Martin Frank

The News Journal

Wendell Smallwood couldn’t do it by himself. He knew he needed help to escape his surroundings. Smallwood needed football.

Through football came the support from his friends, who like him were also determined to get out of the rough neighborhoods of Wilmington. And he needed a coach who made sure everyone was so focused on athletic and academic success that they were too tired to hang out at parties even if they wanted to.

That doesn’t make Smallwood any different from countless other players who escape the inner cities to make it to college, and then to an NFL team, or a team in another professional sport.

But Smallwood’s success shows how there are so many things that could derail a dream before it ever gets off the ground. Smallwood experienced all of that. He went from being accused of witness intimidation in a murder case to graduating high school, becoming the Big-12’s leading rusher last season and the Eagles’ fifth-round draft choice this spring.

That’s why Smallwood doesn’t take it lightly when he says that football saved his life. It gave him the determination to succeed, not just in athletics, but also in academics. Smallwood is 12 credits shy of his degree in criminology with a minor in communications after leaving West Virginia University following his junior year, and he plans on finishing.

Smallwood’s football education will begin Monday when he and the Eagles’ other rookies, along with the quarterbacks and selected veterans begin training camp. The full squad’s first practice begins Thursday.

Plenty to learn at Eagles' training camp

“Football definitely saved my life,” Smallwood said. “I say that multiple times. I just know I would’ve been doing something else. I wouldn’t be where I’m at today without football. Just dedicating myself and staying out of the streets, just making it a full-time year-round job for me going back to high school.”

For that, Smallwood credits Dwayne Thomas, or “DT” as pretty much everybody calls him. He was coach at Red Lion Christian Academy when Smallwood played there. He’s currently the head coach at Eastern Christian Academy in Elkton, Maryland, where Smallwood played his senior season.

Thomas wasn’t supposed to make it, either. He grew up in a rough area of Paterson, New Jersey, which he called “Wilmington on steroids.” He made it to college, then spent 16 years as an assistant coach at schools like Montclair State, Tennessee State and Delaware State. He also scouts for the Canadian Football League.

Thomas said he and the other coaches at Red Lion and Eastern Christian treated coaching in high school as if it was a college program. That began with making sure the players got to school every morning and stayed until about 8 p.m., even if it meant constant phone calls, texts, and at times, surprise visits.

They had a full day of classes, followed by weight lifting, practice and study hall. Thomas called it his “8-to-8 program.” The players, especially those from inner-city Wilmington, called it a life-saver.

“All I wanted to do when I got home was get something to eat, shower and go to bed,” Smallwood said. “I was too tired to hang out.”

“I’ve always believed that if you put people in position to succeed, they’ll succeed,” Thomas said. “We prepared them like they were in college with the full days of school and football. So when they got to college, they were ready for it, both in football and academics. They’re like, ‘There isn’t anything you can do to me that hasn’t been done to me already.’”

But there was more to it than that.

Thomas said many kids on his teams played football out of “desperation” more than for “recreation.” For Smallwood and his friends, football was the only way out.

“I love the game and it’s fun. But that’s not why I play,” Smallwood said. “I play because I have to. I have a family, coach and friends who believed in me. I can’t let them down. I have to be there for them.”

Those friends included Angelo Blackson, a defensive end entering his second season with the Tennessee Titans; Jhurell Pressley, a running back who signed as an undrafted free agent with the Minnesota Vikings; Kenny Bigelow, a defensive lineman at Southern California; Freddy Canteen, a wide receiver at Michigan; Antwane Grant, a wide receiver signed as an undrafted free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals; and Daikiel Shorts, a wide receiver at West Virginia.

Nichelle Barber, Smallwood’s mother, knows all of them well. They grew up within a few miles of each other in and around Wilmington. Barber still lives in a small house in New Castle with Smallwood’s younger sister, Rhandi.

“All of those kids were here,” she said. “He and Daikiel used to sleep on the floor in his room. And Wendell would do the same at Daikiel’s house. Everybody helped out. The coaches, too. DT was always around making sure they were doing what they needed to do.

“These kids were all determined to make it.”

After all, it’s not like Smallwood and his friends were the first good football players in the area. It’s just that they were given the means to succeed.

“We always had each other’s backs,” Pressley said. “We weren’t going to let anyone fail if we could help it. We always protected each other. We’re still like that.”

Letter of apology

It wasn’t easy.

When Smallwood was 13, he was among a group of kids at a convenience store when a state trooper arrived. One of the kids – not Smallwood – threw a glass bottle at the officer.

Smallwood, as part of the group, was sentenced to community service and ordered to write his mother a letter explaining what he did.

“I hated that she had to come to the court when that happened,” Smallwood said. “That was a genuine apology to her. I told her it was going to pay off one day.”

Barber remembers that letter well.

“He kept telling me that everything was going to be OK, and that he apologized and didn’t mean to get into trouble and that he didn’t mean to embarrass me,” Barber said. “You could always take Wendell for his word. He didn’t write that letter to please the court. He meant it from the heart.”

Even then, Smallwood wasn’t sure if he could stay out of trouble. His sort of awakening came two years later when he started attending Red Lion.

“I wasn’t devoted until I met DT,” Smallwood said. “He wasn’t around in my life back then. I was finding myself in the wrong place at the wrong time, and those were things I should have avoided. I didn’t understand that [at the time].”

It would be easy to say that everything changed right away because of football.

Smallwood and his friends still liked going to parties and still liked hanging out with their friends in the community. Smallwood said he never drank alcohol or used drugs, but he had seen others who have. He also has friends, some of whom he played with at Red Lion, who couldn’t stay out of trouble.

“There were a bunch of guys like that,” Smallwood said. “They were on our team. Some guys are still running around … We had guys who didn’t turn themselves around. Some pretty big names. Some had more talent than I did. I’m not going to mention the names. But they couldn’t stay out of the city [life]. Some of them just didn’t care.”

Smallwood was almost one of them.

In the summer of 2014, while at West Virginia, Smallwood was arrested and charged with witness intimidation in a murder committed two years earlier by an acquaintance. He was extradited to Delaware. Just before the trial was scheduled to start, the charges were dropped against Smallwood because the suspect pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Smallwood was asked about the situation on May 1 after the Eagles drafted him in the fifth round, 153rd overall.

“I was young, hanging out with the wrong people,” he said. “I was never around whatever happened. I wasn’t involved. There was no evidence, no witness against me … I just learned from the situation. I’m just trying to move forward and [become] a man from that.”

“In that situation, I think he was a victim of where he was from,” Thomas said. “I’m sure he knew the person who committed the murder, and he probably knew [the witness]. That’s how it is a lot of times.”

Smallwood admitted that the case weighed on him. He was about to enter his sophomore season at West Virginia, and just like that, everything was nearly taken away.

“I just knew that I couldn’t quit,” he said. “I know if I did, my mom wouldn’t let me come home. She would’ve sent me on the first bus back to West Virginia because there were times I thought about it. I can’t go home because they’re going to look at me crazy.”

Smallwood didn’t waste the second chance. He rushed for 722 yards that season and had 326 yards receiving. As a junior, Smallwood was even better, rushing for 1,519 yards, leading the Big-12.

Smallwood’s emergence forced the Mountaineers to change from a passing attack to a run-oriented scheme. Last summer, West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen called Smallwood potentially “the most versatile player I’ve ever had.”

That’s the same quality that enticed the Eagles.

They saw Smallwood as a versatile back who can both run and catch the ball in the mold of past Eagles greats like LeSean McCoy, Brian Westbrook and Duce Staley.

“I’m not sitting up here saying this is LeSean McCoy in the fifth round, but this is a good player,” Eagles executive vice president for football operations Howie Roseman said after drafting Smallwood.

‘I’m not famous’

Getting Smallwood this far has been a team effort. Even during the summers when Smallwood was in high school, Thomas was getting his players into 7-on-7 leagues, then going to football camps around the region and then traveling for college visits.

“We were doing something all the time,” Thomas said. “We went to showcases, combines. We went on tours throughout the midwest and the south so they would be seen. The bottom line for them wasn’t just football. It was going to college for free.”

That competition was already established for Smallwood. He and Pressley were the main running backs at Red Lion, and they pushed each other every day in practice and games.

“Wendell was a quiet guy, laid back,” Pressley said. “But when he got on the football field, it was a different story. He’d run you over. I was more of a speed guy and he was more of a power guy. But we both wanted to play and we both wanted every carry.

“During a game, we’d be on the field arguing about who should get the ball. There were times the coaches had to call a timeout and take one of us off the field. We knew how many yards each of us had, and we were always trying to be the one with more. It was real intense.”

Even when they got to college – first Pressley at New Mexico, then Smallwood – they continued to compare stats and push each other to be better.

So it was hardly a surprise that there was Smallwood, on a hot and humid July afternoon, working out on a turf field at the University of Delaware with Thomas and about six current high school players from Wilmington.

Thomas was running them through a workout, barking at them to catch the ball the right way, instilling the same kind of discipline and leadership that he instilled in Smallwood and his friends over the past several years.

Smallwood wasn’t exempt from the constructive criticism, either. Sure, he might be a running back for the Eagles, about to embark on an NFL career and the potential riches that come with it. But Smallwood didn’t mind.

Considering everything he has been through, and everyone who helped him, he’s not about to stop listening.

“I’m the same person,” Smallwood said. “People are like, ‘You’re famous now.’ I’m not famous. Not even close to it. I’m going to remain the same person. I’m going to be humble. I don’t even tell people I play for the Eagles ... I’m real chill about it. That’s just not the kind of guy I am. I’m a regular person.”

Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.

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