I walked into the NRG practice facility for the NFL franchise Houston Texans and saw all the young men stretching and getting themselves prepared for their early morning job interviews. My mind wandered back to a poem I learned in my college days that had the sentence that summed up my first impression, “It isn’t the victory after all, but the fight that a brother makes.” And by the looks of the Houston NFL Regional Combine participants, these gifted young men were ready to showcase their talent to league scouts that were in attendance.

Regional Combines were established in 2012 as a way to give college football players who played within the last NCAA season and had no eligibility left an opportunity to be seen by NFL scouts. The majority of these athletes are not given an invite to the National Scouting Combine. So everything is on the line once they step onto the field to be put through a series of NFL drills to do an assessment on speed, agility, skills, etc. “I feel like a proud mother when one of these young men makes it to the next level,” NFL Senior Production Coordinator for the Regional Combines Tyisha Smith said in our interview. There are currently 95 players on active rosters that got their opportunity to play in the NFL from the Regional Combines that includes DL Benson Mayowa (Dallas), TE Alejandro Villanueva (PIT), and K. Brandon McManus (DEN).

“It’s exciting. We have been playing football our whole lives and to get a chance to play on the highest level in the world,” said Jamal Ellis, a very talented defensive back out of Fresno State. That was the mindset of most of the players from the defensive side of the ball whose skills were on display in the morning session. Football is also considered a thinking man’s game and at 6’3, 275lbs, DT Doug Webb proves it. Webb is from one of America’s finest institutions, Harvard University. “Over the last 4 or 5 years, we have put a good amount of players in the NFL. It may have been a stigma in the past, but that’s starting to go away. Most people are starting to realize that the Ivy League is playing some real ball,” the DT said with pride. His work on individual drills was very impressive and he might be added to the list of Ivy League players living out their dreams on the field.

Hoping to play on a higher level as well is Selwyn Carroll Jr. from Valdosta State University. “Getting back up was never an option. I have been down too many times and got right back up. It is the story of my life.” Those were the words from 6’2 250lbs Carroll Jr. He took a tumble during the timed shuttle run and got right back up to complete the event with a smile on his face. Which summed up the first half of the Combine from the defensive side of the ball. These young men were not going to let anything keep them down.

The afternoon session proved to be just as fast paced and explosive as the morning session as the offensive skilled players were on display. Some of these young men were so fast that it made me tired from just watching. In a league where speed is often the measuring stick for success, these athletes came to give the scouts in attendance a quick glimpse of that. Incarnate Word WR Jordan Hicks proved that he belonged at the Combine by running a 4.4 40-yard dash time, which made some of the scouts make sure their clocks were accurate. And yes, they were right on time. His speed along with his outstanding ability to get in and out of breaks on pass routes may provide this young man an opportunity to play on Sundays. “When I hit the field I get to have fun and put it all together,” said Daniel Wise from Colorado State University-Pueblo. Daniel and his father drove over a 1,000 miles one way to display his skill set. The 5’8 165lbs KR/PR gave the scouts something to evaluate by showing his ability to start and stop with power and acceleration.

There were many local players out on this day, but the one who stood out was 2016 Division II College Football Player of the Year QB Justin Dvorak from the Colorado School of Mines. The Drew Brees prototype and Tomball, Texas native led his team to the second round of the NCAA D II playoffs. “I am used to playing out of the spread offense and today I did a lot of work coming from under center. That was an adjustment in itself,” Dvorak said when asked about what was the difference in being at the Combine compared to regular college drills.

By the end of the day, you could see a bunch of exhausted young men who left everything they had on the field. They came to the Regional Combine with one thing on their mind and that was to compete. “I focus on what I have to do to get myself mentally prepared to compete. I don’t think about anything else but working hard,” commented Nehemiah Winston, a 6’5 265lbs TE out of the University of California, Davis, who has a great chance to catch on with an NFL team with his size and catching ability.

Walking away it brought back into my memory another poem that was taught to me during a time I was fighting some uphill battles. “A man when driven against the wall, still takes the blows of fate, with his head held high. Bleeding, bruised and pale. Is the man who will win, fate defied, for he isn’t afraid to fail (from the poem “Test Of A Man” Author-Unknown).