a future there

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a future there

jury his sophomore year. “At this point [url=http://www.atlantafalconsteamonline.com/calvin-ridley-jersey]http://www.... ,” he says, “it’s going to take a coach who’s willing to take a risk—somebody who will stick his neck out there for a kid who loves the position and has a future there.”[img]http://www.sndpic.com//nike_nfl_jerseys/nike_dallas_cowboys/nike_cowboys...

Fact is, Rutgers’s Anthony Cioffi and BYU’s Micah Hannemann were the only white corners to start for a BCS school recently. Cioffi had earned his way into that coveted corner spot after a stellar high school career in Springfield, N.J., where his family runs a popular deli established 60 years ago by Anthony’s Italian immigrant grandparents, and by winning the 2012 state title in the 100 meters with a time of 10.86. In the spirit of Italian sprinter Piettro Mennea, who in 1979 broke the world 200 record by running it in 19.72 (still the best time by a nonblack athlete), Cioffi defeated the favorite in that state title race, Anthony Averett, who now starts at cornerback for Alabama.

“I do think it will end,” Cioffi said of the Sehorn streak. “God willing [url=http://www.ramscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-joseph-noteboom-jersey]Auth... Joseph Noteboom Jersey[/url] , when my four years [at Rutgers] come up, I’ll get a shot at it.” But that was two years ago, before Cioffi and Hannemann were each moved to safety.

Then again, Ethan Kilmer played corner in the NFL without playing a single snap at the position at Penn State. Kilmer’s claim to fame at State College: all the times he humored his teammates by leaping and touching the 12-foot ceiling in the locker room. The Bengals drafted the explosive but raw receiver in the seventh round in 2006, and in Week 11 of that season, with Kaesviharn starting at safety for a secondary wracked by injuries, Kilmer watched from the sideline as Cincinnati’s last healthy corner, Keiwan Ratliff, was hurt returning a punt. That’s how Kilmer got shoved onto the field to play a position he had only dabbled at in practice—except now he was going against the Saints’ league-best passing offense.

On second-and-short, Drew Brees tried to dump a pass to a running back out in the flat, but the former Penn State walk-on intercepted Brees with nothing but green turf in front of him. A diving Brees almost caught Kilmer at the 20 [url=http://www.authenticsnewyorkjets.com/cheap-trenton-cannon-jersey]Cheap Trenton Cannon Jersey[/url] , which would have heaped shame on the tiny fraternity he didn’t realize he had just joined, but Kilmer scooted by and thus turned his first snap as an NFL cornerback into a 52-yard touchdown.

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“Forget starting,” Dustin Fox says. “That’s no longer the goal. Forget getting snaps. Just get a practice rep. Just make the team! Just be on the roster with CORNERBACK next to your name instead of SAFETY.”

Lisowski couldn’t get there inside a Trojan Horse, as Kilmer did. Lisowski was a committed corner. He still remembers arriving for work on Aug. 26, 2012, and going through his ritual of checking Seattle’s special teams depth chart, which he had been climbing. But that day his name wasn’t on the sheet at all. Maybe the Seahawks had caught on to the right-shoulder injury he’d suffered during his first practice that spring. (“I tried to hide it, but they had to know I was in the training room every morning.”) Whatever the reason, he was politely asked to turn in his iPad and told to stay in shape because someone else was sure to call him soon.

Eighteen months and zero calls later, as Lisowski watched Sherman and fellow corner Walter Thurmond leave Super Bowl XLVIII with injuries, he was surprised to feel the same butterflies behind his ribs that he used to feel when he was about to run onto the field. He thought he had gotten over it.

“I could have played in the NFL [url=http://www.seahawksauthorizedshops.com/authentic-will-dissly-jersey]Seah... Will Dissly Jersey[/url] ,” says Lisowski, who is still in top condition due to his recent enlistment in the Navy, where he will work as a medical corpsman. “I proved in the most competitive practice environment in the league, working with the best secondary in the league, that even with one good arm, I’m right there with them.” He turned down a CFL contract after Seattle released him, then he dabbled in Arena and semi-pro ball before realizing “there’s more to life than getting to the NFL. I proved to myself that I can compete at that level, and that’s all that matters.” A few months later, knowing that 4.38 speed doesn’t grow on trees, he reconsiders. “Did some thinking. … Interested in playing again,” he texts.

Pending that [url=http://www.raiderscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-martavis-bryant-jersey]A... Martavis Bryant Jersey[/url] , the status quo holds. The successors to Pat Fischer (56 NFL interceptions from 1961 through ’77) are as difficult to find as Bobby Fischer. The league’s next Roger Wehrli (one of two white corners in the Hall of Fame) might as well be named Shirley.

“Forget starting,” says Fox. “That’s no longer the goal. Forget getting snaps. Just get a practice rep. Just make the team! Just be on the roster with CORNERBACK next to your name instead of SAFETY.”

Mueller, the bleached Richard Sherman clone, married a Stanford track star with whom he plans to start a family, so one might imagine that he has thought about siring the next Sehorn. “My wife is African-American,” he says with a laugh, “so I don’t think it would count.”

Maybe a white cornerback will emerge from all the attention that Mueller’s college teammate has brought to the position over the past few years. Sherman has made playing corner cool again, the way Deion Sanders did after his selection by the Falcons in the 1989 draft pushed (white) cornerback Scott Case to safety for the remainder of his Atlanta career.

Any kid out there who’s pulling on a pair of Sherman’s Iversonesque forearm sheaths to start the revolution might want to know that, for road games, Sherman prefers his sleeves white.

This article originally appeared on

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