Family brings Green Bay Packers' top draft pick Derek Sherrod back to football

Derek Sherrod was 10 years old when he quit football.

Overweight and with little or no knowledge of the game, he gave it about three practices and said forget it.

He had a coach that made the kids run if they didnt do something right, his mother, Harriet, recalled this week. Well, Derek didnt like that because he was out of shape and didnt know anything about football. After the second or third time the coach made Derek run, he said, Mom, I dont want to play anymore.

This after Harriet had spent nearly $200 on football equipment.

I said, You dont want to what? she said exasperated. He said, I dont want to play anymore.

A few years went by with not another thought about football. Derek, like his older brother, Dezmond, had gravitated toward soccer, basketball and baseball. Basically anything that wasnt football.

Then Dezmond, nearly four years older, discovered football.

Wherever Dezmond goes, guess what? Harriet said. So does Derek. He does everything he does. Everything. If Dezmond was going to play, Derek is going to play. He had to outdo Dezmonds records. He even wore Dezmonds number.

And follow him, he did. All the way to the National Football League after the Green Bay Packers last week used their first-round selection on Derek Sherrod, the 6-foot-5, 321-pound tackle from Mississippi State.

Dezmond, a tight end at Mississippi State, spent parts of two seasons in the NFL. He was on the Pittsburgh Steelers practice squad in 2008 and then spent time the next offseason with the Houston Texans. The former undrafted free agent played last season in the UFL but remains hopeful of getting another shot at the NFL. Even if he never returns to the league, he can take solace in knowing that in many ways, he helped pave the way for his younger brother.

They were always in the weight room competing, said Jack Hankins, who coached the Sherrods at Caledonia High School near their hometown of Columbus, Miss. If Dez did 200 pounds, well Derek was going to do 205. So Derek did 205, and now Dezmonds got to do 210. Ill never forget when they got up to 300 on the bench. It was like the other one said, OK, here I come, just get out of the way and let me see if I can do it.

Im big on the power clean (lifts), and Ill never forget the day Dezmond did 275 and threw the bar down and said to Derek, See if you can do that, big boy.

In many ways, theirs was a whatever-you-can-do-I-can-do-better relationship but without the sibling rage that could spawn trouble. Harriet said her boys never fought and never got into trouble outside the home.

Their father, Louis, was a Navy man with 30 years of service 21 of active duty and nine in the reserves as an air traffic controller and then had a second career as a truck driver, which, coincidentally, often brought him to Green Bay because he drove one of Schneiders recognizable orange trucks. Harriet worked at an Air Force base. Both are retired now and can sit back and enjoy their fruits of their parenting. Their third child, a daughter, is in the military.

With two professional football players in the family, it would be easy to assume that Louis and Harriet were the typical, nightmarish Little League parents, who pushed and pushed and pushed. In fact, it was the opposite. When Derek wanted to quit football at age 10, that was just fine with Harriet.

I wasnt going to force him to do something he didnt want to do when it came to sports, she said. So I had to take a loss on the equipment.

Now academics, that was another story. Sports were encouraged in the family, Dezmond says, to keep them off the streets and out of trouble. Education, though, wasnt optional.

Their main focus was to make sure we had our grades and to behave and do right in school, Dezmond said. Playing professional football was never something that was on any of our minds. We came from a school where we didnt have the greatest football program. I was the first person from our school to actually get a Division I football scholarship, and Derek was the second one. As of right now, were still the only two. Because of that, we never thought about even getting a scholarship, but it just happened that way. It seemed like I opened the door for Derek. He was a lot better at his position than I was at mine, and he capitalized on it.

Like Dezmond, Derek earned his college degree. He did so with a 3.5 grade point average in business and has begun working on his Masters, something hes sure to get someday. How can one be so sure? Because Dezmond already has his.

Dezmond was already at Mississippi State when Sylvester Croom, the former Packers running backs coach, was hired as the Bulldogs head coach in 2004. After getting to know Dezmond, he knew he needed another Sherrod in his program.

I knew Derek had talent, said Croom, who now coaches running backs for the St. Louis Rams. But the thing that impressed me, having been around his brother, he was just an unbelievable worker. Dezmond didnt have all the ability that Derek had, but my deal was if theyve both got the same work ethic, then theres no question that Dereks going to be a first-round pick. It turned out he did have the same kind of work ethic. He just had more ability.

It was that ability that the Packers football people fell in love with. As a senior, his third straight year as Mississippi States starting left tackle, he didnt give up a single sack. Thats the kind of protection the Packers want for their Super Bowl MVP quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. And it was his family-oriented background that further sold the Packers character-conscious General Manager Ted Thompson on the pick at No. 32 overall.

He was everything you asked for, Croom said. I think he started every game when I was there. He was a very good student, a classy individual, smiled all the time. He was sort of reserved, but I think sometimes people mistake his kindness for meekness. But thats a mistake because hes a tough guy. Hes one of those guys who will knock a guy on his behind and then will reach down and pick him up. Thats just the way hes been taught.

Croom recalled one moment he felt summed up Dereks personality.

Youve got to remember hes one of those kids who never says anything, Croom said. So we had this etiquette course for all the athletes, and he walks in with a girl from the volleyball team thats almost as tall as he was. I called him over said, Hey, you dont say much, but you must say enough to get to walk in here with her.

GBPressGazette wrote: