Former Cub Great (Not Really) Kyle Farnsworth Is Now A Semi Pro Football Player In Orlando

Big Cat5/08/2015 6:55 PM

Kyle Farnsworth certainly understands the curiosity as to why he’s spent the last several months playing semi-pro football in Orlando, but for the longtime major-league pitcher, the answer to the question on everyone’s mind isn’t especially complicated.

“I don’t want to look back and wish I would have done something,” Farnsworth told FOX Sports in a phone interview Thursday. “That’s really the main reason. I don’t want to have regrets in life, and I want to know I did everything I could possibly want to do and did the best I could at it. I didn’t want to be thinking back five, six years from now and wonder what could have happened. It’s kind of just the way I live my life.”

Farnsworth last pitched in 2014 for the Houston Astros, his ninth major-league team in 16 seasons, and joined the Orlando Phantoms of the Florida Football Alliance after an open tryout last summer. Farnsworth didn’t have to look hard to find the team — he says he basically just did a Google search for semi-pro football in the area — and although he hadn’t played since his freshman year of high school, he wasn’t worried about fitting in on the field.

“Even playing as a little kid, I always loved football, so I figured I should go out there and see what happens,” Farnsworth said of his audition. “It was kind of like back in high school when you’ve got to try out for the baseball team and stuff like that. You just have to go enjoy yourself. It was a lot of people, 100-some-odd people, and I had a good time.”

The Phantoms’ season began in late January and is still ongoing after 11 games, with a playoff game scheduled for Saturday. And it’s a good thing, too, because, despite Farnsworth’s fame among baseball fans, it took almost the entire year for his teammates to figure out the true identity of No. 90 at defensive end.

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Well this is just perfect. If you had asked me where Kyle Farnsworth was these days I probably would have narrowed it down to Florida and doing some type of football/boxing/agression activity of some sort. I mean come on, this isn’t exactly a stretch. If it weren’t for a rocket arm he would have been doing this all along. Kyle Farnsworth always was looking to hit somebody.

He also had the tighest pants of any player ever and rocked those sweet necklaces you could buy at Abercrombie and Fitch for $29.99 back in the day, what a boss.