Despite growing up in Apopka, Fla., and going to college at Michigan, it didn�t take long for Jeremy Gallon turn into a Patriots fan.

FOXBORO � At 5-foot-7, nothing was ever going to be handed to Jeremy Gallon when he stepped onto a football field.

And that was fine. Not much has come easy to this wide receiver.

Growing up in Apopka, Fla., he was exposed to drugs and gang violence at an early age. He fought to avoid trouble and to earn a Division I scholarship. When he got to Michigan, he had to fight to get on and stay on the field.

But each hurdle this pint-sized receiving dynamo encountered, he cleared with ease. Making the Patriots this season as a seventh-round pick might seem like a long shot, but it wouldn�t be the first time Gallon�s proven people wrong.

When Michigan wide receivers coach Jeff Hecklinski first met Gallon, during Gallon�s sophomore year, he was surprised that such a small receiver was on the team. But as the pair bonded, Hecklinski saw a young man whose work ethic was second to none and a wide out who played much bigger than his stature would ever indicate.

Hecklinski met a fighter, which is why he thinks Gallon is in the perfect place with the Patriots.

�Whatever you�ve read about his upbringing isn�t half of what the reality really is. Take that for what it�s worth. He�s had to fight his whole life to get where he is,� Hecklinski said. �And that�s why I really believe [the Patriots] are a great fit. With coach [Bill] Belichick and the Patriot way and how they do it � they�re fighters.

�Jeremy knows nothing, but to fight.�

Gallon faces an uphill battle to land on the team�s 53-man roster. The Patriots return every wide receiver from last season and added Brandon LaFell to the mix.

For what he lacked in size, Gallon�s always made up in production. In three years at Apopka High School, he amassed 5,905 yards of total offense (4,281 rushing and 1,624 passing yards) and finished with 53 career touchdowns. He played running back and quarterback.

When he got to Michigan, he countered another hurdle. Coach Rich Rodriguez, who gave Gallon a scholarship, was fired after his freshman season. When Brady Hoke was brought in, the Wolverines moved to a pro-style offense, favoring bigger receivers.

But when he stepped out on the field, he was a player whose heart and toughness allowed him to do things that seemed impossible. Last season, he set a single-game Big Ten record with 369 receiving yards against Indiana. His 1,373 receiving yards also broke Braylon Edwards� single-season Michigan record.

Gallon credits his toughness to his passion for football.

�It doesn�t have anything to do about where I grew up, but just how much I love the game,� Gallon said from Gillette Stadium on Thursday. �I love it so much that I�ll do anything for my teammates. I love to play football and give everything I have to my team. With that comes hard work and dedication and being tough. You have to be tough to play this sport.�

On Wednesday, Gallon sat in the press box at Gillette Stadium and stared into the stadium. He said he admired its beauty and couldn�t be happier to be in Foxboro.

He admits that his size has been one of his biggest issues �since forever,� but he grew up watching undersized receivers such as Wes Welker and Steve Smith � his two favorites. He�s long been a Patriots fan because of the way the team has undersized wide outs like Welker, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola.

Gallon hopes to add his name that list.

�I just use it as motivation,� Gallon said of his size. �I�m just here to grow as a person. They can doubt me. They can say I can�t do anything. I�m just going to continue to focus on me and my teammates and work hard.�

Hecklinski has too many favorite memories of Gallon to count. There�s the time when the receiver went to his son�s birthday party to have cake and ice cream, during the week of the 2012 Outback Bowl.

There�s the game against Notre Dame in his sophomore season when he caught a 64-yard catch to set up the game-winning touchdown. No one knew much about Gallon at that point, but Hecklinski told everyone before the game, �watch this kid � he�s going to be a football player.�

And he was right.

But his favorite memory of Gallon came during his record-setting game against the Hoosiers. It wasn�t that he etched his name in history, either. It was because he let the first pass of the game slip through his hands, only to bounce back.

�He set the Big Ten record and was 36 yards off the national record,� Hecklinski said. �People forget that he dropped the very first pass of the game, which was a 35- to 40-yarder. But that�s Jeremy. Nothing rattles him. Nothing fazes him.�

That�s because Jeremy Gallon�s a fighter.

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