Inspiring stories come along at a rapid clip, that doesn’t make any of them less special than the next, but some can get lost in the bunch with the sheer mass that are put out on a weekly basis.
Duracell recently made sure that Seattle fullback Derrick Coleman’s miraculous journey to the NFL would not be one that took a backseat to others, as this commercial has come to the forefront in the last 24 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2HD57z4F8E
Coleman is the first legally deaf offensive player in NFL history, and has played in 12 games this season for Seattle, who will take on San Francisco Sunday in the NFC Championship game.
Coleman was featured in a FOX Sports story this past week in which his college coach, Rick Neuheisel of UCLA, spoke glowingly of the man that rushed for nearly 800 yards and 11 touchdowns his senior season.
Neuheisel in the FOX Sports story when asked if Coleman’s disability effected him when he was a Bruin:
“Never one time, and I was in shock. I told him it was up to him to let us know when he needed special assistance and never one time did he ever come to me. He became so self-sufficient at making sure he knew what he needed to know and he was so conscientious of getting all that accomplished.
The guys without any hearing impairment didn’t hear what he heard. I mean, it was truly sensational at how he turned what others would consider a disability into anything but.”
Coleman was briefly a Viking in 2012 before being cut as part of Minnesota’s effort to get down to 75 players. The man that beat him out for a roster spot was Matt Asiata, who started two games for Minnesota when Adrian Peterson was injured this year.
The UCLA alum caught on with Seattle this offseason after taking a practice squad spot with the Seahawks in December 2012, and caught a ricochet touchdown against New Orleans earlier this season, a team Seattle beat Sunday to keep their Super Bowl hopes alive.
A story doesn’t get much better than that, though a Super Bowl win would surely give it a fitting ending.
