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WILKES-BARRE — When the first-year Alliance of American Football gets underway in February, the San Diego Fleet will have some 570 flavor.
Shakir Soto.
That is unless Soto hasn’t already hitched on with an NFL team by then.
“It’s a blessing,” Soto said in an exclusive interview with the Times Leader on Thursday. “When that presented itself, I’m very excited about it — just keep playing. It’s a love for football and then it helps because it helps me take care of my family financially.”
One of the perks of Soto’s contract with the Fleet, is the fact that his deal has “no ties.”
It allows the GAR grad the opportunity to opt out of his deal with San Diego at any moment if an opportunity pops up with an NFL team, which could be on the horizon.
Soto said his agent, Cary Fabrikant, has been in contact with the Atlanta Falcons, Dallas Cowboys and Seattle Seahawks recently.
“I have a great agent. He got that to work,” Soto said. “If a team calls me tomorrow, I can just opt out of that contract. The GM for the team called me and told me that. But it’s a great back-up plan. Obviously, it’s better to keep playing football than not play football at all. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the next couple months, but if I don’t sign with an NFL team, I’ll just be in San Diego.”
Soto has optimism after last season.
The defensive tackle went through training camp with the Denver Broncos and was cut just before the start of the season. Then in December, he signed on to the Oakland Raiders’ practice squad and eventually earned a reserve-future contract. Soto went on to spend training camp with the Raiders before being cut prior to the regular season.
And while the Falcons, Cowboys and Seahawks have all shown interest in Soto, there just isn’t a spot on their rosters for him right now.
Dallas already has a defensive tackle on its practice squad while Atlanta has two, and the Seahawks carry four on their active roster, including rookie Poona Ford.
“My agent reached out to all these teams and obviously it’s good to have a couple of them call back,” Soto said. “They could not call back and have no interest there at all. Just calling back just shows there’s interest there.”
For now, the plan is to play in the AAF with San Diego.
Soto has a three-day mini camp with the Fleet Dec. 10-13. Then there’s training camp in January, with the 10-game regular season starting Feb. 9.
And as the days go by, and he continues to train for the upcoming AAF season, Soto hasn’t forgotten his ultimate goal — getting back into the NFL.
“That’s always been my goal,” Soto said of playing in that elusive first NFL regular-season game. “I’m hungry for it. I’m not satisfied with what I got so far and I’m just going to keep pushing forward. I’m never going to be satisfied no matter how far I get.
“If God didn’t want me to play football, he’d never offer me the AAF, things like that. So, obviously there’s a reason. Maybe he didn’t feel I was ready yet?”