Players Spotlight:
Deon Anderson,
Dallas Cowboys

By Mike Scandura, NFLHS.com

Deon Anderson still chuckles when he recounts the first time he saw a football game.

Anderson, a native of Providence, R.I. who was the Cowboys' sixth-round draft pick out of the University of Connecticut, was six years old when he attended a youth league game (CLCF) that his eight-year old brother, Raymond, was playing in.

"I saw my brother running with the ball and saw that he got hit," said Anderson. "I was like 'Wow!' My first instinct was to run on the field and tackle the kid who hit my brother.

"The coach grabbed me by the shirt and said that's what football's about. I didn't have a clue. I just saw my brother get hit and wondered what was going on."

What has gone on in Anderson's life is best measured in light years, because that's the distance he's come.

Anderson, a fullback and special teams ace, was voted the Huskies' Most Valuable Player. But in a sense, that was the easy part.

He grew up in a rough part of Providence. His mother left the family when he was two. Anderson and his two brothers were raised by their father (Terry), grandmother (Maxine) and aunt (Tanya).

"I can see now why that environment is labeled the way it is," said Anderson, a 5-11, 243-pounder). "There were drug dealers and shootings. But it's strange because growing up in that environment I never felt I was at risk. I knew what was bad and good. So as long as I wasn't in the middle of it, I didn't let it affect me.

"I guess they respected my grandmother. She saw they were selling drugs and would yell at them to get across the street and stay away from our house."

Sports also factored into the equation.

"Every season I was doing something," said Anderson. "Between going to school and playing sports I didn't have time to hang out and get in trouble like kids in the neighborhood. I always was into sports."

At one time or another, Anderson's played football, baseball and basketball. He's wrestled and also participated in track and field. But as his reputation grew while playing football for CLCF, he drew the attention of private school coaches. The result was an offer to attend Portsmouth Abbey, a private school located on scenic Narragansett Bay, far from the mean streets of South Providence.

"After spending a day there I knew no one in my neighborhood was going to get an opportunity like this," recalled Anderson. "Right then I told my family I would like to go to Portsmouth Abbey.

"The first day they dropped me off, there was green grass and all I could hear was the ocean and birds chirping. I was thinking I don't belong here but I decided I was going to fit in regardless of the situation."

Anderson's transferred to Hope High in Providence after 2 1/2 years. That's where he blossomed not only as a football player but also as a track-and-field athlete. In the New England championships, his 4-x-100 relay team was edged out for first place by a fraction of a second; he finished second in the triple jump; and he was fourth in the shot put.

Anderson also caught the attention of Kevin Driscoll, the football coach at Avon Old Farms, a prep school located near Hartford, Conn. The next thing he knew he was off to the Nutmeg state where, even though he had to repeat his junior year, he improved his academic standing to the point where he compiled a 3.0 GPA and scored 1,080 on his SAT.

Add that to his accomplishments in football and he began drawing offers from Ivy League schools plus Stanford, Notre Dame, Syracuse, etc. But he accepted coach Randy Edsell's offer to attend UConn, where he was a starter (when the Huskies used a fullback set) from the first day of his true freshman season.

Eventually Anderson finished with 420 career yards and one touchdown on 114 carries and caught 48 passes for 394 yards and three touchdowns. His special teams play (kickoff return and cover plus punt return and cover) made him a standout in the Big East.

But, again, there's more to the story.

Anderson, admittedly, encountered academic problems that prompted him to withdraw from school after the spring semester in 2005.

He then worked a series of odd jobs just to pay the rent for an apartment in what he called "a real bad neighborhood" in Connecticut because that was all he could afford.

Then, in the spring of 2006, he re-applied to UConn and was accepted into a program designed to ease the transition for students in his situation. But while he took out a loan to pay for school, he lacked a place to stay. So, he packed his stuff into an old car owned by a friend and began living out of an old locker room near Gampel Pavilion.

A typical day for Anderson saw him wake at 5:50 a.m., "before the cleaning crew came in," he said; work out, eat breakfast at 7, hit the library at 8, attend classes; and return to the locker room around 9:30 p.m.

Eventually a couple of former teammates brought his situation to Edsell's attention.

"[Edsell] said, 'Deon, I told you if you got yourself eligible I'd help you out,'" Anderson related. "He said he'd let me walk on and practice with the team and if I kept my GPA up he'd see what he could do."

Anderson kept his GPA up and Edsell was true to his word. He put Anderson back on scholarship for last season.

Before long, NFL scouts started attending practice.

"I'm thinking they're not here for me," recalled Anderson. "I was more concerned about playing West Virginia next week."

Anderson was invited to play in the Magnolia Gridiron Classic. Then he was invited to the NFL Combine, where he clocked 4.73 in the 40 and bench-pressed 225 pounds 24 times.

"A scout from Dallas told me 'You're the guy,'" said Anderson. "He said if I kept my head clean this could be a great opportunity."

Now, flash forward to the second day of the NFL draft. The phone rings and on the other end is Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.

"He said 'Hey, Deon, we're thinking about drafting you,'" said Anderson. "My family tackled me. I was extremely calm and was looking around to everybody else and letting them be nervous.

"I thought about my older brother [Raymond], who's in prison, and my father who's not working because of respiratory problems. The only thing going through my mind was that now I can assist people close to me in their hardships. Finally, I can help."

Story courtesy Red Line Editorial, Inc.