José Ramon

Jacob Rodriguez was born in Hastings, Minnesota. His family moved to Texas when he was ten. He played quarterback at Rider High School in Wichita Falls. He went to the University of Virginia and spent his freshman year as a utility guy. Ten carries. Eight catches. Not a starter at anything. Then the head coach stepped down and Rodriguez went into the transfer portal, late, after most of the spots in college football were already gone. Texas Tech said yes. But there was no scholarship left, and there was nowhere for him to live. Here is what he did about that, in his own words. "It was so late. I didn't have a place to stay. There were no scholarship spots, and so, luckily, my brother went to school there, and so I slept on the ground next to his bed for a semester and earned that scholarship spot later on." He slept on his brother's floor for a semester. And Texas Tech moved him to linebacker, a position he had never played. Think about what that actually asks of a person. He had spent his entire life with the ball in his hands, reading defenses. Now he was the defense, learning it from nothing, against people who had been doing it since they were children. Year one, 29 tackles. Year two, an injury cost him most of the season and he played five games. Year three, 127 tackles. Year four, 128 tackles, 11 for loss, 4 interceptions and 7 forced fumbles, and he was a unanimous All American. Then the awards came in and they all had his name on them. The Chuck Bednarik Award. The Butkus Award. The Lombardi Award. The Bronko Nagurski Trophy. No player in the history of Texas Tech had ever won any of those. He won all four in the same year. He finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting, which was more votes than any defensive player in the country got. The Miami Dolphins took him 43rd overall. On Sunday he played the Kansas City Chiefs. He intercepted Patrick Mahomes. He tackled Kenneth Walker behind the line of scrimmage three separate times. He is now one of the betting favorites for NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year. As of this week he sits at plus 400, a hair in front of David Bailey at plus 450, who used to line up next to him at Texas Tech. Now the honest part, because it matters. Miami lost that game 24-10 and the Dolphins are 0-3. Nobody is handing out awards in September, and a rookie on a losing team is a long way from anything. One more thing about him. His wife Emma is an aviation officer in the United States Army. She flies Black Hawk helicopters. Four years ago he was a former high school quarterback with no scholarship and no apartment, sleeping on the ground beside his brother's bed in Lubbock.