Chances are you’ve never heard of Kamathi Holsey. His name doesn’t spark a memory of any can’t-miss highlight. It doesn’t call to mind an endlessly retweeted profile. And it’s not on the tip of every NFL analyst’s tongue when discussing their picks for the upcoming draft.

Holsey, 22, is well aware that most people who matter in NFL football circles don’t know his name. As he sits in one of the box seats at the stadium where he ran routes as a wide receiver for the University at Buffalo, he smiles softly, knowing that he is running out of time to change that.

“Ever since junior college, I’ve been on Twitter just so they can see my name and know that I’m out there,” he says. “Social media played a big part in getting college offers. Now, I’m doing the same with the NFL draft. My coaches can put in a word here or there, but that’s as far as it goes. Is that really enough? I’ve taken it upon myself to do it myself. If I don’t do it, who will?”

Holsey’s college career is over, and the odds of him getting drafted by an NFL team are slim. He knows that average observers consider guys like him a dime a dozen, just another wide receiver with bigger dreams than potential, but he isn’t ready to give up on goals yet. So he’s doing everything he can – from sharing his own highlight reel to tweeting at whoever will listen – to get some attention thrown his way.

What Team Yall Think I Will Go To #NFLDraft ? 🤔 — Kamathi Holsey (@woo215_) April 8, 2018

“Coaches have other responsibilities and they are so busy,” he says. “You’re on your own, and you have to market yourself. If you don’t do it, nobody is going to do it for you. I know how to work it, and it’s just reaching out, following the right people, just getting the exposure.”

Social media is crowded with aspiring NFL hopefuls who share highlight clips, inspirational quotes, and even personal details about their lives. They also follow NFL players, coaches, agents, trainers, and sportswriters to get their names out there. In February, Holsey posted a highlight video on Twitter of his best plays and catches from his time at Buffalo, including an abridged biography as a caption. Being open on social media is an important part of his strategy, he says, because he wants people to know just how far he’s come.

No offers out of high school, Grades forced me to go JUCO. I Didn’t any food to eat and went to sleep hungry on several nights. Overcame being homeless As I kept faith in GOD he has given me power to beat the odds. #JucoProduct Final Highlight Tape 👇🏾https://t.co/6ZuVYwoW5O pic.twitter.com/7B6qWA6dCk — Kamathi Holsey (@woo215_) February 16, 2018

The effort to attract attention on can also go too far as players embellish stories to inflate their resumes. During our initial interview, Holsey told me he appeared on Last Chance U, the popular Netflix reality series about JuCo football players. A season of the show was filmed at Independence Community College in Kansas, where Holsey played for two years and where he is widely revered. But he wasn’t on the show; he was already at Buffalo when the filming took place last fall. “I was just trying to use it as a publicity stunt to get more exposure,” he tells me when I call him out on it. “It kept getting further and further. I didn’t really want it to seem like I was in it. I didn’t want even want it to get that far.”

***

Holsey grew up in north Philadelphia surrounded by what he describes as “typical inner-city stuff,” which he says included some time living in a homeless shelter with his mother, Denise, when he was about five. His dad, James, also struggled with drug addiction.

“I had forgotten about that time, not because it doesn’t cross my mind, but because it’s a time that we all want to forget about,” says James. “I remember how difficult it was for us to be separated. Kamathi has determination – I’m so glad he has that, and I imagine it comes from him having to be a survivor.”

One of the most important figures in Holsey’s young life, he says, was a drug dealer 13 years his senior who became his best friend. Holsey was nine when he met Jamal, who was known around the neighborhood for surviving 15 gunshots. “That was his environment,” Holsey says about the drug-dealing. “And he wanted to keep me out it of it. He’d throw me the ball, encourage me to do well in school, and give me money whenever I needed it. He saw my potential and I guess he wanted to help keep me out of the streets.”

At 15, Holsey’s parents moved to Virginia to live with one of his older sisters while his mother recovered from a broken leg and his father worked on getting sober. Holsey stayed in Philly for a little while with his other sisters, then Denise brought him to live with them. Everything changed when he enrolled at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake, a football powerhouse that has been competing regularly for state championships since 2008, and he took to the new environment immediately. “The principal was from Philly too, and he told me I landed in a really good situation and that I had to make the most of it. And he went on and on about the football program, and how good it was. I knew right then that I definitely wanted to be a part of it.”

Holsey spent his sophomore year recovering from a broken arm. As a junior, he couldn’t get playing time because of all the talent in front of him, he says. But he did his best to make up for lost time during his senior season, finishing as the 126th-ranked wide receiver in the nation, and fourth in the state of Virginia according to MaxPreps.

He had the size and height. And he had good hands. The one thing he didn’t have going for him was grades.

“I wasn’t a bad student in high school, like not going to class or anything like that,” Holsey clarifies. “But the move from Philly to Virginia and my broken arm kind of put me in a hole. I would have had passing grades if it weren’t for all of that.”

One of the only colleges to look Holsey’s way was Independence. Matt Lott was the offensive coordinator at the time and he liked what he saw on tape – a big kid who ran good routes and could catch the ball well. He could tell that Holsey was a natural talent that needed coaching at the next level and a chance to improve his grade-point average. And that was enough for Independence to offer him a full scholarship.

“That first summer, when we brought him in, he worked extremely hard on the field,” Lott says. “He’s probably the hardest working player I’ve ever had through ten years of coaching. He just worked.”

Holsey narrowed his focus to three things at JuCo: grades, football and self-promotion. His grade point average jumped to a 3.2, and he hauled in 102 receptions for 1,203 yards and 13 touchdowns. He had also learned a thing or two since high school and knew that if he was going to earn a DI scholarship then he had no one to rely on but himself, which meant doing better in school and putting himself out there more. That’s when he joined Twitter and other social media sites and decided to take it upon himself to establish his own brand. He began sharing photos and interacting with other players and coaches around the country.

If I don’t, who will?

Troy University, South Alabama, North Carolina Central, Delaware State and the University at Buffalo all offered Holsey full rides to play football.

“Once I started getting offers, I just felt my whole life change,” he says. “That’s when I realized social media was the best way to draw attention and promote myself. I did a lot of the recruiting work on my own. And I feel like I got my offers just by putting myself out on Twitter and Facebook.”

At first, Holsey chose Troy. Then on National Signing Day flipped over to UB instead. When explaining why he changed his mind at the very last minute, Holsey doesn’t have a straight answer. Both schools were going to give him a chance to play. Both would provide the visibility he needed to attract attention on a national scale. And both had great educational programs.

In the end, it came down to proximity. Buffalo was closer to Philly. Closer to family. Closer to his mom. Closer to Jamal.

***

“I think the best thing he had going was being here at UB,” wide receivers coach Rob Ianello tells me during a phone call in mid-February. A fresh bed of snow, six inches deep, rests on the ground. UB’s pro day is less than a month away and Ianello says a few NFL scouts have already inquired about Holsey . “[He showed] tremendous improvement over junior to senior year. You take the last five games of the season, you can see how he played at a really high level.”

Holsey’s numbers at UB were far from eye-popping. He was expected to help fill the holes that were left at wide receiver when he arrived for the 2016 season and have a direct impact on the field. But Holsey only recorded 19 catches for 189 yards and one touchdown as a junior.

“For me to start my junior year was big, because I had to get ready for the D-I season in like a month,” he says. “I had to work really hard, put on weight, learn the playbook. As soon as you step on the field, you can see the difference – everyone has a scholarship and everyone is DI. The game moves so much faster.”

In hindsight, Holsey wonders if he should have redshirted a year just to acclimate. But as a senior, his numbers did improve. During his best game against Western Michigan, he had six receptions for 143 yards and his only touchdown of the season. With 22 catches and 548 yards overall, Holsey increased his YAC and Ianello believes he showed a lot of upside.

Holsey finished his senior season at Buffalo with modest numbers: 22 catches for 548 yards receiving and a single touchdown. Photograph: Paul Hokanson/University of Buffalo

“If he can get with the right team, in the right position, I think he would fit well,” coach Ianello insists. “He’s a really hard worker. He would be able to do special teams, cover kicks, things like that. I think if he can get to camp, then people like what they see in him – his work ethic, personality, his want-to.”

In between training and school, Holsey dives back into social media. There are no scouts tailing his every move, no reporters and cameras following him around campus, no hordes of relentless fans and “yes” men telling him where he should be drafted, and no combine invite, either. It’s just him.

“Self-promotion is big a part of this,” he says. “All it takes is for the right person to see your tweet and to retweet your tweet, and it can change how many people know who you are. I’m just trying to maximize my opportunities and just let the right people know I’m out there. It’s all about the hype and you have to help create that hype yourself.”

Still – regardless of how many highlight tapes he sends out, how many followers he has on Twitter, or even if he was actually on a reality show – what it essentially comes down to is how good Holsey is on the football field and whether or not NFL scouts have him on their radar.

“Every team gets a prospect list from every school in the country that plays football. So, if there is a legitimate prospect at a particular school, he’s on the list,” explains Greg Gabriel, a former NFL scout for the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants. “If the combine scout doesn’t think he’s a prospect, he’s not on the list. That’s the starting point. If a player isn’t on that list, he’s going to have a hard time getting recognized.”

Gabriel has been retired for a few years now, yet he says he still gets contacted on social media by players. He handles it the same way he did when he was a scout, he doesn’t pay any attention to it. Because for outliers like Holsey, their best chance to show what they can do isn’t in a highlight reel on Twitter.

“If a guy you didn’t have anything on [as far as scouting goes] jumps out from a numbers basis on their pro day – jumps real high, runs real fast, that kind of thing – and does really well in the drills, then you’re going to go back and say, here’s a guy we have to take a look at. Most of the guys who send you a highlight tape can’t play. Will some teams look at that tape? Yeah, sure. But there might be one-tenth of one percent of all the highlight tapes that get sent out that end up being worth something. The kids I feel sorry for are the ones who think they are good enough, who think if they just get that one chance, because they can’t face the reality that they aren’t.”

“You have to give them an honest assessment,” Ianello reiterates. “It’s important. I do think Holsey has a chance and I want him to keep that goal but at the same time if it doesn’t work out, it’s important to ask, ‘what else are you going to do with your life?’”

***

UB’s pro day has finally arrived, and 12 players are working out, including Holsey. He and a few of his teammates shuffle in later than expected because of the weather. They head off to a row of tables set to left side of the turf to fill out some paperwork. The Buffalo Bills logo is stretched on a gigantic banner on the wall behind them, hanging over their shoulders as a symbolic reminder of what’s at stake.

A group of scouts from a few different NFL and CFL teams are on hand. They mingle further down the field, some looking around the practice field and then at their watch, seemingly uninterested. Others engage in small talk with a few UB coaches, including Ianello.

Holsey and other skill position players work their way to opposite side of the field, hydrating from gallon-filled jugs of water and stretching their long bodies for the activities ahead. A UB trainer comes over and starts putting them through their paces. His voice is sharp yet reassuring.

“I’m more nervous than he is,” a mother from Medina, Ohio, confesses. She’s there to support her son, a UB nose tackle. “He’s worked so hard for so long – all of them have. All the years of practices and games and training. It all comes down to this and I just want him to do well.”

One of the scouts wearing a warm-up jacket with the Cleveland Browns logo on it bellows a few orders and the players follow his command like prize cattle being trotted along in front of the judges at the county fair. They go into the weight room, then take turns at the vertical and broad jump stations. Cone drills and individual player drills will happen later. Now it’s time for the dreaded 40-yard dash.

Dressed in nothing but spandex shorts that double as underwear, Holsey is his usual quiet and reserved self. If he’s nervous, he doesn’t show it. His overall numbers so far have been good, solid. He’s busy keeping his body warm and loose with high knee-steps up and down the field.

Moments later, his name is called. He lines up. He wants to run a 4.4.

He’s clocked at 4.5.

***

It’s supposedly spring, but there’s still wet snow everywhere in Buffalo. Holsey is back at UB, going to classes, thinking about the draft, and not much else. He spent his spring break in Huntington Beach, California, catching balls for a few pro quarterbacks looking to shake the offseason dust from their arms. In early April, he had a private workout with the Bills – a team that’s in the market for wide receivers – along with four other UB players. And he’s been ramping up his social media efforts, appearing on podcasts and accepting practically everywhere interview request that comes his way.

Holsey posts on Twitter about where people think he might land in the draft.

Football fans from across the country reply while tagging their local NFL team in the process, inadvertently causing a domino effect that works in his favor. Holsey’s highlight video has now been liked almost 3,700 times and retweeted 1,300 times. The tweet was picked up by Holsey’s hometown paper, The Buffalo News and local Buffalo writer, Jonah Bronstein included his name in another article titled, The ‘other guys’ in this year’s draft class, with a direct link to the video.

Over the winter, Holsey wasn’t on anyone’s radar. But as the NFL draft nears, he’s achieved a low-grade buzz around his name – especially at the local level.

If I don’t do it, who will?

I ask Holsey about the odds that are stacked against players like him and why he’s pushing so hard if nothing comes of it.

“I can’t look at it like that,” he says. “I mean, if I think about percentages and odds, then I wouldn’t be where I am now. Odds told me I’d never get this far. So I’m not going to pay attention to that. I’m just going to keep grinding and see how it plays out.”

Jamal, Holsey’s old friend from Philly, passed away unexpectedly last summer at 35 years old. Holsey was crushed when he found out. But he says he transformed those emotions into motivation. It’s part of what keeps him focused on the goal.

“Some of the hall of famers in the NFL didn’t get drafted. Who knows what could happen? But I think I’m going to make it. Jamal told me never to give up. So, I’m going to keep the dream going as long as I can.”

I ask him about the other side of that coin.

“If I don’t get drafted, I was thinking about joining the military. I come from a military family. My dad was in the air force, my sister was in the navy and my cousin is in the navy. And me having a degree, I could come in as an officer.”

He seems genuinely at peace with this backup plan. Seconds later though, his mind flips again, letting the possibility of the NFL dream become a reality, if only for a brief moment.

“If I do get drafted though, I don’t know. It would be crazy.”