How losing football tested Redskins running back Derrius Guice

RICHMOND, Va. -- The gunfire rang out too close to home -- like right outside -- prompting a panicked phone message from a young Derrius Guice. Ninth grade had just ended; football workouts started the next day. But he had to let his coach know he might not arrive on time, if at all.

He left a message on Catholic High School coach Dale Weiner's voicemail.

"Grandma's coming to pick me up because they're shooting in our house!" Weiner recalled Guice saying in the message. "They're shooting in our house, coach!"

That is just a snippet of what the Washington Redskins running back overcame in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to reach the NFL. His dad, who was killed when Guice was 5, was part of that…