Crushed dreams and answered prayers!

In 1993, I was a graduating senior at South Charleston High School, which is a public school in South Charleston West Virginia. At that time, I was the West Virginia High School Football player of the year, and I was also nominated a blue-chip High School All-American by national sports reporters. I received a full football scholarship to Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach Florida where I played four years and eventually dominated my competition. I played so well I caught the eyes of many professional football scouts. I was projected to get drafted in the fourth round of the NFL draft to the Pittsburgh Steelers. At the mid-point of my senior year, only 4 quarterbacks had thrown the ball in my direction; I intercepted all four of them. Going into the second half of the season we were facing the best quarterback in our league, Howard University’s Ted White, who was eventually drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs. He held numerous records in our conference. Not only that, the year before he had thrown 7 touchdowns against us in a 63 – 13 rout. (None of those touchdowns where on me by the way) At the start of the game, the question of the day was how many touchdowns would Ted throw that day? Well, I am happy to say that Ted had the courage to throw my way, but like the other Quarterbacks that year who had dared to throw my way, I had picked him off just the same and revealed in the glory. Ted White was not simply a courageous man, but he was a determined one as well because his draft status was being judged based upon his performance in this very game. Thus, not to be shown up Ted threw another long bomb in my direction, yet this was my day, my year, my time, and I intercepted this record-breaking quarterback for a second time that day. Ted decided after the second interception he would not throw the ball in my direction again. So the test of wills had ended, and I had come out victorious. However, an interesting thing happened following the second interception, after extending my body to dive and snatch the ball out of the air and away from my opponent I stood up in the end zone to celebrate my victory with the traditional end zone dance. It was there in the middle of my celebratory dance my future was forever altered. As my body was gyrating and contorting I stretch, strained, and finally tore my groin in two pieces. Believe it or not, I was unaware I had injured myself until the next Monday in the training room. When I became aware my groin was ripped in two, a million questions came to my mind. But, the number one was Why God? I was a young Christian then, and I did not understand why God would do this to me. I barely finished out the rest of the football season, and as a result of my injury, my draft status plummeted. On draft day my name was not called. Fortunately, my agent made a couple of calls, and I was picked up as a free agent by the Minnesota Vikings, even though I was rehabbing intensely, my groin was still not healed. My situation looked beyond hopeless. I was called to tryout to make Minnesota’s 53 man roster even though they had drafted three other people who played my same position and picked up two other veteran players who also played my same position one of them being former Super Bowl MVP Larry Brown. Like I said, my situation was hopeless. Interestingly, I impressed the coaches more than any other player that year except for Randy Moss that is. There I was with one leg and trusting God that He would follow through on His promise. Do you know what happened next? I was cut. Yep, I was the last man cut on the roster. But, even though I was cut something inside of me would not allow me to trust my circumstances more than I was trusting in God’s promise. As soon as I return home from Minnesota I received a call from my agent that the Green bay Packer wanted to pick me up. Off I went to Green bay. I was the last man signed to the practice squad. I was there on the squad for two days when the unthinkable happened. The stating linebacker tore his ACL. When it happened I did not think anything about it. But, I soon realized because I was the last person to be picked up, I was the first person to be cut. The next day I was back in West Virginia. It was there that my mother reaffirmed to me that God told her that I would make it in the NFL. So, two weeks into the season who do you think called my house? The Minnesota Vikings called me back and asked me to play on their team. And, for the next two and a half years I did just that, starting the last six games of my career and even being named most valuable player for one of them.