Back to the Top News Newsfeed

The Phone Call I Never Wanted to Get, and My Unconventional Path to the Draft

The following is a first-person narrative from Shaq Lawson on overcoming personal adversity on and off the field and how he plans to succeed in the NFL, as told to Bleacher Report's Ty Schalter.

My junior year of high school, all my dreams were coming true. I was choosing between a lot of Division I scholarship offers in football, while getting ready to help defend our state title in basketball.

Then I got the phone call that changed my life forever: My parents' car had been hit by a drunk driver.