Gerald McCoy: from Schlotzsky's to NFL millions
Published: 4/21/2010 9:07 AM
Last Modified: 4/21/2010 9:07 AM
Terrific stuff about Gerald McCoy on the eve of the NFL Draft, courtesy of Dan Parr of Pro Football Weekly...
Parr talked to Chad Pape, McCoy's close friend since childhood, for his story. Pape revisited their time at Oklahoma City's Southeast High School: "The coaches would get to the school at 7 o'clock. Most kids in the summer don't get up until noon. We'd go to the gym at school, and it would be like a ghost town. It would be me and him lifting and running all morning."
"On sweltering summer mornings," Parr wrote, "the two of them would head to the weight room, get a workout in and then go home and get ready for work at a local furniture store, where they spent much of their time, including 13-hour Saturday shifts, loading up the cars of customers with couches, chairs and tables.
"A weight room that consisted of two bench presses, two squat racks, a pull-up bar and some dumbbells played host to McCoy's humble beginnings. McCoy, who also worked as a cook at a Schlotzsky's deli for a time, wasn't much for boasting, though, about where others, including Pape, thought he was headed."
"He would never really talk about it," Pape told Parr. "I'd say, 'Man, one day you're going to be making so much money.' He'd say, 'Man, I don't know. I have to work first. I haven't proven anything yet.'
"I was the one bragging for him. Everyone would talk about seeing him in the NFL one day, and he'd always say, 'We'll see.'"
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
