by JACK MELANSON, Senior Writer

Whenever Sean Jeffcoat’s application arrived over the Manhattan university admission desk, it is most most most likely that the few minds had been turned.

Now a Jasper, Jeffcoat first invested amount of time in the NFL being an Arizona Cardinal as well as in the armed forces as a known user for the usa Air National Guard.

Their tale begins at Jack Britt senior school in their hometown of Fayetteville, new york.

“once I reached senior school i did son’t like to play soccer, but my oldest sibling basically stated ‘stop being just a little punk and play’,” Jeffcoat stated. “Once he stated that we began playing, but my loved ones is a baseball family therefore i have constantly desired to play baseball.”

Apparently the choice that is right the young athlete spent in football – a sport that will later spend money on him aswell.

“Around sophomore year or junior 12 months of high college occurs when we recognized I’d the opportunity to play university soccer. My very first scholarship offer ended up being from East Carolina [University] at the conclusion of my junior 12 months,” Jeffcoat stated. “Once we started getting [more] provides and schools had been searching at me personally, I quickly was like ‘okay, I can actually play university soccer, we’m good sufficient to at the very least play Division I AA’, and as expected we went along to Elon [University].”

It absolutely was at Jack Britt where he garnered a nickname that sprung their life into action.

“I’d the nickname ‘superman’ in senior high school, we kinda took that heart,” he said. “There ended up being one man in senior school whom called me personally it, but we went I take to do whatever i could and get proficient at whatever i am doing. along with it, so”

Before learning to be a Jasper, serving within the playing or military as a Cardinal, Jeffcoat played soccer at Elon University while learning photography. CYMRY FLOOD/ FLICKR

Placing their times being a safety that is free a corner view, Jeffcoat stuck to playing wide receiver when it comes to Elon Phoenix.

“I happened to be planning to accept [another] offer after which we discovered we wasn’t wanting to play protection. We [wasn’t] looking to get stepped on, we’d instead score touchdowns,” he said. “I finished up dropping deeply in love with Elon.”

Well, wide receiver and professional photographer, that is.

“Growing up I happened to be constantly into art. My father and some of my uncles are pretty big into drawing photos and artwork so that it arrived obviously if you ask me. I really began business at Elon to my degree, but quickly knew that i needed to [study art],” Jeffcoat said. “I never ever thought i really could be considered a professional photographer, but we fell deeply in love with it.”

Significantly more than any such thing, Elon became a brotherhood.

“All of this techniques and simply going out through the years had been the greatest memories with those guys,” Jeffcoat stated. “There ended up being times where we had snowball battles. Those snowball battles were much better than anything else. It had been like, ‘oh snap, they are my brothers.’ It got only a little rough, i am maybe perhaps perhaps perhaps not planning to lie, however it had been enjoyable.”

The enjoyment couldn’t endure forever however.

“The final game regarding the period we played Western Carolina and I also knew for an undeniable fact it had been my final game using the number of dudes that we arrived in with …The extremely end for the game everyone else met up so we started tearing up,” Jeffcoat stated. “We knew which was it. We invested four several years of our everyday everyday everyday lives here – building something pretty good – we were leaving a legacy in a way. Whether or not individuals never really keep in mind it years in the future, at the least we shall.”

Sure enough, just exactly what began being a roof for Jeffcoat ended up being merely a stepping rock.

“Even [during my time at Elon] i did son’t think I became planning to play previous college. I desired to but i did son’t think I became likely to,” Jeffcoat stated. “It was not until around three or four games into my senior period at Elon that i obtained a phone call from a single of my coaches. He said ‘Hey Jeffcoat, such and such [NFL] group will be here, they wish to talk to you.’”

“I experienced literally simply woke up and did not think such a thing about this. I quickly surely got to any office, one of many coaches through the Cardinals had been here, all he did was state ‘Hey, exactly exactly how’s it going, good game’ that is all he could state. That has been on I was like ‘Oh snap, I could probably play in the NFL about it, from then. It had been pretty cool.”

Out of the blue it absolutely was formal. Sean Jeffcoat would definitely be an Arizona Cardinal.

“I express excitement differently than many people. A lot of people obtain a phone that is exciting and begin playing around, we do not show it just as much,” Jeffcoat stated. “I happened to be dinner that is actually eating i obtained a call from my agent saying ‘hey, exactly exactly how do you need to play for Arizona and additionally they provide you with such and such signing bonus’ – instantly I began smiling. I possibly couldn’t stop smiling for the remainder week.”

Then, in August of 2011, Jeffcoat’s imagine playing into the NFL became a real possibility.

“It felt like we belonged in this way. It felt like I happened to be said to be here. Every thing had been working the real means that it will work. It had been cool because I experienced simply watched Larry Fitzgerald play when you look at the Super Bowl then out of the blue i am in identical locker space as him – i am asking him for advice – as well as if We had beenn’t asking him for advice he’d appear and provide it to us,” he said. “So being in the industry and viewing him play in individual – with the exact same uniform on – which was a very important thing in the field… that has been like an all-time extreme.”

One 12 garden reception had been all it took to shake the NFL jitters.

“I went the path, really caught it, and I also got struck away from bounds. We really believe was possibly the time where I knew for a well known fact that I became likely to be playing into the NFL,” Jeffcoat stated. “The path that we went had been genuine simple plus the guy that tried to tackle me personally did not, which was it. From I quickly simply had that mindset, we knew i possibly could play i simply had to progress.”