Fantasy season continues for Stevenson's Earl

Perhaps nothing can bring men closer together than Fantasy Football.

Take the young Earl brothers.

They were pretty tight before. But now that they're playing Fantasy Football, Kevin and Preston might as well be conjoined twins.

“Preston and I are pretty into it, Kevin Earl said. “We love it. It's so much fun. We're always talking about Fantasy Football.

Here's the funny thing about the Earl brothers.

They may have just recently started playing Fantasy Football together, but they've been living a parallel life of fantasy football for years.

The sons of former Bears running back Robin Earl, Kevin and Preston grew up watching NFL games in person and meeting professional football players at special events.

Sometimes they even got the pros to share some of their best tips.

As they got older, the Earl brothers then created a football legacy that is a rarity for a single family, as well as a, shall we say, fantasy for a family so in love with football.

Both Preston and Kevin became starting quarterbacks for their high school teams.

Preston was selected all-conference as a senior at Stevenson in 2005 and set the school record for passing yards in a season with 1,999.

Kevin is the Patriots' quarterback now.

He's led Stevenson to a 6-0 record and a No. 3 ranking in the Associated Press Class 8A state poll.

Last week against Lake Zurich, the poised senior had the best game of his two-year varsity career with the Patriots as he led a crucial two-minute drill to perfection.

Stevenson trailed the host Bears 23-17 with 2:14 remaining and faced an 80-yard march to the end zone.

But Kevin completed pass after pass (14-of-24 overall for 207 yards) to help the Patriots move swiftly downfield. Stevenson eventually scored with three seconds to spare and stole away a 24-23 victory.

“When I was in seventh grade and Preston was at Stevenson, I remember thinking about how awesome he was and about how awesome it was to watch him, Kevin said of his older brother, who is now the starting quarterback at Benedictine University in Lisle. “I thought he was Superman out there.

“He always told me, ‘You're going to be out there doing the same thing in four or five years,' and that was hard to imagine. When I got to high school, I still wasn't sure how it was all going to pan out. I was always a pretty good football player but all the other kids were suddenly so much bigger and faster. I remember thinking ‘Man, I just hope that I can start on varsity someday.'

Of course, that seems like a silly notion now.

Earl has been one of the most efficient quarterbacks in Lake County this season while navigating a brutally tough schedule.

He's completed 55 percent of his passes (52-of-94) and has rolled up 761 passing yards. He's also thrown for 7 touchdowns.

All the while, he's been intercepted just once.

That, too, came during the Lake Zurich game.

“I was really hoping to go at least our first nine games without an interception, Earl said. “That really bothered me.

You would have hardly known it.

Frustration and stress seems to roll off Earl's back as if it were made of Teflon.

“Kevin is always very business-like when he plays the game of football, Stevenson coach Bill McNamara said. “That's why I wasn't worried at all about him in those last two minutes of the Lake Zurich game. I had a lot of confidence that he would get the job done for us, and do it with a very calm, quiet demeanor. He's just always in control, and he has a lot of maturity for a kid his age.

Earl says he's simply a laid-back kind of kid by nature and that his cool demeanor might be his best asset as a quarterback. Even better, believe it or not, than his rocket of an arm and his often pin-point accuracy.

“I usually keep my cool, Kevin said. “Like during that Lake Zurich game, I wasn't nervous. I was more determined. When I looked down the field and saw 80 yards, I thought, ‘Man, that's a long way.' But I knew all I should focus on was moving the chains. I was yelling the cadences, I was trying to communicate with my receivers. I just wanted to move the ball downfield with confidence.

“That probably would have been more of a challenge last year when I was a junior. I think I've grown up and matured a lot since then. But even when I was younger, I was always kind of calm, taking things in stride.

That's what Earl likes best about his favorite NFL player, Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots. He says Brady's on-field demeanor is very similar to his.

“I love Tom Brady's style, Earl said. “I love the way he carries himself. He's confident. He stands in the pocket tall, cool and calm. He can make plays out of nothing because of how he's just able to keep his cool.

“That's what I try to do. That's what I really admire about him.

Of course, there's someone else in football Kevin really admires.

Well, two people, actually: his father Robin, who played for the Bears from 1977 to 1982 and Preston, who has shared in much of his development.

“Preston and I have trained a lot together, Kevin said. “We've worked on our speed and flexibility and technique and footwork. He's always helping me out.

“But I'd say the best thing about him is that he's been so supportive of me. He's not like most older brothers. He never picked on me. If anything, he was always very protective of me. He's always wanted nothing but the best for me and it makes him really happy when I do well.

In fact, Preston apparently couldn't stop talking about Kevin's game against Lake Zurich last weekend. Word of his heroics traveled fast around the Benedictine campus.

“We went to visit him last weekend and watch his game, the day after the Lake Zurich game, and all his teammates came up to me and told me about how they had heard about my game, Kevin laughed. “Preston must have been bragging about me or something.

For now, Preston has family bragging rights over Kevin in the Stevenson records department. Preston graduated with nearly every passing record in school history.

But Kevin isn't overly concerned about whether or not he overtakes Preston by the end of this season.

“I'm really not too worried about it, Kevin said. “I guess it would be nice to have some school records. But my goal isn't just to be one of the best quarterbacks at Stevenson. My goal is to be the first state championship quarterback at Stevenson.

For Earl, that would be the very best kind of fantasy football.

pbabcock@dailyherald.com