Shortly after learning he was going to sign with the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent, Malik Earl received a call from his dad.
Earl picked up the phone and said one word: “Dallas.”
The next thing Earl heard was his dad setting down the phone to cry like a baby.
“That was my moment,” Earl said. “To this day since the draft, I haven’t shed a tear but that was the one moment where I almost did.”
Earl wasn't just telling his father that he had achieved his childhood dream. The news meant Earl would be playing football for the NFL team closest to Clements Unit, a state prison facility in Amarillo, Texas, where Roderick Earl has been locked up for the past 20 years.