PITTSBURGH — At 25, soon to be 26, Arnold Tarpley III acknowledges that some people ask him why he's still chasing his NFL dream. They don't intentionally try to doubt his journey or put him down, "but they hint at things."
And he understands the question, given that he's five years removed from his college career at Vanderbilt and has spent most of that time on the margins of pro football, but the answer for Tarpley — a former Central Catholic High School standout who goes by "Tre" — is fairly simple.
"My thing is, I don't ever want to live with regret," Tarpley was saying over the phone this week from Birmingham, Ala. "I don't want to be 40 years old [saying] 'would've, could've should've.' If you believe in something, you've got to pursue it relentlessly."
That's what Tarpley is doing in Birmingham, which is a long way from his hometown of Jefferson Hills, but hey, it was once called "The Pittsburgh of the South." For Tarpley, he's brought a part of Pittsburgh to the south as the only local player for the new edition of the Pittsburgh Maulers in the upstart USFL.
Another year, another spring professional football league that will try to have staying power in a crowded sports landscape, and Tarpley is part of another group of players who will try their hand at it. He's been here before, in a sense, participating in The Spring League, which is now defunct but essentially gave way to the USFL experiment. Before that, he spent the 2019 season in the Alliance of American Football, which suspended operations after eight games and later declared bankruptcy.
Tarpley, a 6-foot-1, 203-pound safety, was the Maulers' first pick at that position in the February draft to stock the rosters of all eight USFL teams based in Birmingham. He also played slot cornerback at Vanderbilt and expects to show off that versatility in Sunday night's 8 p.m. opener for the Maulers against coach Todd Haley's Tampa Bay Bandits on Fox Sports 1.
"Everybody is hungry, everybody is passionate about this opportunity," said Tarpley, whose head coach, Kirby Wilson, spent seven years as a Steelers assistant. "Whether you're somebody who's been in my situation, who hasn't gotten signed to an NFL team, or whether you came [out of college] during the COVID year, or you're a little bit older and played professionally but want to get back ... I think everybody here has one of those [stories]."
For Tarpley, who calls his shot with the Maulers "a blessing," he was selling life insurance and annuities when this latest break came his way. He's never stopped training for football, but even aspiring pro athletes have bills to pay, so he got his broker's license and went to work.
Tarpley credits his family and his girlfriend, Maya, for supporting him on this path of having a day job, but never forgetting the ultimate goal of reaching the NFL. It's a bit of serendipity that Tarpley gets to showcase his talents in the USFL with the Pittsburgh squad, coached by a staff that includes not just Wilson at the top but also ex-Steelers fullback Will Johnson (running backs coach) and defensive coordinator Jarren Horton, son of former Steelers secondary coach Ray Horton.
"I think it's all full-circle," Tarpley said. "I did have an opportunity with the Steelers for a few days in rookie minicamp [in 2019]. ... Coach Wilson is a great leader, he has ties to the Steelers, so it's a lot of people who are connected there. I think being able to represent the city is really honorable."
In his four seasons at Vanderbilt, where he started 21 games over his final three years, Tarpley always envisioned going from the SEC to the NFL. But he did lay the groundwork for a backup plan. Vanderbilt doesn't have a business school, so he majored in Communications and minored in Corporate Strategy, which meant a lot of courses dealing with ethics, financial economics and marketing.
So, if Tarpley could tap into his past and make a pitch for viewers to watch the USFL — and the Maulers, specifically — he knows how he would sell it.
"The competitive nature is going to be through the roof," Tarpley said. "People are in this league with a sense of urgency to accomplish their goals. I think anything — football, basketball, baseball, business — where you have people like that, it's going to be a great show."
On the field, you can look for Tarpley in the No. 21 jersey Sunday night. If you want to see more of him, you can check out his YouTube channel, where he's producing and posting an ongoing series called "Trust the Seed" following what he hopes will be his road to the NFL.
