ORLANDO, FL—Before home games with the Orlando Predators, Marlon Moye-Moore usually arrived to the arena early for inspiration as much as preparation.
Moye-Moore, 39, spent nine seasons in the Arena Football League, all with the Preds. Carrying the American flag, firefighters often descended to the field for the national anthem.
"Getting to know a lot of them, they said, 'You know, you would be a good firefighter,'" he said.
As a linebacker and fullback, Moye-Moore filled positions especially known for guts and sacrifice. He still displays those traits as one of the nearly 1,200 firefighters with Orange County Fire Rescue.
Moye-Moore has been a firefighter for slightly more than a year.
"He's a self-starter, self-motivated," Lt. Lucas Sloan said. "He looks for direction, but he also understands he needs to be doing things on his own, so there's typically not much that we have to ask of him because he already knows what he needs to be doing."
Moye-Moore serves a 24-hour shift every third day.
He normally arrives before 7 a.m., about the time the sun rises, and washes the truck and checks the emergency equipment so it is stocked properly and operating normally. He reviews his self-contained breathing apparatus, "my protection if I go into a structure fire," and then it's on to the saws, extrication equipment and air bottles.
Moye-Moore ensures the water in the truck's engine is full. While awaiting calls, he and other firefighters clean the station and prepare the day's food.
"The fire service, we're blue-collar guys and girls who are really hard workers, so playing sports helps me with that aspect of it," Moye-Moore said. "And then the physical part ... We were talking about throwing ladders. I can be a little more reckless with a ladder because I'm a little more physically able to handle a ladder."
Moye-Moore (6-1, about 245 pounds) played for the Preds from 2004-08 and '10-13. The former University of Maryland standout finished with nearly 500 total tackles, 13 interceptions and seven forced fumbles, according to arenafan.com.
The Preds lost ArenaBowl XX to the Chicago Rush in 2006, but Moye-Moore was injured and did not play.
"There's nothing like taking your facemask through somebody's chest," Moye-Moore said. "You just hear the breath coming out of them. It's a good feeling."
Said former teammate Tim Cheatwood: "When he first told me he was getting into (firefighting), I thought it was a good idea. Very disciplined. He could help a guy out, on and off the field."
Doug Miller coaches the current incarnation of the Preds in the National Arena League.
"He played when (arena football) was an Ironman game, and you had to play both ways," said Miller, who played with and coached Moye-Moore in the AFL. "You had to put on your hat and come to work."
Moye-Moore, who assists the paramedic, said 95% of the calls on which he goes involve EMS.
Other calls are stressful in a different way.
"A guy was putting a bidet in his bathroom, and his wife told him to wait until I get back," Moye-Moore said. "He broke a pipe. We got there and shut off the water at the main. The water stops. There's probably two inches of water in his house.
"We squeegeed out his house. You could see how appreciative he was. He was offering us food. He was offering us drinks."
After those initial meetings at Preds games, Moye-Moore met other firefighters. They encouraged him enough that he studied to join fire rescue at Valencia College.
Teamwork plays in both football and firefighting.
"I haven't had anything in football where we're talking about life or death, but tough times ... You're tired. You can't breathe, but you've got to keep going," Moye-Moore said. "All of that helps in this field where someone else needs you."
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