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You can debate whether the smallest player on the practice field Friday has the biggest heart. But this cannot be disputed: Former Clemson wide receiver Daniel Rodriguez, 5-8, 180, was the only one at Rams Park with a Purple Heart.
Rodriguez, 27, was in the Army from 2006-10, reaching the rank of sergeant and serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan on Oct. 3, 2009, 300 Taliban insurgents battled with 38 U.S. soldiers. Eight Americans lost their lives, and Rodriguez was one of 22 Americans wounded.
He took a bullet to the shoulder and shrapnel in his legs and neck from a rocket-propelled grenade. The leg wounds slowed him down for a while.
“Until I got all the shrapnel out,” Rodriguez said after Friday’s rookie minicamp practice. “Whatever. I have friends without legs, so I don’t really complain much.”
He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his valor, and then ... he decided to give college football a try.
Originally a walk-on, Rodriguez spent four seasons at Clemson, playing mainly on special teams. In 39 career games, he had one start from scrimmage, 11 catches for 39 yards and a touchdown, a 5-yard carry, and six punt returns for 57 yards.
Modest stats to be sure, but he did get an invitation to one of the college all-star games, the Medal of Honor Bowl on Jan. 10 in Charleston, S.C. Rodriguez remembers talking to some Rams scouts during the practice week there, and then last Sunday the Rams called and said they were inviting him to this weekend’s rookie minicamp on a tryout basis.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Rodriguez said. “You kind of hope for an opportunity as a kid to say you got a chance to play in the NFL. For me it’s no different, coming back for more (after his time in the Army) and having the opportunity to play Division I football. I just felt, why give up there? So I just kept working.”
Since he’s here on a tryout basis only, Rodriguez basically has three days to make enough of an impression to get signed to the 90-man offseason roster. The Rams currently have 88 players either signed or drafted.
So there are a couple of spots open, and Rodriguez and Harvard long snapper Tyler Ott are the only players here on a tryout basis this weekend.
Rodriguez is under pressure to get noticed. Certainly not the kind of pressure faced when getting attacked by Taliban insurgents. But pressure nonetheless.
“For me, that’s how it’s been,” he said with a shrug. “I was a walk-on at Clemson. And I had to show out at camp just to make the ... roster. And it’s no different here. Obviously, this is a top-caliber paid environment with freaks of nature.
“But you know, I feel that I can compete and I’ve worked my (butt) off to get to where I’m at. Even if it’s a three-day trial and they say ‘thank you for coming,’ I can’t say anything but ‘thank you’ back. Because this is all I’ve ever wanted — this is a chance to try to do it.”
It seems safe to say that Rodriguez has an ally of sorts in Rams coach Jeff Fisher, who has been very active in the Wounded Warrior Project.
Fisher visited troops in the Persian Gulf in 2009 and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro during his year off from coaching (2011) to raise funds and awareness for Wounded Warriors. Every year at the end of training camp, the Rams have a light practice with service men and service women at Scott Air Force Base.
Rodriguez was vaguely aware of Fisher’s involvement in Wounded Warriors before getting the call from the Rams. He’s since looked into it.
“I’m just so very appreciative from my standpoint of being a wounded veteran and having friends that are part of the Wounded Warrior program,” Rodriguez said. “I think that’s awesome of him. To be in his position and to give back means a lot to me.”
But Rodriguez knows his tryout isn’t some kind of gimmick. He’ll have to earn an offseason roster spot from Fisher to make it to training camp.
“I don’t want to say that it’s an all feel-good story,” he said. “I like to think that me training in the offseason, and getting into EXOS (performance center), and doing the full-time grind, and going to my pro day and putting up the numbers that I did, gave me an advantage.
“But whatever gets your foot in the door is what can solidify where you go in your future. If it doesn’t work out, at least I know I came out here and competed with the best of ’em, and made the most of the run that I had.”
If it doesn’t work out, Rodriguez already has a very good start on life after football.
His autobiography “Rise: A Soldier, A Dream, and a Promise Kept” reached best-seller status. His story has been told all over television, radio, and the cable networks. Sony TriStar Entertainment purchased the book rights and plans a movie on Rodriguez’s life.
Rodriguez has moved to Los Angeles, where he’s already working as a consultant on the movie projejct, and has been on the public speaking circuit as well. While in LA, he did his pre-draft training at the EXOS athletic training center there.
That training helped those legs that once contained shrapnel run a 4.58 in the 40 at Clemson’s pro day. He also caught everything thrown his way that day.
But he didn’t return to football to draw attention to himself. He was almost reluctant at times Friday to talk about his time in the military. Of the 25 other Rams rookies on hand for the weekend minicamp, only Georgia Tech fullback Zach Laskey knew who he was.
(Georgia Tech and Clemson are rivals in football.)
At Rams Park this weekend, and as long as this opportunity lasts, Rodriguez says, “I just want to be another football player.”
DROP GIVENS AND TAKE HIM! Seriously, if this guy doesn't have heart, who does?!
You can debate whether the smallest player on the practice field Friday has the biggest heart. But this cannot be disputed: Former Clemson wide receiver Daniel Rodriguez, 5-8, 180, was the only one at Rams Park with a Purple Heart.
Rodriguez, 27, was in the Army from 2006-10, reaching the rank of sergeant and serving in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the battle of Kamdesh in Afghanistan on Oct. 3, 2009, 300 Taliban insurgents battled with 38 U.S. soldiers. Eight Americans lost their lives, and Rodriguez was one of 22 Americans wounded.
He took a bullet to the shoulder and shrapnel in his legs and neck from a rocket-propelled grenade. The leg wounds slowed him down for a while.
“Until I got all the shrapnel out,” Rodriguez said after Friday’s rookie minicamp practice. “Whatever. I have friends without legs, so I don’t really complain much.”
He was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for his valor, and then ... he decided to give college football a try.
Originally a walk-on, Rodriguez spent four seasons at Clemson, playing mainly on special teams. In 39 career games, he had one start from scrimmage, 11 catches for 39 yards and a touchdown, a 5-yard carry, and six punt returns for 57 yards.
Modest stats to be sure, but he did get an invitation to one of the college all-star games, the Medal of Honor Bowl on Jan. 10 in Charleston, S.C. Rodriguez remembers talking to some Rams scouts during the practice week there, and then last Sunday the Rams called and said they were inviting him to this weekend’s rookie minicamp on a tryout basis.
“It’s pretty surreal,” Rodriguez said. “You kind of hope for an opportunity as a kid to say you got a chance to play in the NFL. For me it’s no different, coming back for more (after his time in the Army) and having the opportunity to play Division I football. I just felt, why give up there? So I just kept working.”
Since he’s here on a tryout basis only, Rodriguez basically has three days to make enough of an impression to get signed to the 90-man offseason roster. The Rams currently have 88 players either signed or drafted.
So there are a couple of spots open, and Rodriguez and Harvard long snapper Tyler Ott are the only players here on a tryout basis this weekend.
Rodriguez is under pressure to get noticed. Certainly not the kind of pressure faced when getting attacked by Taliban insurgents. But pressure nonetheless.
“For me, that’s how it’s been,” he said with a shrug. “I was a walk-on at Clemson. And I had to show out at camp just to make the ... roster. And it’s no different here. Obviously, this is a top-caliber paid environment with freaks of nature.
“But you know, I feel that I can compete and I’ve worked my (butt) off to get to where I’m at. Even if it’s a three-day trial and they say ‘thank you for coming,’ I can’t say anything but ‘thank you’ back. Because this is all I’ve ever wanted — this is a chance to try to do it.”
It seems safe to say that Rodriguez has an ally of sorts in Rams coach Jeff Fisher, who has been very active in the Wounded Warrior Project.
Fisher visited troops in the Persian Gulf in 2009 and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro during his year off from coaching (2011) to raise funds and awareness for Wounded Warriors. Every year at the end of training camp, the Rams have a light practice with service men and service women at Scott Air Force Base.
Rodriguez was vaguely aware of Fisher’s involvement in Wounded Warriors before getting the call from the Rams. He’s since looked into it.
“I’m just so very appreciative from my standpoint of being a wounded veteran and having friends that are part of the Wounded Warrior program,” Rodriguez said. “I think that’s awesome of him. To be in his position and to give back means a lot to me.”
But Rodriguez knows his tryout isn’t some kind of gimmick. He’ll have to earn an offseason roster spot from Fisher to make it to training camp.
“I don’t want to say that it’s an all feel-good story,” he said. “I like to think that me training in the offseason, and getting into EXOS (performance center), and doing the full-time grind, and going to my pro day and putting up the numbers that I did, gave me an advantage.
“But whatever gets your foot in the door is what can solidify where you go in your future. If it doesn’t work out, at least I know I came out here and competed with the best of ’em, and made the most of the run that I had.”
If it doesn’t work out, Rodriguez already has a very good start on life after football.
His autobiography “Rise: A Soldier, A Dream, and a Promise Kept” reached best-seller status. His story has been told all over television, radio, and the cable networks. Sony TriStar Entertainment purchased the book rights and plans a movie on Rodriguez’s life.
Rodriguez has moved to Los Angeles, where he’s already working as a consultant on the movie projejct, and has been on the public speaking circuit as well. While in LA, he did his pre-draft training at the EXOS athletic training center there.
That training helped those legs that once contained shrapnel run a 4.58 in the 40 at Clemson’s pro day. He also caught everything thrown his way that day.
But he didn’t return to football to draw attention to himself. He was almost reluctant at times Friday to talk about his time in the military. Of the 25 other Rams rookies on hand for the weekend minicamp, only Georgia Tech fullback Zach Laskey knew who he was.
(Georgia Tech and Clemson are rivals in football.)
At Rams Park this weekend, and as long as this opportunity lasts, Rodriguez says, “I just want to be another football player.”
DROP GIVENS AND TAKE HIM! Seriously, if this guy doesn't have heart, who does?!
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