FOXBORO — Kerosene lanterns lined the living room floor. They left a distinct, terrible smell in the small two-bedroom house, but it was all the family had to keep warm on those rare cold North Carolina nights.

It’s what Mark Speir noticed when he first walked in.

The Western Carolina coach went to the home in January of 2014 — a small house in Garysburg, population 1,000. Keion Crossen wasn’t even sure the coach would show. A surprise snowstorm hit and nearly shut down the area. The family didn’t have heat, so those lanterns were all had to keep warm. They were hard times, for sure. It was nights like this that made Crossen mature, and stay focused.

Speir sat down and Crossen told him his story. He explained how he’d wake up at 5 a.m. to catch the bus. There was only one high school in their county and the ride was anywhere from 45 to 90 minutes. He told him his hopes, dreams and struggles. He was a senior at Northampton County High School and had no scholarship offers to play football.

“Then he told me he wanted to be a preacher,” Speir said. “The ‘it’ factor just pops out with Keion. At that time, we offered him, because he’s a federal financial qualifier, we offered him a partial [scholarship]. After the first year, we put him on full.”

Crossen just wanted a chance to prove he belonged on the football field, a chance to make something of himself and one day, heat that small house the proper way. He could’ve failed. Maybe he should’ve. It would’ve been easy for Crossen, a rookie on the Patriots, to give up.

That was just never his style.

“It’s a mentality, man. You sink or you float,” said Crossen, now 22. “The thing about it, I was always told, if you quit one thing, you’re going to quit everything — especially when it gets hard. I always tell myself, it don’t last forever, but if you can make it through this rough situation then you can make it through anything in life.”

No offers

George Privott knew Crossen was special and a rare breed — a Division-1 athlete from Garysburg. He just needed a chance, so during the summer of 2013, the pair hit the road.

Together, Crossen and his coach from Northampton County High School traveled around North Carolina. The goal was simple — prove this teenager deserved a scholarship to play football. They traveled to football camps at North Carolina State, University of North Carolina and East Carolina. There were also stops at UNC-Pembroke and Guilford College.

Crossen ran faster than most. He jumped farther than most. He wasn’t given a single offer.

“He’d get there, run 4.4s. He’d broad jump like 10-3’s and 10-4’s. Then they’d do 1-on-1 drills and he’d shut his guy down all through the thing,” Privott recalled. “When I took him to [East Carolina]… he shut down this guy in 1-on-1s and it was somebody they were really eyeing. They offered him to be a preferred walk-on. Everywhere he went — N.C. State, Carolina, East Carolina — all wanted him to be a preferred walk-on.”

The problem wasn’t with Crossen’s athleticism. It was that he was a 140-pound option quarterback/defensive back. He was too small, they said. The problem is you can’t measure heart.

Crossen always had it. He learned about hard work when his father would wake him and sister up at 4 a.m. on the weekends to run at the local track. By the time Privott took over as the head coach, Crossen’s work ethic became legendary.

The coach’s favorite story is the one where he drove by the school’s football field on a day where he canceled practice.

“He was the only one running 100-yard sprints by himself,” Privott said. “That’s some stuff right there that you just can’t [teach]. Everybody else is gone. They’re probably going home partying or what not, but he’s out there committed and running 100-yard sprints by himself on the field. That’s just the type of kid he was.”

Putting on a show

A Pro Day wasn’t enough for college coaches to offer him a scholarship, but it was enough to get him drafted in the NFL.

That was the plan all along by his agent, Lindsay Crook at MBK Sports Management. A former player at Cincinnati, Crook watched film and crunched some of Crossen’s testing numbers. The analytics said he profiled as someone who should be drafted.

The problem wasn’t his weight anymore. It was that he was barely on the NFL’s radar. That’s why Crook ended up getting Crossen into Wake Forest’s Pro Day on March 13.

“Strategically, we thought about it,” Crook said. “They had a couple of good guys as well. They had Duke Ejiofor (sixth round) and Jessie Bates, the safety who was drafted in the second round to the Bengals. We knew there would be a lot of exposure there.”

In front of 40 scouts representing 29 NFL teams, Crossen went to work. Crook could hear the "oohs" and "aahs" from the crowd every time the corner ran or jumped. His 4.32 40-yard dash would've tied for first among all cornerbacks at the NFL Combine that year. His 39.5 vertical would've been second and his broad jump (10'11) and 3-cone-drill (6.67) third.

Crossen was in meetings with various NFL teams for three hours after the Pro Day. Instead of being elated, Crossen was unhappy with his performance. While preparing for that day, Crossen ran a 4.25 40-yard dash at Western Carolina.

“Before he ran, he was like, ‘I’m legitimately trying to break John Ross’ record (4.22). When he found out his time, he was legitimately upset he didn’t,” Crook said. “He didn’t run well. He didn’t run his best. He was flying, but he kind of had a little stumble out of the gate. He was generally upset he wasn’t the fastest guy to ever do it.”

“Yeah, I wanted to break the 40-yard dash record,” Crossen admitted. “But, I still did what I had to do at the Pro Day.”

He’s right. The Patriots selected him with the 243rd pick in the seventh round. Following the draft, New England player personnel director Nick Caserio said Crossen put himself on their radar at that Wake Forest Pro Day.

“He showed up on a big stage just from a workout perspective,” Caserio said. “[He] really blew it out of the water.”

Summer in Foxboro

Gillette Stadium is a quiet place in June, once players break for the summer. The locker room’s empty, so are the meeting rooms. Only concerts fill the stadium. Otherwise, you can hear a pin drop in the hallways.

This is where Crossen spent this summer.

He went back to Garysburg for one weekend before returning to Foxboro by himself. He trained and watched film over and over again. They say it takes 10,000 hours to become world-class in any field. Crossen needed to get his hours in.

“Home is great, but there’s not much there. Obviously, the goal is to be a successful athlete and football player, but I also want to get my family in a better situation,” Crossen said. “I had to work. I put a lot of work in. There’s always this thing about 10,000 hours. If you put in 10,000 hours, you’ll become the best at your craft. You always put in more time, but I always try to meet that goal.

“If I can put in 10,000 hours at my craft whether it’s watching film or studying other defensive backs that are in this league, successful and highly respectful. That’s who I want to become like, strive to be and be better than. You’ve got to put in the work to get the results.”

When Speir called Crossen to check in, the rookie told his college coach that he refused to have any regrets. In the end, it paid off when he made the Patriots' 53-man roster.

“That was classic Keion. That’s just how he is,” Speir said. “He’ll be that way as long as he’s with the Patriots or in the NFL. That’s his DNA. He’s had every reason to fail and he hasn’t failed yet. He had every reason to fail in the NFL and just be excited to be there. He wanted more.”

When Crossen told him he made the team, Speir told him to "buy his mama some heat.”

Maybe they won’t need those kerosene lanterns anymore.