In a fading shadow in January 2016, the shadow crawled on Jimmy Morrissey’s bedroom desk, through the small white pad, and whispered in his ear, “Too slow.” “Too short”, “too small” and “you” are not enough to get a full scholarship. “

The senior offensive lineman at La Salle High School thought about it, threw down the pen in his hand, and had no idea. But Morrissey always has a secret preference for resistance, an inherent nuance that requires him not to be defined by anyone other than himself.

He has a dream of playing football in my division. The biggest problem is that no one is knocking on the door, because the walking clipboard is considered “too slow”, “too short”, “too small”, and those interested universities only provide half of the scholarship.

That’s when Morrissey began to see another vision. He wrote down his life goals in the law: a scholarship for our company, a three-year beginner—unachievable by college recruiters—although this is not the case for him. He promised to go to the University of Pittsburgh to study and take the opportunity to continue studying. At that time, he could have gone to a lower school and might have a greater opportunity to go to school sooner.

As the sun goes down on Saturday, May 1, 2016 La Salle graduate Morrissey looks out at the Atlantic Ocean from the back porch of his parents’ home in Cape May, New Jersey, feeling a shadow Shrouded it.

On the third day of the NFL draft, no one called yet. The “clumsy man” was haunting him again. At the time, 22-year-old Morrissey suddenly recalled his new roster. This time, including participating in NFL games. A few minutes later, he received a call from Mike Mayock, general manager of the Las Vegas Raiders, telling him that he was their seventh-round pick.

The sudden call ended the journey to the 6-foot-3, 305-pound, triple ACC center, and began another journey.

Morrissey is La Salle’s two-year starter. After being bypassed by many people, his chances of becoming a four-year starter in Pitt are not great. He is ready to resist and prove that he is eligible to participate in the NFL.

“Some of the things you heard will never disappear. Even if I did it in Pitt, I am still angry, and I still feel that way to this day.” Morrissey admitted that he gained financial and Bachelor of Marketing, last year of study at Pitt University. “When we played at Boston College last season, all I thought of was the coach from British Columbia. He said I was too young to play for him.

“When I exercise and play on the practice field, it still motivates me. When I feel sad for myself, I always turn my head back and walk. I think carrying it with me helps a lot in my life, but there is no doubt about it. ,I am angry.

Thinking about it now, my blood is boiling. I will never forget that I am going up and down. When I participated in the first day of activities in Pitt, that was the only thing I thought of. I will have fun with these guys and make a joke, but I always have to look back and say, “Hey, Jim, you are continuing. These guys think you don’t belong here, that’s what I always think.”

It seems that the people who have never had any doubts about Morrissey are John Peterson, John Peterson, then Pitt’s offensive line coach, currently at Youngstown State University (Ron Jaworski’s Alma mater) coaches offensive tackles/blocks.

During the recruitment period, Morrissey participated in the camps of Temple, Pitt, British Columbia, Harvard, Yale, and Lehigh. He received half of the offers from Lehigh, Bucknell and Colgate. He had talked to Dartmouth for a visit in January in December 2015, and then the Dartmouth coach asked for it to be cancelled.

Morrissey does not fit their measurable standards.

“Jimmy suits me, he will end because that is his identity.” Peterson, who was in Pitt from 2015 to 2017, said. Smart, and a well-trained program from La Salle. His personal skills and one-on-one pass protection are excellent.

“What really develops is the speed bestowed by Jimmy. From the day he walked in Pitt, he bowed his head and was willing to do anything. Every time he participated in a game, he would participate in the game. I know he heard it. All the measurable information provided by other schools shows you that the NFL spends millions of dollars on investigations. In the final analysis, this is an imprecise science.”

La Salle coach John Steinmetz was the first to see Morrissey uncompromising. None of this surprised him. Steinmetz has been trying to sell Morrissey to college coaches, and they need to go beyond the numbers. Morrissey was never afraid to walk into a dark room.

Steinmetz said: “Jimmy didn’t receive any (all) offers from anyone, only half of the offers, but he kept saying that he wanted to hit the highest possible level.” “When he let Pitt stumble, this It didn’t surprise me. But when he was a junior at Pitt, I started to think he had a good performance in the draft.

“Jimmy comes from a strong support system. He has great parents and great people around him. He has great people in La Salle and great people in Pitt. You can say me now A fan of the Las Vegas Raiders.”

Steinmetz and Peterson continue to see intangible assets in Morrissey that others don’t want to see-imagine him that unless he is injured, he will have a long career in the NFL.

Peterson said: “Jimmy is a kid who aspires to succeed.” “In terms of size, Jimmy is very similar to Corey Linsley (Los Angeles Chargers). That’s his size and his playing style. People will The thing I discovered about Jimmy is that he can also play as a defender, he is him, and he knows who he is. He will become a technician and will exert excellent intelligence and skills.

“He knows how his body uses leverage to become the most effective player. His body is very balanced and his talents make him different. His FBI is very high-football intelligence. Jimmy (Jimmy) Not just studying movies. He will come back later and cut the assault pack. I am absolutely proud of Jimmy and the people with whom I will build a lifelong relationship.”

Mayock shares the same views as Steinmetz and Peterson. Morrissey was an entourage, starting 47 times in a row, and being the captain twice, which made Mayock a great temptation. The Raiders’ offensive line coach Tom Cable didn’t have to give in to Mayock’s arm when he finished 230th.

“We worked with the scouts and coaches to investigate Jim,” Manok said. “Our scouts are very picky. They like his intangible assets, his wisdom, and his professional ethics. They like his story.

“Tom Cable looks at him, Tom loves Jimmy. He considers himself agile, instinctive, smart, and tough, all of which can make him a center forward in the league for many years. Scout and The coach’s adaptation to him forced us to select him.

“Then, it’s his character. Every year, I challenge scouts, which will prompt players to tick their noses. Does he like football? Does he like football? Does he like the benefits of football? Children are suitable Where? As far as football is concerned, we gave Jimmy our highest score. We call it a “basic fit”, which means that you not only clean the court, but also love football, and you are also a natural leader.

“This is what we think of Jimmy. All the intangible assets are there. It’s just a question of when we put down the pads and whether he can free people from the chaos.”

Where Mayock directly evaluated Morrissey, Pitt’s head coach Pat Narduzzi took a different approach.

After graduating from his freshman year, Morrissey wore a red shirt and began to improve the Panthers’ depth chart in his sophomore year. He jumped from the third-level team center to share time with the starting center. Two weeks after entering the training camp, Morrissey won the job, but he wondered why Narduzzi never called him into his office to tell him that he was getting a scholarship because all beginners All are scholarship recipients.

To make matters worse, this is a bad day in practice.

The Panthers’ fifth-year senior quarterback Max Browne has been groping for Morrissey’s snapshots. He is a veteran trying to establish himself, is this going to happen now?

Take a quick shot, something went wrong. Brown would tell Morrissey that his strike was too hard. Or the snap caught the side of Morrissey’s leg. This is one thing after another. Morrissey kept questioning himself. He began to think that he was wasting his chance to start. He feels that the relationship is very clean. Brown assured him that it was-and he was the one who made the mistake.

Some whistle and nightmare practice is over, although not for Morrisy. Narduzzi began to tear off the embarrassing red shirt in front of the team, “We can’t encounter these messy buttons in the game. Morrissey, stand up here and shoot with Max. few times!”

Looking down, Morrissey approached Brown in frustration. The latter handed him a painted ball and said: “Congratulations, Jimmy, you are getting a scholarship!” To the applause of the Pete team.

“I will never forget this,” Morrisy said. Coach Narduzzi had planned that Max would deliberately mess up the snapshot. Here, I became very enthusiastic and wanted to know what happened (laughs), and then.

“I will remember this for the rest of my life. The phone call to my parents later that night is something I will always remember, telling them that I was drafted by the raiders right there.”

Morrissey went to Las Vegas on May 16 for a rookie training camp. He will work out in Pittsburgh before the start of the training camp in July. He wanted to find time to go back to the Huntington Valley in Montgomery County, no doubt he would go to the desk drawer there, and then take out the small white writing board.

It’s time to write down new goals.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sports writer in the Philadelphia area. He has been writing for PhillyVoice since its establishment in 2015 and is the president of the American Boxing Writers Association.he can Follow on Twitter.