Sleeping in a Stadium to Break Into the NFL (Watch)

By Lynn Freehill in Blog on August 5, 2011 at 11:01 am | No Comments

Daron Roberts didn’t let two degrees from Harvard and one from The University of Texas make him think he was above sleeping on an air mattress in a stadium, living on Pop Tarts and PB&J.

He’d earned law and public policy degrees before realizing his true passion lay in coaching football—and thus mentoring.

“Football is really special,” he says, “in that it allows coaches in particular to reach disadvantaged young men and kind of propel them through life.”

So he sent letters to every NFL team before one, the Kansas City Chiefs organization, agreed to take him on as an unpaid intern. He had zero coaching experience.

He rented a basement room in Kansas City but slept in a closet in the stadium most nights so he could be up before 5 a.m. to make coffee for the coaches.

It worked: Roberts moved on to the Detroit Lions and is now co-special teams/wide receivers coach at West Virginia University. He also founded 4th and 1, a free football camp for disadvantaged young men back in his hometown of Mount Pleasant, Texas.

In May, he was presented with the Outstanding Young Texas Ex award at Commencement.

OYTEX, as it’s known, is given to four standout alumni under 40 years old. See the rest of the winners here and nominate deserving candidates here.

Video produced by Lynn Freehill, Scott Paull, and Erin Huddleston