Seahawks FB Derrick Coleman's Adjustment To College And The NFL Was About More Than His Hearing Disability
ByCollege, even for the best of athletes, represents an adjustment period. Perhaps not since Kevin Durant has a college basketball player stepped on the court and truly dominated. (Derrick Rose, John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis, Greg Oden, etc. were all good, but not completely unstoppable; only Davis of that group won Player of the Year and/or a national title.) In football the occurrence has become slightly more common with first year Heisman winners like Johnny Manziel and Jameis Winston.
When you're hearing is a self-rated "4," making the adjustment would seemingly be a much more intensive process. But that wasn't necessarily the case for RB turned FB Derrick Coleman, declared legally deaf at three years old, according to Newsday, and the current backup fullback for the Seattle Seahawks.
"Many of the people were very unsure about what sort of way it would handicap the coaches," former UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel, Coleman's coach during his four years as a Bruin, told Newsday. "I told them they weren't even going to notice except that maybe the running backs coach was going to have to stand on the other side of the ball so he could read his lips. Derrick has overcome his disability in such a way that no one even notices that it's a disability. He is just determined."
In fact, Coleman's biggest transformation was learning to bide his time at UCLA (until an 11 TD season year, though he never rushed for more than 800 yards in any one season) and understanding his best chance at playing at the next level was to convert to fullback. In fact, Coleman was already making that change during his Bruins career by establishing himself as a tough short yardage back and a capable lead blocker.
Leading up to the 2012 NFL draft, in which Coleman was correctly projected as an undrafted free agent, Sports Illustrated's scouting report mentioned his handicap rather awkwardly ("requires hearing aids to assist in his hearing"), while perhaps alluding to a compensatory result of it, his "vision."
"Talented short yardage ballcarrier who can also line up as a lead blocker. Patient, displays good quickness and keeps his feet moving on contact. Carries the ball with an aggressive style, uses an effective straight arm to keep plays alive and picks up the difficult yardage. Displays good vision, finds the running lanes and flashes the ability to bounce around piles."
Among his weaknesses, SI questioned, ironically, his lead blocking. Overall, they praised him as an elite athlete and accurately predicted he'd make a roster if he converted to fullback and improved his blocking.
A recent commercial connecting Duracell and the power dynamic between Coleman's physicality and his hearing aid (I think?) demonstrates how Coleman, like a defensive lineman, looks at the ball rather than listen to the quarterback's snap count.