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“The journey, it’s about where you go with it,” Crockett said. “I go from one year doing really well, the next year coming in and having my jersey sold and being ready to be one of those guys, then getting a severe (shoulder) injury and I’m done for the season. I was going to have an opportunity to get more opportunities.

“You have to understand what you do it for. If you do it for the money, if you do it for all the fame, this really won’t be for you. If you’re doing it because this is what you love to do, this is what you want to make a career out of, opportunities like this you embrace. This moment exceeds my expectations.”

Photo by James Park / Postmedia

His time with the Packers is something Crockett will never forget.

“Having a guy like Aaron Rodgers as your quarterback, you’re googly eyed,” he said. “You definitely have the pinch-me moment, but you understand that this is what you’re working for. You have a job and your job is to execute and make plays. Once you step onto the field, you become one of the guys, the same as everybody else. Having that experience, it was exciting. Hopefully I’ll have some big moments here.”

He was a basketball player before he fell in love with football. “Somebody told me, ‘You’re probably going to make your money playing this,'” he said. Crockett also plays the drums and as a kid danced with the Nimely Pan African Dance Company in Minnesota.

At North Dakota State University, Crockett put up huge stats. Between 2012 and 2014, he rushed for 4,309 yards and 41 touchdowns; 21 of those scores came in a monster 2014 season when he rambled for 1,994 rushing yards and had another 397 in pass receptions. It just never translated to the NFL, and luck wasn’t on his side.