Bradley Sylve

Alabama defensive back Bradley Sylve (3) and Auburn wide receiver Quan Bray (4) vie for the ball during the second half of the Iron Bowl on Nov. 29, 2014, in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

(Brynn Anderson | The Associated Press)

Orchard Park, N.Y. -- Bradley Sylve's Twitter bio reads, "You know my name, not my story." Buffalo Bills fans might not know either.

Sylve will participate in the Bills' rookie minicamp this weekend, but his true rookie season ended before it could ever get started. March 8, 2016 started like any other day for Sylve. He woke up in his Tuscaloosa apartment one day before he was scheduled to participate in the University of Alabama pro day after a four-year career as a cornerback with the Crimson Tide.

Few pro days have a bigger stage than Alabama, a school which has produced 61 NFL Draft picks and 21 first-round picks since 2010. Sylve wasn't invited to the 2016 NFL Scouting Combine, so the pro day was his chance to show off the world class speed that helped him win Louisiana state championships in track at 100 meters and 200 meters as a high school freshman.

Some people told Sylve he should take it easy the day before the pro day. Rest up. Relax. Stay fresh for the big day. But Sylve was restless and wanted to break a sweat.

So he went down to the facility and put himself through a mock combine. He wanted to go through every drill he'd have to perform at the pro day. As he was putting himself through a warmup drill, he heard a loud pop. He thought a gun had gone off. His foot didn't feel right, and he knew something was seriously wrong when he put his foot flat on the ground and it felt like he was on his toes. He immediately sat down and checked his Achilles.

More than a year later, sitting at the Bills' facility dressed in grey sweats with the Bills' logo printed on them, Sylve cringed recalling the moment he checked his left Achilles.

"It felt like straight Jell-O, man," Sylve said. "I was poking through it. That's when I knew, man. I tore it. I was devastated. It took the soul out of my body."

Sylve insists he was going to run in the 4.2-second range in the 40-yard dash and get his NFL shot. He was projected to be a priority free agent, but a 4.2 could have changed that. Instead, while his Crimson Tide teammates competed in front of scouts from every NFL team, Sylve was in a hospital bed.

"Laying up in that hospital bed on pro day, man, with a torn Achilles and having surgery, words can't even describe how I was feeling, man," Sylve said. "Words can't even describe, bro. All I remember doing was just laying down and crying. Just like, why? Why this?"

Of all injuries, Sylve suffered a torn Achilles. His entire football career was built off his speed and explosiveness. Throughout his career, nobody could move as fast as Sylve on the field. Now, he couldn't move.

"At that time, I wanted to give up," Sylve said. "I'm like, I'm done with football, man. I can't catch a break. It's always something with me."

Everyone else counted him out, too. He still remembers tweets from reporters who said his shot at the NFL was likely over. Sylve let the doubt creep in the weeks following the injury. He cried often. He wondered if he could bounce back.

He got by how many of us do: with family. It started with words from Alabama coach Nick Saban the day he suffered the injury.

"You can rehab here," Saban told him. "We're paying for your surgery. We're going to do that for you. You can rehab here or you can go to Tulane and if you want to rehab back at home you can do that. Just know that we've got you 100 percent. We've got your back 100 percent."

Alabama's Bradley Sylve walks past a mural as he heads to the field for a workout ahead in 2015 in Atlanta.

Right then, Sylve knew he had support. His Alabama family had his back. They weren't going to give up on him. Neither would his mom, who moved to Tuscaloosa for his rehab and was constantly sending him motivational quotes and speeches to his phone or posting on his Facebook wall.

"My momma was there and she was like a big ole supporter," Sylve said. "She's the reason I bounced back from this. She played a major role in that."

For as long as Sylve can remember, it's always been him and his mom. He didn't have a father in his life growing up. For a time, he didn't have a home, either.

When Sylve was 12, he and his mom had to leave their three-bedroom home an hour south of New Orleans. It was the only home Sylve ever knew, but it was also in the eye of where Hurricane Katrina would eventually hit.

They fled for Atlanta before heading to Houston. The Houston kids didn't exactly welcome the New Orleans kids with open arms. Sylve recalls fights every day, something he hadn't been accustomed to growing up in Louisiana. He finished his seventh-grade year in Houma, La., before returning home to Port Sulphur, La. But there was no home. It had been washed away in the storm. Through it all, his mom was his rock.

"There was sometimes, man, where she would cry and I would see her, but I wasn't really thinking nothing of it," Sylve said. "When I would come to her, she would wipe her face because she didn't want to see me looking at her crying. Hurricane Katrine, man, that was probably one of the toughest things in my life that I had to overcome."

But he did overcome it. He rebuilt his life in Louisiana and was one of the most sought after recruits in the state in 2011. He had his pick of schools. Alabama. LSU. Stanford. Nebraska. USC. All just six years after his house was washed away by Katrina.

"Actually, I feel like if it wasn't for Katrina I wouldn't be where I'm at today," Sylve said. "That's how I looked at it as years went by, you know what I'm saying?"

South Plaquemines running back Bradley Sylve carries the ball in the 2008 Class 1A LHSAA Prep Classic championship game in the Superdome in 2008 in New Orleans.

Yeah, Sylve was crushed by his Achilles injury, but he wouldn't let it define him. He bounced back from Katrina. He bounced back from getting benched at Alabama and getting stuck strictly on special teams. He wasn't letting an Achilles injury stand between him and the NFL.

"All you have to do is stay prayed up, keep your faith, keep grinding and never give up," Sylve said. "That was my slogan. I wasn't going to give up at all until I got my shot."

He got another shot on March 8, 2017, a year after he suffered the Achilles injury. Alabama allowed Sylve to participate in the 2017 pro day after missing his chance in 2016. Having rehabbed from March until January, Sylve was still rehabbing while trying to train for the pro day.

When he woke up the day before, Sylve did just what he had done a year earlier. He went down to the facility and put himself through a mock workout. This time, no pop in the Achilles. When he finished the workout, he immediately dropped to his knees.

'Thank you God so much for getting me through the day!' he said.

The pro day workout wasn't his best, Sylve said. He felt good and finished the workout, but he ran a 4.41-second 40-yard dash. For some, that would be a dream time. Not for a former track star.

"Everything I do, man, I feel like I'm going to kill it," Sylve said. "When they took my time, it was like, 'Dang, B, you've got a long way to go, my man. But you know, you got through it, you did what you could do.' That was the thing with me. I gave it everything I got. So I was satisfied with that. Even though I wasn't 100 percent, I came out there and gave it 100 percent."

That was enough to attract the attention of a few teams, particularly the Bills. Two days after his pro day, Sylve wrote in the notes app of his phone "I'm going to be signing with the Buffalo Bills."

Then he waited.

On Wednesday, April 5, Sylve was supposed to fly out to West Virginia to play in the NFL's spring development league. He couldn't get a flight because his agent's phone had died while trying to book the ticket, so he settled for a flight the next day. In the meantime, he got a phone call from a 716 area code. The Bills wanted to fly him out for a workout that Friday.

"I'm like, 'God you really working right now, man," Sylve said. "There's a reason why I didn't get on that plane today. Just because of that. That's when I knew. I knew for a fact. Once I got that call from them, I'm like, I'm going to sign with them. I will sign."

Sylve's message to himself became reality when he signed with the Bills on April 7. Now he has to make the most on his career's extra life. Right now, 90 players are on the Buffalo Bills' roster. 58 will compete in rookie minicamp. By the time September rolls around, 53 players will be on the roster with another 10 on the practice squad. So far, Sylve has gotten positive feedback from Bills defensive backs coach Gill Byrd, but he knows that's just a start.

Right now, Sylve says he is at about 90 or 95 percent. He still waiting for a little bit of power to return to his left leg. He plans to go back to Houston between OTAs and training camp to train and come back even stronger than before the injury. To some, the 53-man roster may look like a long shot, but that's never stopped him before.

"I'm not giving up," Sylve said. "People always say once you tear your Achilles, you don't go back to how you was, man, but I'm about to prove them wrong again. I already proved them wrong getting my shot here and signing with the Buffalo Bills when they were saying I wasn't going to sign with an NFL team, you know what I'm saying? That's just another list that I got, you know what I'm saying. I'm going to show y'all. I will bounce back from this."