Sweet home Alabama

Playing football — wherever possible for as long as possible — has been Max Meylor’s dream for two decades now.

So when the Alabama Airborne asked the former Mount Horeb and UW-Whitewater standout if he wanted to grab a helmet and shoulder pads, Meylor hopped in his car and raced off to Mobile.

The Airborne are competing in a start-up league called Major League Football. Alabama is one of four cities inaugural that will compete in a one-month season starting on August 9.

Mobile is also the host city for league’s three-week training camp, that began on Monday. Meylor and most of the other players began arriving in Mobile last week.

MLFB bills itself as a “player development league” and has hopes of expanding to as many as eight teams next spring and playing up to 24-games. For now, it’s a way for Meylor — and many others — to keep their football dreams alive.

My agent gave me a call about this upcoming league called Major League Football and the Alabama Airborne team was interested in me,” Meylor said from Mobile last week. “I had a couple calls with the GM of the team and it went well and now I’m here in Mobile, Alabama competing on the football field again.”

Each MLFB team will start out with 70 players per team and will be trimmed down to roughly 50 players following training camp. Jerry Glanville, who once coached Hall of Famer Brett Favre in Atlanta, is Mobile’s head coach.

After the regular season concludes, the MLFB’s inaugural championship game will be held Sept. 6 in Canton. Meylor knows if he can shine over the next month, it could lead to new opportunities down the road.

“I have everything to prove the next couple weeks,” Meylor said. “There are cuts and I have to do my best to keep my dream alive. It’s a unique time for me, but there are many connections down here where I could get my foot in the door down the road.”

Meylor, 24, is coming off a terrific senior season at Whitewater where he was named the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Association Player of the Year. Meylor was also a semifinalist for the Gagliardi Trophy, which is the Division III equivalent of the Heisman Trophy after throwing 35 touchdowns, just two interceptions and completing 70.5% of his passes.

Meylor led the Warhawks to a 13-1 record and a trip to the NCAA Division III national semifinals, where they lost to Mary Hardin-Baylor of Texas.

“I spend my whole game looking ticked off, like I had something bad for breakfast,” Whitewater coach Kevin Bullis said. “But I desire for our guys to play the game like they’re having fun. … You see (Meylor) out there chest-bumping and smiling and laughing. And when you’re a leader and you show you’re having fun, it carries over. It effervesces into the offense, effervesces into the team.”

That was certainly the case for Meylor at Mount Horeb.

He became the starting quarterback early in his sophomore season and led the Vikings to Level 3 of the WIAA Division 3 state playoffs each year. Mount Horeb won a share of the Badger Conference title in 2014, and recorded the only back-to-back victories over perennial power Waunakee in program history. 

During Meylor’s brilliant three years at Mount Horeb, he threw for 7,489 career yards, the sixth-highest in Wisconsin history. He also threw for 69 touchdowns, the ninth-highest in state history.

Meylor completed nearly 63% of his passes and rushed for 1,341 yards in his career, which included second-team all-state honors as a senior and honorable mention as a junior. And for good measure, he led the Vikings to the WIAA Division 2 boys state basketball championship in 2015.

“He’s the epitome of a leader,” former Mount Horeb coach Travis Rohrer said of Meylor. “There are a lot of players I’ve enjoyed coaching in my 29 years, but hands down, there’s no one I loved coaching more than Max, and I miss it.”

“With my students, with my athletes, I ask them, ‘Do you want to be the one who turns the lights on or turns the lights off?’ Max has a light about him, a magnetism. And usually when you’re dealing with someone with that much talent, there’s a level of arrogance — and it’s accepted. He is as humble a human as I’ve met, regardless of talent. And he’s just fun to be around.”

Now, Meylor is hoping to keep that fun alive in Alabama.

He’s bucked the odds many times while becoming arguably the greatest athlete in Mount Horeb history. Now, Maylor hopes to take advantage of his latest opportunity — and keep his dream alive.

“I will chase the football dream and train as long as I keep hearing opportunities that are worth the time,” he said.