Roc Carmichael calls it a real-life Rocky story.

It might be more a football version of the Tiger Woods tale.

The 28-year-old Carmichael, a defensive back who's been jumping off the page at Blue Bomber training camp, certainly didn't have a normal childhood.

Unless getting up at 6 a.m. to tie a rope around your waist and pull a tire through a park can be considered normal.

From an early age in Washington, D.C., Carmichael was groomed by his dad to be a football player.

“Two-hundred-yard sprints, pulling tires in the park in the neighbourhood -- he kept a tire with a rope and an inner tube hooked up to it,” Carmichael was saying, Tuesday. “I could never leave my cleats. Summertime I was up at six in the morning – this is elementary school – I'm up at six in the morning running, doing pushups, eating healthy.

“When he passed away, his last words to me were, 'I've done what I need to do. You're ready.' ”

It was in the summer of 2008 Bernard Carmichael told his son those words.

“I was going to be a freshman at Virginia Tech,” Carmichael said. “And about a week later he passed away.”

Heart problems took his father at age 40.

So Bernard Carmichael never got to see the Houston Texans take his son in the fourth round of the 2011 NFL draft.

But much of what he taught him has stuck.

The hard work, determination and love for the game helped the 5-foot-10 Carmichael beat the odds to make the NFL.

He played 19 games with the Texans and Eagles over two seasons, 2012 and 2013, and cherishes every one.

“I remember seeing Peyton Manning play and Aaron Rodgers play and frigging Tom Brady – all the great quarterbacks,” Carmichael said. “I got to watch them live and even take a couple snaps against them. It was a great opportunity.”

The highlight? Against Green Bay, one of just two games Carmichael started, in which he knocked down some passes and made some tackles.

“And it was up there in Green Bay in the cold,” he said. “So that would be my best NFL experience.”

What brought Carmichael to a chilly Winnipeg training camp is a combination of events that has Bomber coaches beaming.

In 2015 Carmichael shunned a contract offer from Arizona to be with his family back in D.C.

For two years he spent time with his mom, helped a younger brother get through high school and trained area kids to be football players.

He'd take them to track practice, drive them to football camps, help coach high-school kids – basically taking on the role his dad played in his life.

“All the defensive backs I had went to college,” Carmichael said. “It feels great, just to get them the opportunity. Like I told them all the time, 'I'm no different from any of you.' ”

Carmichael even resurrected one of his dad's old favourites.

“I made a tire for the guys in the neighbourhood,” he said, grinning. “Whatever they'd need.”

But the game kept pulling Carmichael, too.

His two-year hiatus ended after he attended a workout by a CFL team in the area, just to watch some people he knew try out.

A scout approached him, asking if it was true he was coming out of retirement.

The scout was Ted Goveia, assistant GM of the Bombers.

Carmichael already had a connection to Winnipeg: former Virginia Tech teammate and friend Macho Harris, who played here last year.

Last week at rookie camp Carmichael pulled on his helmet for the first time in two years.

“You would never know he hasn't played in a couple of years,” Bombers defensive coordinator Richie Hall said. “A very gifted young man. He just plays hard. He's just one of those guys you notice.”

Head coach Mike O'Shea certainly has.

“He can cover extremely well,” O'Shea said. “And he's gritty, he's tough. What I really notice about him, besides the on-field stuff, is every single day after practice he's out there doing a little extra work.”

I wonder where he got that from?

Probably from the same guy who gave him his nickname.

Carmichael was born Rashad Bernard Carmichael, and was called Ra-Ra when he was young.

But his dad, a military football guy, didn't think it fit.

“After about two years of that he just changed it,” Carmichael said, recalling his dad's words again: “It's not tough enough. We're going to go with Roc.

“That name stuck forever.”

So have a lot of things.

“I just keep everything he taught me right here,” Carmichael said, pointing to his chest. “In the heart.”

pfriesen@postmedia.com

Twitter: @friesensunmedia