Most everyone knows about football, like the National Football League (NFL); however, not as many people are aware of the NPSFL, the National Public Safety Football League, which consists of teams of firefighters and police officers across the nation who compete against each other as a fundraiser for charity.

The league serves as a positive public face for public safety personnel. It consists of teams from coast to coast, including the LA Heat, Philadelphia Blue Flame and Central Texas Wolf Pack.

Southern Maryland has also joined this league, with many firefighters and state troopers forming a team called the DC Generals.  Five of the team’s players are from St. Mary’s County and these teammates travel with the team and actively participate in their games. Practicing in Bowie, the DC Generals make a solid effort to play their hardest and compete with the other teams, all while raising money for charity, according to the players.

Shawn Downs, a Washington, D.C. firefighter, plays for the team and lives in St. Mary’s County.  He started playing last April and has been with them since the start.

“Last year about eight guys started the team around February,” Downs told the Bay Net. “We slowly gained momentum and slowly gained more and more players and more interests and by January of this year we were up to about 55 players strong.”

Downs decided to join the team simply because he loves football and found that it was a great way to continue playing.

Rob Gill, from the St. Mary’s County sheriffs department, is also on the team, playing mostly offensive guard.

“[I joined the team] just to get out on the field again,” Gill stated, adding that the team practices regularly once every week in Bowie, and every so often, the team will practice two and three times a week if needed.

“[The season’s] going pretty well as our first season. It’s our first time being together as a team,” said Gill, seeing that this is the DC Generals first season on the National Public Safety Football League.

The teams in the league play 100 percent towards police and fire related charities. Any money needed for the actual team, such as equipment, is raised through sponsorships by each of the players.  Every game the DC Generals play will collect money that will go to specific charities such as the Washington, D..C Chapter of Concerns of Police Survivors and the Washington Hospital Burn Center.

“This is the reason we are here,” said Matt Newman a state trooper, working in St. Mary’s County.  “Just to do all of this for them, the survivors.”

Newman joined the team for the charity aspect.  He already gives a certain amount of money out of his paycheck to go toward charities and sees these charities to be very beneficial.

The DC Generals are well under way in their first season as part of the league, playing in Waldorf, the Charlotte Cobras from North Carolina on May 12 and crushing them 21 – 0.  Previously when the Generals had played the Cobras last they were let down after losing 22 – 21.

Having such as disappointing loss last game, allowed the team to come back even stronger when facing the Cobras.

“Were coming together as a good team,” said Newman. “We all get along very well. We’re a bunch of good guys.”