SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
The Kansas City Chiefs are having a great year, but they're not the only successful football team in town. Kansas City's other Chiefs, a wheelchair football team, is also undefeated, 9-0, and this team is also built around an outstanding quarterback. Frank Morris of member stationed KCUR reports.
FRANK MORRIS, BYLINE: Football is fast and rough. Wheelchair football? - same.
(SOUNDBITE OF BANG)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Turned up.
MORRIS: At a weeknight practice in a small-town high school gym, muscular guys strapped down tight to compact wheelchairs are whirling and darting and smashing into each other - think hockey with tighter turns.
MATT BOLLIG: It's high impact, high intensity. It's a very fast game. There's a lot of collisions and going on the ground. But at the same time, it's very poetic.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Ay.
MORRIS: Matt Bollig, the Chiefs' star quarterback, can sling the ball 40 yards from his chair, accurately, under pressure. He played college football before a weight-lifting injury cost him the use of his legs. Rookie defensive lineman, Donte Hill, comes to the game differently - with a lifelong disability. He's new to football and loving it.
DONTE HILL: Sometimes, if you blitz, you might hit the gap just right and you have a clear lane to the running back or quarterback, and you just get to ram right into him (laughter).
MORRIS: Those collisions can topple players. Some players use explosive acrobatic moves to spring themselves upright. Bruises, scrapes, broken bones are all part of the game.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: You hear that?
(SOUNDBITE OF SQUEAKING)
MORRIS: Wheelchair football players square off seven on seven. Their field stretches 60 yards, except it's not a field. It's generally concrete, asphalt. Thirteen of the 14 teams competing in the USA Wheelchair Football League are named after the NFL teams in their cities. Players wear the helmets, jerseys of their home teams, which pumps up Bollig.
BOLLIG: Yeah, it's a pride thing. It's hometown. It's a logo. It's a symbol, and it's kind of life for me. I grew up watching the Chiefs, and I have always wanted to be a part of this team, and now I have an opportunity. Hopefully I can make the best of it.
MORRIS: The organization Move United founded the league six years ago, with help from the Bob Woodruff Foundation and the NFL. Glenn Merry is Move United's executive director.
GLENN MERRY: And I think it's really important to recognize that it's different. We had to adapt the game. But if you're watching this game, you're going to understand these people are athletes and that they're people.
MORRIS: Adapting to the game takes money. Those fast, sturdy wheelchairs start around three grand. Travel for games, funding to put on tournaments - it all flows through the NFL's Salute to Service program. Half the players are veterans, like Chiefs' offensive lineman, John Teegarden, still in the game at 61.
JOHN TEEGARDEN: I try to keep up with them. They keep getting younger, and they keep getting stronger, and they keep getting faster (laughter). It's not me that's changing. It's them.
MORRIS: The young league is changing, too, drawing 30% more participants this year than last and looking for expansion teams. Meanwhile, the Chiefs are looking for their second national championship.
JASON LOFTISS: We call it the Super Bowl, but it's not the Super Bowl. It's the national championship, so - but pretty much all of us call it our Super Bowl.
MORRIS: Chiefs' defensive back Jason Loftiss says competing itself is a win.
LOFTISS: You know, I mean, just 'cause some of us - our legs don't work or we're missing part of them, doesn't mean we can't compete and go out there and win games.
MORRIS: The wheelchair Chiefs are building a legacy. They've won a birth in every one of the league's four championship games, and they like their chances at home next Saturday against the Chicago Bears.
For NPR News, I'm Frank Morris in Kansas City.
(SOUNDBITE OF ALBERT COLLINS SONG, "ICE PICKIN'") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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