Schaumburg's Iannotti audibles to an indoor quarterbacking opportunity

A few years ago, Anthony Iannotti heard from former Schaumburg High School football teammates Jerrail Johnson and John Cosgriff.

The minor-league football team Johnson and Cosgriff played for, the Chicago Chaos, needed a quarterback. So they approached Iannotti, who was the Daily Herald's Cook County All-Area captain in 2008 but didn't see his college career turn out the way he hoped.

"They said, 'Are you still interested in playing,' and I said, 'I don't know,' " Iannotti said. "I never stopped loving the game but all I needed was that one shot. I started playing and got the passion back.

"If they had never invited me to play for the team, who knows where I would have been?"

Where the 25-year-old Iannotti is now is quarterbacking the Chicago Eagles, a new arena team that plays its home games at the UIC Pavilion. Now he is in full pursuit of taking this to an even higher level along the lines of Kurt Warner, who went from working in a grocery store and playing arena football to becoming an NFL star and Super Bowl champion quarterback.

Iannotti got only a few snaps in the Eagles' first two games but has started the last two and is 33-for-52 passing for 324 yards with 5 touchdowns and 1 interception. His 30-yard touchdown pass with 17 seconds left last Saturday gave the Eagles their first victory in the Champions Indoor Football league.

Iannotti's teammates include defensive lineman Jordan Miller, who played three NFL regular-season games with the Packers and Jacksonville Jaguars, and linebacker Leon Mackey, who was in the Vikings' preseason camp.

"It's crazy when you look at our team and the competition level," Iannotti said. "These guys all have a dream to get to the NFL. You are dealing with a lot of players who have a chip on their shoulder and they are all looking to get a chance to prove something. That's the same thing I have.

"The speed and level of competition - you're dealing with pro athletes out there. I can be at this level and I've shown it."

It has just been through a route Iannotti did not envision when he left Schaumburg and went to Northern Iowa, where Warner also starred. Iannotti redshirted his first year and said his hopes of moving up the depth chart were derailed by a freak weight room accident where suffered a partial tear of the patellar tendon in his knee.

He wound up transferring to Division III powerhouse Wisconsin-Whitewater and saw limited time at quarterback and receiver. After one year, he transferred to Eastern Michigan, where his younger brother Mark was playing, to finish his degree in criminal justice.

"Coming out of high school, it's really a change going back to the bottom of the totem pole," Iannotti said. "I didn't really have anyone to lay the groundwork for me and I was going in blind. I was dealing with injuries and didn't get the opportunity I thought I would."

Playing again and having success with the Chaos rekindled his fire for football. So did working with his brother Mark, who made a successful transfer to Southern Illinois that has resulted in NFL interest.

And then at a game last June, Anthony Iannotti and his teammates noticed a guy on the sideline with a clipboard taking notes. They found out it was Tim Arvanitis, who was looking for players for Chicago's new arena football team.

"A few of us did pretty well and after the game he offered us a contract to join the team," Iannotti said. "I was pretty shocked by it. It really changed everything I'm doing.

"I was doing it the last few years for fun. Now I'm really working on my craft and training. I decided I can take this as far as I want to, but I need to put 100 percent of my time and effort into it."

That's what Iannotti, who lives in downtown Chicago near Navy Pier, is doing by training and working on his throwing. He has a couple of jobs as a bartender to keep a flexible schedule to play for the Eagles, whose next home game is April 9 vs. Omaha, and pursue other football possibilities.

Iannotti said Eagles owner and founder Brian Brundage wants players looking to get to higher levels such as the more-established Arena Football League. This month he is going to a Canadian Football League tryout camp for the second straight year.

It's not as if Iannotti is pursuing this because he has no other options. Scoring 35 on the ACT at Schaumburg would help open plenty of doors.

But he only has so much time to go after his dream job.

"You are only young once," Iannotti said. "I almost gave up on it, regrettably, and pushed my timeline back.

"The window is definitely coming to a close but if you keep pushing and keep at it, like Kurt Warner, it's definitely not impossible. All it takes is one person to give you an opportunity if you're ready for it and take advantage of it."

marty.maciaszek@gmail.com