How the Macon Rampage, Bibb County’s newest semi-pro football venture, came to be

For most of his life, Carl Story has had an itch. He has wanted — no, needed — to play football.

The man most people call “CJ” thinks a lot of athletes can relate to that. Whatever sport it may be, you feel motivated to play it, possessed by the desire to get better at it.

For a long while, that itch wasn’t a problem. Story played football in high school at Northeast and in college at Fort Valley State, enjoying every minute of it.

Until, one fateful day before his junior year at FVSU, he could suddenly no longer scratch that itch.

“My career was cut short when I went into cardiac arrest,” Story said. “It happened when I was leaving to get my physical for football. I had to park my car at my church with car trouble. I called my pastor… when he came around I was on the floor
unconscious.”

Story would have to find another way to fill the football-shaped hole in his heart. Years later, it appeared in the form of the Macon Rampage, a semi-pro football team that is up and running in Bibb County — with “CJ” at the helm as its owner.

A winding road of inspiration

After his unexpected collapse, Story was off the field. He could not return after recovering, either, due to an implant he received as a result of the heart episode. Story, still yearning for football, finished his undergraduate work at Fort Valley and journeyed to Florida State University for grad school — and to see if he could rekindle his dream of getting back on the field.

Story trained with highly experienced coaches in hopes of finding a way back into the game — one coach he worked with, Louisville alum Travis Norton, trained talented players like eventual Detroit Lions cornerback Terrion Arnold. 

Story even got the green light from his doctor to dip his toes back into football with the help of special equipment he could wear while playing, but schools nixed it out of precaution.

So what next?

Story tried to start up a club team at Florida State, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit during his grad school time in 2020. Eventually, the former Northeast Raider thought he might just have to give up.

Then, a surprise — he watched as his cousin, another Northeast Raider, played for a semi-pro team and eventually got an offer from Central Georgia Tech to play college ball.

“It was kind of disorganized, the semi-pro team, but I had a vision,” Story said. “I said, ‘Let me help as many guys from the city of Macon as possible.’ Me as a person, I hate being all about would’ve, could’ve and should’ve. The way my career ended… I wanted to create something where guys could still scratch that itch and know they gave it everything they had.”

As chaotic as semi-pro football could be, Story took inspiration from one key team: the Cherokee County Bruins.

“When we went up there and saw a game there, it was like they had everything,” he said. “They had the fans, the nice uniforms, the full team. It was something.”

After looking at his resources, Story started up the Macon Rampage with the first social media post on Aug. 30, 2023. 

The team — playing in the Elite American Football League, which mostly features teams in Florida but also stretches into Alabama — is already more stable than its predecessor. The Georgia Ravens folded after one season. The players, though they do not get paid in the amateur league, have already gotten some exposure. One athlete is even drawing interest from Ole Miss, Story said.

Still, not every business decision is a winner.

“We were originally called the Macon Georgia Crimson Rampage. People around here didn’t like that at all, it made them think of the Crimson Tide,” Story said.

Support from an unexpected source

The team struggled in its first season — not necessarily from a playing perspective, as Story said they had some of their best athletes that first season — but instead from a logistics standpoint.

“I think there was one point where we didn’t have a single coach hired,” Story said. “There were some rough moments.”

Then Story met Josh Hester. 

Hester is a towering man at 6-foot-7 and more than 300 pounds, and his intimidating frame is enhanced by impressive tattoo work on his arms and legs. When he appeared with Story at the Macon Touchdown Club earlier this year to promote the Rampage, most folks in the room assumed he was a player on the team.

He is, in fact, a player — a lineman, to be specific, and that was originally his only role with the team.

“Then earlier this year, we had some trouble with the uniforms. I was already on the team and talked to my dad, and we decided we wanted to help out,” Hester said. 

Hester, a Crisp County native, joined the team to rekindle some of his football days after he quit in high school. He co-owns a construction company with his father in Warner Robins. Together, they decided to invest in the Rampage, he said.

 Now the team is in position for success — relative success, both Hester and Story acknowledged.

“I mean, ideally you want to fill the entire stadium,” Hester said of expectations. “But we’ll really just be glad to get some fans in there and compete. It’s about playing football and doing stuff for the community.”

The ownership duo walks the walk, too. That stadium they hope to someday fill is now Henderson Stadium, the historically beloved field in Macon that was long the home of the Central Chargers and Southwest Patriots, among other Bibb County high school teams.

The team reached an agreement with former Macon-Bibb County commissioner Al Tillman, who now has a two-year contract to run the stadium after it sat empty under the county’s watch for a few years, to play their home games at the local favorite. They held a Turkey Drive there prior to Thanksgiving and plan to have more community outreach events in addition to Rampage games.

“It all goes back to community. We want to bring people together,” Story said. “Being from here, I know how important that stadium is to people. If playing our games there means people can remember that stadium and go back to it for football, it’s a good thing.”

And for a fledgling amateur football team in its second year, the ticket sales from the classic stadium probably won’t hurt either.

The Macon Rampage begin their season Feb. 22, with their first home game at Henderson scheduled for March 1.