Photo Courtesy of Ryan Sun / AP
By Julio Rodríguez
It was a lot for a 10-year-old kid to take in.
A roaring stadium, confetti cannons, exuberant cheerleaders and the San Diego Chargers in powder blue streaming on the field at Qualcomm Stadium. The old stadium’s floor rumbled under the thunderous explosion of joy and expectation.
Craning to look over and around the large men standing in front of him, the pee wee football quarterback looked up at his father with a bold prediction.
“I’m going to be here one day.”
His dad, the retired Mexican professional soccer player Juan Perez, nodded his head.
“I believe it,” he said.
Luis Perez opened his 30-year-old eyes and peered out of the tunnel into the packed stands at SoFi Stadium and the pre-game chaos on the field. He was draped in gold, white and powder blue with the number 11 bold on his chest and the NFL Shield above. On his helmet streaked the iconic Charger lightning bolt.
Luis Perez, number 11, quarterback for the Los Angeles Chargers.
BOWLED OVER
It would be an understatement to say Perez did not follow a classic path to the NFL. His ran through Southwestern College and before then, a bowling alley. He had once left football behind due to his prodigious talent as a bowler.
By the time he enrolled at Otay Ranch High School he had already won several tournaments and seemed destined for a professional career. While his friends battled in pads and cleats, Perez rolled thunderous strikes and filled his parents’ house with trophies.
Then he changed his mind. Watching his friends prepare for their senior year of football was too much. He wanted to give bowling a break and play football again. Friends and family were mystified. Some were supportive, some not.
His most important advisor took his side. His mother said to go for it.
“I dropped something that I pretty much had in the bag, something I could do as a career,” he said. “I wanted to pursue the football dream! I can bowl when I’m 50 years old.”
Otay Ranch had a quarterback already, so Perez graduated without taking a snap. He spent the summer of 2012 learning the fundamentals of the quarterback position – on YouTube. He enrolled at Southwestern College and approached former football head coach Ed Carberry.
“He was a skinny little guy,” Carberry said. “He was a good worker but I really didn’t have the time to take on another quarterback.”
Perez tried to convince Carberry to let him come back in the spring and try again, but the coach was not having it.
“You’re not going to compete,” Carberry recalled telling Perez. “We’re going to take the team in a different direction. You’re welcome to switch positions or go to Grossmont or another school, but you’re not going to play quarterback for me.”
So he cut him.
Perez refused to go away.
“With all due respect,” he told the bewildered coach. “I’m going to keep showing up until I get an opportunity.”
Perez came back for spring workouts, but Carberry gave the bulk of the playing time to other quarterbacks. Carberry cut him again.
Undeterred, Perez returned in the fall before the 2013 season. He was the ninth out of nine on the quarterback depth chart, buried deeper than a missile silo.
NINE LIVES
Fate then smiled on the stubborn QB wanna-be. Players in front of him fell away like layers of a boiling onion. It was a nearly perfect storm of guys switching positions, transferring, getting hurt or quitting.
Perez started to see more reps and showed great improvement. He lost the starting spot to former Valhalla High QB Frank Foster but won the backup job. He made his debut in Game 5 against East Los Angeles. Carberry had a great view of the show to come.
“On the first pass he completed in a game…he got outside, over his shoulder with defenders chasing him,” Carberry said. “He threw the ball over his left shoulder and it was a touchdown.”
In his fairytale premier Perez was dominant and finished the game 21-32 in completions, 248 yards passing and three touchdowns. Post game, full of emotion, he yelled to Carberry.
“I told you, coach!” he shouted happily. “I told you I could do it!”
Carberry replied.
“You’re damn right!”
Then, as fast as his star rose, it came crashing down.
In the game against El Camino-Compton Center Perez broke his leg. Just as he had summited the mountain, he found himself back in the valley.
After four days questioning the fairness of the universe and the gods of the gridiron, he returned to the team on crutches. Carberry said he was startled.
“What are you doing here, man?” the coach asked. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
Perez seemed equally startled.
“I want to be here so I can learn.”
He hopped along, watched film, studied playbooks and rehabbed hard. Perez and Carberry bonded, but his comeback hit a bump. Former Oceanside High QB Isaraelu “Tofi” Paopao grabbed the starting job in the fall, but it was déjà vu all over again. In Week 3 Paopao went down with an injury. Perez stepped into as starter and never let go.
Perez developed a fanbase, including former SC offensive coordinator Doug Brady, a quarterbacks guru at his Brady Performance coaching company. He invited Perez to join their program and study the ways of professional signal callers.
“I remember Coach Carberry speaking very highly of him,” Brady said.
An introduction was made but Perez did not sign on. The time weas not right.
Southwestern finished the season 10-1 and won a state championship. Perez was first-team All-Conference and received 10 full scholarships to Division I and II universities. schools. Perez chose Division II Texas A&M Commerce and continued to blossom.
In 2016 he seized the starting job as a sophomore, the first Latino quarterback in school history.
DIVISION II HEISMAN TROPHY
Perez had an astonishing year with a 63 percent completion rate, 3,326 passing yards and 32 touchdowns. He was first-team All-Conference and a finalist for the Harlon Hill Award – the Division II equivalent of the Heisman Trophy.
In 2017 Perez took home the Harlon Hill Award and led his team to the Division II championship.
Back in Chula Vista Carberry was thrilled.
“We watched the championship game,” he said. “The things Luis could do with the ball were amazing! One pass was the best I had ever seen him throw. They blitzed him, and a guy was coming off the edge to his left. He just turned the other way and ripped it.”
“Commerce was awesome for me,” Perez said. “I was able to accomplish so many things. I had a great coaching staff and a really complete team. That’s why I was able to have so much success.”
Perez was undrafted by the NFL but signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Rams. He was quick to earn praise from head coach Sean McVay.
“A couple times he kind of pissed me off because he beat me into the office,” said McVay. “He’s already in there studying tape.”
Despite his determination, Perez was released in September.
Perez bounced around several Spring football teams, earning the title of King of Spring. He was signed and released by three NFL teams—the Lions, Eagles and – once again – the Rams. The dream was fading.
2023 was a pivotal year. Perez was drafted by the Vegas Vipers of the XFL.
“It was a disaster,” he said.
The Vipers were snakebit and lost five of their first six games. Perez was traded to the Arlington Renegades. It was a mid-season blessing. He knew they were a good football team but lacked the right quarterback.
Arlington also had solid coaches. Head coach Bob Stoops (formerly of the University of Oklahoma) and former SDSU coach Chuck Long gave Perez a hurry-up seminar on the Renegades’ dynamic playbook.
Despite a regular season record of 4-6, Arlington gelled in the playoffs. Perez led the team to the XFL Championship game against the DC Defenders. He received a much appreciated call from Carberry. His savvy mentor spent 30 minutes going over game scenarios.
On the first drive Perez faced a third and 13. With a rusher pouring around the right edge, he found tight end Sal Cannella for a 41-yard touchdown. Arlington ran up 35 points on the Defenders and were crowned XFL champions.
In his postgame trophy ceremony interview under a shower of confetti, Stoops was asked about his season of turnarounds.
“I’d say the big turning point was getting Luis Perez,” Stoops said. “Getting our quarterback Luis in there. He’s really galvanized this team.”
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson presented the trophy in his grumbling wrestling voice.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, your MVP for the XFL Championship game…Luis Perez!”
Perez fought back tears as he fist bumped The Rock and lofted the trophy for all to see.
“We did it!” he shouted to his teammates.
Perez re-signed with Arlington in 2024 and dominated. He led the league in passing yards, touchdowns, passer rating and completions. Despite his heroics, Arlington finished 3-7 and missed the playoffs.
Carberry’s friend Doug Brady—the quarterback whisperer Perez had met at Southwestern College – came calling. Perez signed on and spent nine months working out with him.
“It was very natural and easy to communicate with him,” Brady said. “Some people think they know it all, but he is not that way. He’s willing to hear anyone out if he feels like they can give him good information.”
SUPER CHARGER
Brady spoke to new Los Angeles Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh about Perez. When Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert was injured, Perez got a shot.
“I (heard from) Harbaugh during dinner with my wife in Nashville,” he said. “I texted him earlier in the day wishing him luck with training camp. He responded, ‘Luis threw well today.’”
Three days prior to the first preseason game, Perez was told he would be on the opening day roster.
“I made it to where I said I was going to make it,” he said. “For it to be the Chargers (was) a real cool moment.”
A new challenge loomed—learning an NFL playbook in three days. QB coach Shane Day took him under his wing.
From dawn to dark, Perez trained and studied. He and Day spent hours going over plays, sharing meals and watching film.
“(Coach Day) is unbelievable,” Perez said. “He took so much time to teach me the offense. Playing quarterback is not easy, so you have to make sure that you’re detailed in everything you do. He’s very detailed.”
Perez made his debut in a game against the Seattle Seahawks. His second pass resulted in his first completion to receiver JJ Johnson.
“It was the right read,” he said. “It was single high press man coverage. I like JJ. He had a nice release and made a nice play.”
Perez finished as the Chargers’ leading passer for the game. Offensive Coordinator Greg Roman praised his quarterback.
“He’s in here late every day trying to pick it up,” said Roman. “He’s been here for three, four days and ended up going out there and did a pretty good job. He’s got a lot to learn, a lot to catch up on, he’s sprinting to do it.”
As he took the field against the Rams Perez looked comfortable. A highlight was a nine-play, 49-yard drive for a field goal.
“When he got in there he had a plan,” Brady said. “The game speeds up at that level and knew where he was going with the football.”
Harbaugh said he wanted Perez to play the full second half and throughout the organization the word was that the walk-on quarterback may walk into a job.
It was not to be.
Perez did not play in the next game and days later was waived.
“It was very devastating,” he said. “(I thought I’d) made it. I was doing really well in practice. It’s all positive feedback in practice and it just sucked (to be let go).”
So close, yet so far.
Perez is not quite ready to resume his bowling career. At the age of 30, he is in the prime of an NFL quarterback, but he re-signed with the Arlington Renegades. He is off to a good start.
The Saga of Luis Perez is the stuff of a Hollywood movie. All it needs is that elusive happy ending. Perez has no time to watch movies. He is busy watching film.
