.
At least some of his college success can be traced to the Eagles’ current head coach Beau Baldwin, who served as Meyer’s QB coach from 2003-05.
“He’s so smart, as far as the Xs and Os on the field,’’ Meyer said. “Off the field, he was like a father-figure to me, a father away from home. He took care of me. Whenever I was up here, he’s the first person I’d see.’’
Passion and accuracy are two words that come to mind when Baldwin talks about Meyer, who completed 65.7 percent of his collegiate passes.
“He had a passion for playing the game, competing and leading,’’ said Baldwin. “The guy has never been afraid of a situation or a moment. He proved that with his success in critical times, in big games, in the red zone. He did things well in practice, but he was at his very best when the lights came on and it was game time. He had an amazing way of making plays, and is still probably one of the most accurate quarterbacks I’ve coached.’’
Baldwin said Meyer had a great knack for knowing when to unleash a pass with his rocket arm, and knowing when to throw the ball with touch.
“He was smart enough to throw the ball to complete it,’’ Baldwin said. “He knew how to throw catchable passes. Once in awhile when he needed to rip it, he would. He probably didn’t get enough credit as good as he was in terms of arm strength. His accuracy, anticipation and timing, those are just certain things you can’t teach.’’
After his senior season, he was drafted – again. Not by an NFL team, but once again by the San Francisco Giants in the 30th round. Again, he tried football, earning a free-agent contract with the Cincinnati Bengals. He didn’t stick, so he finally gave professional baseball a try, spending time with the Giants in an instructional league.
An opportunity to play in NFL Europe in 2007 for the Cologne Centurions came, and he took it. After NFLE folded, there were stops in the NFL and the CFL with Seattle, Oakland and Hamilton, but never long stops. He entered the Arena Football League in 2010 with the Spokane, went to Utah in 2011 for a brief stint, before being traded back to Spokane
“I was injured here and there,’’ he said. “It was more of a mental thing I was struggling with. I went to the NFL and bounced around, and injuries would keep me from making teams. After a year off, I went to the Arena League. Every year when I went in, my mentality was to get through the year, and not get hurt.
“Last year, I said, ‘screw it.’ I’m not going to worry about getting hurt. I went into the offseason training to be the best player in Arena football. I wasn’t going to get hurt. I told the team I was going to start every single game.’’
Eight years after his last snap for the EWU Eagles, Meyer had his breakout professional season. He set Shock franchise records with 112 touchdowns, 4,667 passing yards, and a 65.2 percent completion percentage. He rushed for 15 touchdowns, and led the team to a 14-4 record. He was named the Offensive Player of the Year and the League MVP.
“It was more fun than rewarding,’’ he said. “Not to be cocky, but I know that I’m a great football player. To have the chance to finally show it for a whole season was rewarding.’’
Meyer is a bit of a free-spirit away from the field, but on it he remains an intense competitor.
“If you talk to my teammates they’ll say I’m always joking around, messing around, doing pranks,’’ he said. “The other thing they will say is that when we compete, they know they are going to get 100 percent from me. I’m dedicated to the game. It makes me the person I am. I truly want to win.’’
Meyer will return to the Shock in 2014, and he hopes to lead the Shock to the Arena Bowl after losing in the conference finals to eventual Arena Bowl Champion Arizona.
He’s also got his hand in coaching. He was the Central Washington quarterbacks coach this last season. If he doesn’t coach this year, you’ll likely find him joining the coaching full-time once his playing days end.
