Hard work paid off for Temple's Haason Reddick, who celebrated his selection in the NFL Draft with 70,000 Philadelphia sports fans


by Dick Weiss
 

PHILADELPHIA-- The feel-good story of the 2017 NFL Draft was Temple linebacker Hasson Reddick, who grew up just across the river in Camden, New Jersey, and played a part straight out of Rocky, going from a 185-pound walk-on cornerback who started his college career as the last man on the depth chart to the 13th pick in the first round of the league’s first outdoor draft .
 
The 6-2, 236-pound Reddick, decked out in a black and white tuxedo jacket, a cherry red Temple tie and pocket square, made an appearance at the red carpet on the same Art Museum steps made famous by Sylvester Stallone, who triumphantly ran up them when he was the star of an Oscar-winning movie about a washed-up fighter from South Philadelphia who gets an unlikely shot at the heavyweight title.
 
A massive crowd of more than 70,000 loud and raucous fans, who made their way through the turnstiles to the Ben Franklin Parkway, got to watch Reddick walk on stage after he was selected by the Arizona Cardinals to greet  NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and put on his cap.  
 
Having his name called just five miles from Temple’s North Broad Street campus made it all the more special. “It means a lot, especially to hear the uproar from the crowd when my name was called, that was beautiful,” Reddick said. “I didn’t know it was going to be that loud.”
 
He did know that Cardinals’ coach Bruce Arians used to coach at Temple. Arizona was the last team to interview him. “I had a feeling I might land there,” Reddick said. “When I talked to coach B.A., I could feel genuine love.”
 
Reddick, who was the star of a highly rated Temple defense, had a breakout season as a senior when he finished second in the American Athletic Conference with 22.5 tackles for loss and had 10.5 sacks. He continues a growing tradition of stars from The American who have made an impact on the draft, following in the footsteps of former UCF quarterback Blake Bortles (No. 3 overall to Jacksonville in 2014),  UCF receiver Breshad Perriman (No. 26 overall to Baltimore in 2015), UConn cornerback Byron Jones (No. 27 to Dallas in 2015), cornerback William Jackson III of Houston (No. 24 to Cincinnati in 2016) and quarterback Paxton Lynch of Memphis (No. 26 to Denver in 2016).
 
”It’s been a crazy ride,” said Reddick, who was Temple’s first first-round pick since Muhammad Wilkinson in 2011 and only the fourth in school history. “This is great. I had a strong will and determination to get here. You got to be Temple tough.”
 
What does it mean to be Temple tough?
 
“Temple players work harder than any program in the country,” he said. “They’re the most elite, unselfish, hardest working people on the planet.”
 
The American, which had 10 players taken in last year’s draft, had 11 players chosen in 2015 and 12 in 2014, could be in for a record haul this season. While Reddick was the conference’s only first-round pick this year, ending The American’s run of at least two first-rounders in each of the last three years, the league sent 18 players to the NFL Combine in March who produced some eye-popping results. Between Reddick, linebacker Tyus Bowser of Houston, safety Obi Melifonwu of UConn, wide receiver Zay Jones of East Carolina and tackle Dion Davis of Temple, The American could have as many as five players taken in the top 64.
 
No one, except maybe Reddick’s parents -- Raymond Williams and Rae Lakia -- could have predicted last night’s happy ending. Reddick was a promising athlete from Haddon Heights High School, but he played in just three games as a junior and senior there because of a fractured femur and a torn meniscus. Reddick had no tape to show college coaches and no scholarship offers coming out of high school and was prepared to quit the sport and attend college as a regular student.
 
But his father thought he had potential to play in college and placed a call to Fran Brown, a one-time Camden High star quarterback who was a longtime friend of the family and a graduate assistant under former Owls coach Steve Addazio. Reddick had already been accepted at Temple and Brown arranged for him to join the team as a preferred walk-on.  
 
His career almost cratered before it began. Reddick redshirted his freshman year and his prospects for returning to the team looked bleak. His life changed when Matt Rhule arrived as Temple’s head coach and named Brown as the Owls’ defensive backs coach. Brown, knowing how much Reddick’s parents sacrificed to get him into college, persuaded Rhule to keep Reddick around.
 
Sending their son to college was a financial hardship for the family and there were times when Reddick was tempted to quit and get a job to take away some of the burden. But his parents always pushed him to reach his potential. His mother, a teacher at a headstart program in Camden, wanted Reddick to  graduate. She did grocery shopping for him every week and when she saw he was missing out of opportunities, she took out a loan to buy him a meal card so he could hang out with his teammates and supplement some of his out-of-state tuition. His father would show up at 6 a.m. practices, just to show encouragement.
 
In 2014, Rhule, who has since moved on to Baylor, recognized how hard Reddick worked and found a spot for him on special teams. Reddick’s athleticism and versatility allowed Temple coaches to move him to various positions and he eventually found a home as a speed-rushing defensive end. Reddick earned his first major playing time as a junior in 2015 and had five sacks for a defense that produced three NFL draft picks, including consensus All-America linebacker Tyler Matakevich (now with the Pittsburgh Steelers). Reddick was starting for a 10-win team, but he was still paying tuition.
 
That finally changed prior to his senior year when he was put on scholarship, and he put an exclamation mark on a special season with an interception that put the finishing touches on a 34-10 victory over Navy in the American Athletic Conference Championship as the Owls won their first conference title in 50 years. 
 
Reddick earned an invitation to the Senior Bowl, where he showed NFL scouts that he had the potential to be a defensive end in pass rushing one-on-one opportunities against elite offensive tackles as well as an effective stand up linebacker. He was relentless in the Senior Bowl game, making nine tackles and was selected as the game’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player. Then Reddick nailed the NFL Combine in Indianapolis, running 4.52 in the 40-yard dash, the fastest time of any defensive lineman. He had 45 reps of 240 pounds and registered the best long jump by a defensive lineman in the combine since statistics were kept in 2003 -- 133 inches.
 
 
Reddick’s meteoric rise has been a huge source of pride in his hometown. He was presented the key to the city of Camden this week by Assemblywoman Patricia Egan Jones and Assemblyman Arthur Barclay at a ceremony on the deck of the Battleship New Jersey, which is docked on the Delaware River. Reddick fired a shot from one of the ship’s guns to celebrate himself and his hometown.
 
“I grew up in Camden,” he said. “Camden is home for me. It gave that strive. It made me a fighter. It made me a survivor. And I always said that if I was ever to be on a platform like this, to make something of myself, I will always give back to the city and what’s what I plan to do.”
 
Reddick already knows what he will do with his first paycheck. He wants to buy a home for his mom. “I want to move her where the sun is always shining.”
 
And according to his dad, Reddick is only getting started. “The end result is the Hall of Fame,” Raymond Williams said.