These Devils are doing it

Sporting News, The, Oct 21, 1996 by Scott Bordow

If Freedman is the pumping heart that generates fear for the Sun Devils' defense, then Rodgers is the unit's quiet soul, lending much-needed maturity to a unit that starts only four seniors. The junior's story is incredible.

He attended renowned prep power St. Augustine High in New Orleans but weighed only 150 pounds. So instead of stomping on quarterbacks, he marched in the band. After graduating, Rodgers joined the Air Force to earn money for college. He was a medical lab technician in Okinawa, Japan, during Operation Desert Storm. During his spare time, he played flag football. The game came so easily to him that some friends suggested he play college football. After transferring to March Air Force Base in Riverside, Calif., in 1994, he called Riverside Community College coach Barry Meier and asked for a tryout.

"What position do you play?" Meier aked.

"The trumpet," Rodgers replied.

Meier invited Rodgers to come out anyway.

Rodgers, by then 6-2 and 195 pounds, was anything but an overnight sensation. He tried out at receiver and cornerback and failed miserably. He finally found a home on defense midway through his freshman year.

"I was wild at first, but I kept disrupting plays," says Rodgers, who had seven sacks and averaged 9.8 tackles as a sophomore.

During that second season at Riverside Rodgers took a job to help pay expenses. From 3-7 a.m., he transported blood from convalescent homes for a medical research lab. He'd sleep an hour, then go to school and practice. At night, he studied. He estimates he got 14 hours of sleep per week.

Rodgers, still undersized at 220 pounds, is anything but amazed at his transformation into one of the Pac-10's premier pass rushers, posting six sacks and 16 tackles for losses thus far this season. Oregon coach Mike Bellotti said he would trade "five draft choices for No. 59."

Rodgers--a 25-year-old who already has lived in Memphis; Rochester, N.Y.; Panama City, Fla.; New Orleans; Washington, D.C.; Atlanta; Korea; Japan, and Riverside--has learned to deal with the unexpected. "When your parents tell you a lot that you're moving and you have to make new friends, you understand life faster because you have to." Rodgers says. "I'm not amazed because I put myself in position to do this."

So did Poole--until a fatal car accident changed his life forever. If the Sun Devils ever need inspiration, all they have to do is watch him leave the practice field with his older brother, Marc, who is confined to a wheelchair.

Eight years ago, Marc was returning from football practice at Clovis (Calif.) High in a car driven by his best friend. As they approached an intersection, another vehicle ran a stop sign and collided with their car. At the time, Keith was baby-sitting his younger brother and sister at home--it was his parents' anniversary--when the phone rang, delivering the news of Marc's accident.

Keith. then 14, got on his bike and rode to the scene. Marc's friend was dead. Marc, 16, had a broken neck and was paralyzed from the chest down. Keith was devastated. He quit football and his grades slipped. Why should I work so hard, he thought, when it can all be taken away in the blink of an eye?