College Gridiron Showcase

CGS 2020 – Plans To Go Pro

At the beginning of the program, we find out that players at the College Gridiron Showcase pre-draft event truly love their sport. We also discover that many of them had to overcome significant challenges, including: • A one-time top recruit confronting the off-field issues that caused him to enroll at four colleges and put his pro football dreams in serious jeopardy • A record-setting running back from a small school, homeless as a kid, who hopes to realize a lifelong dream on the NFL’s big stage • A defensive lineman whose mental health issues forced him to leave the Big Ten school he loved and finish college at a lower-level school in Texas • An offensive lineman who grew up in poverty and became one of the few players to announce he was gay while still competing • A small-school running back who persevered through two torn ACLs We also learn how the event’s coaches have fun on the field while engaging in relentless trash talk. Their approach has a purpose: to help these players get in the proper frame of mind to excel in front of the assembled scouts from the NFL, CFL, and more. The event’s small-school players must survive a cut to remain at the event. The scouts select 10 of them to continue. Even the ones who make the cut may have to start thinking about their transition to life beyond the game. Indeed, there’s an element of facing real life that all these just-out-of-college young men must confront. CGS’s keynote speaker, Brenda Tracy, a rape survivor, gives them all needed perspective on challenges they may face and responsibilities they must shoulder as players and as men. Dior Johnson had been accused of sexual offenses in college. Though the defensive back was not convicted of a crime, his conduct could still affect potential employers’ evaluations. Many CGS players, in fact, have factors working against them in their quests to play pro football. CGS tries to set them up to overcome those weaknesses if they can, whether through performance on the field or in interviews with scouts. One player, Scott Frantz, who had come out as gay at Kansas State, never found his orientation to be an obstacle. The offensive lineman and his fellow attendees leave it out on the field in a final scrimmage and hope they’ve done enough to realize their lifelong dreams.

CGS 2021 – Football Tackles Pandemics and Prejudices

Former college football players from small schools or with other perceived shortcomings know they face an uphill climb make it in the pros. Their struggle got more intense when a global pandemic forced the cancellation of games and even entire seasons. We meet U.S. Olympic skateboarder Alana Smith who can identify with these athletes – her Tokyo Olympiad got postponed, too. The pandemic affected those who needed to facilitate opportunities for players to receive draft evaluations, including scouts and CGS’s organizers. They have to run an event without pads or significant contact and still find ways to accurately evaluate these hopefuls. The event also includes a larger-than-normal contingent of free agents – players no longer eligible for the NFL Draft who still harbor hopes of catching on with a team. The Pro Gridiron Showcase rosters swelled in part due to COVID-related eliminations of Pro Days and other evaluation mechanisms. Players need PGS to stay on teams’ radars. Despite the circumstances, they bond at the event. Many tell stories of how their college teams came together to deal with the social justice issues that took center stage in mid-to-late 2020. Their shared bonds include a passion for their teammates and for their sport. A few of the players profiled in the episode include: • A linebacker who overcame a debilitating neck injury to play again only to have his mother hospitalized and his brother murdered • A record-setting running back from a small school who lost his senior season to a COVID infection after already having transferred in the wake of his best friend’s death • A defensive back who fled war-torn Sierra Leone as a child, never knowing his murdered father and still becoming the first in his family to graduate college • A suspended quarterback unsure if even a successful appeal would allow him to play in the NCAA who had to make a tough decision whether to turn pro • A former baseball prospect who helped his mom through cancer and led social justice initiatives at his southern school • A former Dallas Cowboy dropped by the team under murky circumstances who looked to resurrect his career in Canada and who went viral with an online video demonstrating his physical capabilities

CGS 2022 – They Just Need An Opportunity

The episode opens on a running back whose mother helped their family escape war-torn Liberia when he was a child. We learn the College Gridiron Showcase gives long-shots like him a chance to audition for a career in professional football. The event itself, like its attendees, was recovering from the blow of a global pandemic. Both had to figure out how to carry on amidst its repercussions and in response to changing NCAA rules about transfers, eligibility, and more. Many players benefitted from the ability to transfer without penalty, but potential downsides must be considered by all involved. We meet players whose draft year has passed but who are afforded the opportunity to work out for assembled scouts because they think they can still play at a pro level. The roster includes a pair who attended local colleges, including one who did manage to play a few NFL seasons and now wants to make it back to the league. The players get off-field perspective from a man who has done what they all hope to do – overcome a lower-than-desired draft slot to have a brilliant career – Pro Football Hall of Famer Will Shields. Shields had come to the event to help run a flag football clinic for local high school girls. They, too, want to advance in the game, in their case to get the opportunity to play at one of the NAIA’s emerging collegiate flag football programs. Their pathway mirrors that of the small-school CGS attendees who hope to go places in the game most of their peers cannot. Women involved in CGS share thoughts on how difficult it can be to break into a traditionally male-dominated career. Rape survivor Brenda Tracy gives her perspective on how young men like the CGS attendees can be leaders in making not only the game but the world at large a comfortable and safe space for women. We see the players run through drills and learn how CGS’s structure helps them show scouts what they can do. As CGS coaches try to set a competitive tone, they remember a former colleague, Noel Scarlett, who relished such interactions. Scarlett had died the previous year. His estate awarded scholarships to several young men to help pay their costs to come to CGS. One of the recipients had gone to a HBCU, leading to a discussion of how players had handled ongoing social justice conversations at their own schools. Players testify about how their teams bonded in response to issues affecting their country, leading to the stories of two attendees who had played for Team USA in international football competition. Indeed the U.S.’s most popular sport has become more universal, with new leagues and even overseas circuits providing more opportunities than ever before. Competition is a theme – all teams want players who have a keen to desire to take the fight to their opponents. Evaluations include such qualities as well as new physical and statistical metrics. CGS’s in-person interviews still matter, too. Scouts want to know how they think and what they’ve overcome to get to this point. Heading into the final scrimmage, we learn how much the players want to succeed. Some excel. Some do not. At the end, their journey mirrors that of their sport. Some of the players profiled: • A receiver who drove a 200-mile round trip to a junior college followed by an unlikely transfer to academically elite Cal in a quest to provide a good life for his baby daughter • A defensive lineman who attended three schools as he took responsibility to help care for his dementia-stricken grandfather • A punter who became a Division II All-American even as he dealt with his mother’s cancer diagnosis • A receiver who went to three universities as he fought through a torn labrum, a friend’s suicide, and the death of his grandmother • A highly-rated running back who overcame a heart condition as a child and who navigated through three schools amidst coaching changes and COVID cancellations • An offensive lineman who overcame kidney problems to become an FCS All-American

What Tracy James Can Achieve

As a productive running back at Abilene Christian, Tracy James produced on the field. He hoped that performance, plus a good showing at the College Gridiron Showcase, would put him on track for a pro football career. But, as he explains in this video, his biggest achievements have come through what he’s brought to his family. He also wants to set an example for those who follow him at ACU.

Matt Burrell’s Motivation

Matt Burrell participated in the College Gridiron Showcase in 2020, hoping to move into a career in professional football. His journey through college ball took him from Ohio State in the FBS to FCS-level Sam Houston State. The challenges he had to overcome were mental as well as physical, and in this video he talks about his mental health. He explains that he now has a new source of motivation: his daughter.

Chris Naggar’s Persistence

Former SMU and UT-Austin kicker Chris Naggar told us he came to the College Gridiron Showcase with what he described as a “chip on my shoulder.” He’d struggled for consistent playing time at a position where only one player typically gets to take the field for his team. This video takes a deeper dive into the obstacles he’d already overcome to get a shot at a pro football career. Hannah Hoover narrates.

Napoleon Maxwell Sticks With It

Napoleon Maxwell is a running back out of Florida International who overcame two ACL tears and a COVID-cancelled pro day to get a shot with the NFL’s Chicago Bears following his appearance at the 2020 College Gridiron Showcase. Then, when he didn’t stick on the Bear roster, he came back to CGS’s pro free agent events to stay on scouts’ radars. He explains how and why he stuck it out to continue to chase his dream of playing pro football. Hannah Hoover narrates.

Akilian Butler’s Journey

How did a native Texan like playing in Idaho? Boise State product Akilian Butler explains in this video, which also delves into how the wide receiver overcame serious injury and the pandemic to keep his football career alive. He was interviewed at the Pro Gridiron Showcase, a CGS offshoot event for unsigned players who are no longer draft eligible but who still believe they have what it takes to play pro ball. Hannah Hoover provides the voiceover.

CGS 2023 – Progress Through Football

Over the course of a week at Fort Worth’s Farrington Field, one can encounter everything people love about the sport of American football, along with everything that makes it tough. We learn about setbacks that players must overcome and how scouts evaluate their ability to work through adversity along with physical skills. Few had overcome as much adversity as a man who teamed with a couple of the CGS attendees in college. The CGSers discuss their relationships with Damar Hamlin, who inspired many by his recovery from a potentially life-threatening injury suffered in an NFL game. The well-publicized episode affected even those who did not know Hamlin personally. They had to confront the reality of their often-violent sport. Evolving college transfer rules also affected both the players and the scouts trying to evaluate them. Many have used it to their advantage, but scouts also want to understand why. We see specialists with multiple schools in their pasts try to show they can kick or punt their ways onto NFL teams. Players also address the emerging trends around name, image, and likeness rights that some used to earn spending money in college. Such sums can also affect a player’s decision whether or not to declare for the draft which, in turn, affects talent evaluators trying to build a draft board. For some who took the field in Fort Worth, professional football is not an option, at least not at this point in the sport’s development. They are young women from local high schools attending the flag football clinic put on by CGS personnel. The event’s lone female coach can identify with them. She can also identify with the male players who try to overcome long odds to keep playing the game they love. She tries to keep the mood light as they face their nerve-wracking audition for a pro football opportunity. Some participants are motivated by a desire to give their children a good life. They learn about the business of football, including some who received guidance from family members in the business. The players and scouts also receive physiological information as evaluation tools. And they must always be able to handle personal interviews with scouts who need to know how they think the game. As the players progress to the scrimmage that ends the event, they know they are being evaluated by more than NFL teams. They hope the CFL, new outdoor leagues, existing indoor leagues, and more take notice of their performances. They have more options than many of their forerunners did. They do, ultimately, try to have fun as well. After all, that’s why they want to do this for a living. CGS tries to give them the tools to realize that dream. In this episode, we meet some remarkable young men: • A defensive back on the mend from nerve damage to his neck who decided to attend CGS after the hospitalized Damar Hamlin insisted his friend do so • A tight end with a massive TikTok following who gave it up to focus on football • A formerly homeless edge rusher who got to play only two FBS games and whose brother endured a devastating knee injury • A Canadian defensive lineman whose mother brought him to the U.S. from the Congo • A defensive tackle who carries to every game the last hospital socks his mother wore before her death • A placekicker who went to three different schools and whose wedding proposal video went viral • A offensive lineman who transferred after his best friend died on a football field • A former soccer player who made the nearly impossible jump from an NAIA university to a perennial FBS power and became the starting punter at his new school • A defensive lineman who tried to work two jobs while playing so as to be able to support his newborn daughter • A running back whose father and grandfather both played in the NFL

CGS 2024 - Hard Road To A Dream Job

Aspiring pro football players know people are watching them as they compete at the College Gridiron Showcase. Indeed, they welcome the pressure of scouts’ eyes on them because they know it could lead them to their dream jobs straight out of college.

CGS 2025 – Football: A Microcosm of Life

What you used to know about American football has changed. From the transfer portal to NIL, the path to pro football is different from the past. Players came to the 2025 College Gridiron Showcase having navigated that changing landscape and eager to show the scouts in attendance they have what it takes to make it to the top U.S. league, the NFL. We follow their winding paths and hear their perspectives on the issues confronting the sport – a sport, we observe, that is no longer a purely American pursuit. Players from Europe, Africa, Canada, and beyond show us that love of football is not bound by geography. Ultimately, we learn about these players as people, hear about their setbacks and triumphs, and feel the depth of their commitments to overcome long odds to realize their dreams. In the 2025 College Gridiron Showcase episode, we meet, among others: • A defensive back raised by single mom with a dad in prison who played at three schools, finishing with Deion Sanders at Colorado, who feels the pressure to provide for his family. • An introspective Australian offensive lineman who had to confront mental health issues after the death of teammates and family members during the pandemic. • A big-armed Canadian quarterback – originally a hockey player - who earned a Senior Bowl berth after his CGS performance. • A speedy running back who came to the US from Ghana, went to a football practice thinking it was soccer, and fell in love with the American code of the sport. • An offensive lineman and new father, son of a former national champ, who had to overcome a torn quadricep to try to make it to pro ball out of his tiny NAIA school. • A former walk-on who went from fifth-string to big-game hero and starred in commercials. • A defensive back whose father coaches in the NFL who had to nevertheless earn his own playing time at his FCS school. • An offensive lineman who fell in love with the game in his native Sweden and then faced a difficult transfer decision at his first U.S. college.