On Monday I drove to see Lawrence Guy. I wanted to know how he saw his football life four years after we first met.
Over the years I have written about a number of football players fresh out of college angling for position in the NFL’s draft. A few were already superstars destined to be chosen with top picks but most were far less famous, usually overlooked because they failed to meet some arbitrary prerequisite, rendering their NFL dream tenuous.
From time to time I will think of these players, typing their names into internet searches or scouring NFL rosters to monitor the progress of their hopes. None, however, stayed with me as much as Guy. Maybe it was his enthusiasm. He bubbled like a teenager when I sat with him outside a strip mall near the Arizona State University campus in April of 2011. Unlike many players who try to act cool about their aspirations, he was giddy.
“I don’t believe in the word ‘no,’” he said that day. “I don’t believe in the word can’t.”
A lot of people had said “no” and “can’t” to Guy. A lot more would. As a child in Las Vegas he was diagnosed with ADHD as well as dyslexia and dyscalculia. He spoke with a lisp – the result of having too much fluid in his ears as an infant. Schools didn’t know what to do with him so they dumped him in special education classes with the other kids who didn’t fit an orderly profile. If not for his father who pushed schools to get his son into mainstream classes and the learning specialists at ASU who found him the support he needed, Guy might never have made the NFL draft in 2011. Instead he excelled at academics, earning the right to wear a patch that said “Scholar-Baller” on his game jersey in college.
But I think what lingered with me the most about Guy was that he chose to leave school after his junior season and every single person I talked to – from his family to coaches to counselors to NFL executives – thought this was a terrible idea. Nobody believed he was ready. Though he stood 6ft 4in and weighed nearly 300lbs – a good size for an NFL defensive end – football people thought he needed to understand the game more, learning to read game situations. He had a sweet kind of innocence to him that made some wonder if another year of college would steel him against the ruthless side of professional football. He seemed like someone making a big mistake.
Those doubts appeared to be confirmed during the draft when he was chosen at the very end, in the seventh round, despite possessing ability that should have gotten him picked much higher. The Green Bay Packers, who selected him, kept him around for a year and a half before cutting him. Then Indianapolis picked him up, and after that San Diego. He never seemed to stick anywhere. Finally, last fall he signed with the Baltimore Ravens.
In Baltimore, Guy appears to have a role as the team’s second defensive end, right behind Chris Canty, an established player who has been starting in the NFL for more than a decade. It’s a good place to be but I wondered if given the circuitous path he took to get here did he agree with those who thought he was doing the wrong thing by turning pro in 2011? What if he had stayed at Arizona State for one last season? Would he have been drafted higher in 2012, making a little more money, establishing himself immediately? Had the constant releases worn him down, dampening his joy?
But when we met outside the Ravens locker room on Monday afternoon, Guy smiled wide. He was happy to see someone from that time when anything was possible and he was never going to believe in “no” and “can’t”. Three teams had said just those words in less than four years and yet he was thrilled to find a fourth that didn’t.
“I’m happy to be here,” he said.
Then he smiled again.
“What can you say about the past,” he said. “It’s in the past. If I chose to stay one more year in college would I be here? I don’t know.”
Two years ago he met a law student in Miami. Her name is Andrea. They fell in love and got married. He is thrilled about this. They live near the Ravens practice facility and as Andrea waits to see what city they eventually settle into before pursuing the bar, she has suggested that maybe he take law classes as well. He thinks that’s a real possibility.
“Who knows, if I had stayed in school then I might not have met her,” he said. “Hypothetically, who knows what would have happened. It’s life and I think in life everyone has a plan.”
Guy was always smart. His background in special education probably left the impression among some NFL teams that he wasn’t. He was reported to have interviewed poorly with teams at the draft combine. But Guy has a curiosity that mixed with his enthusiasm, makes him compelling. His counselors and coaches at ASU adored him. The Ravens seem to like him too. As he talked on Monday, several players walked past, exchanging jokes with him, slapping him on the back and saying hello.
Guy likes his Baltimore team-mates. He said it is the best group he has been with yet in the NFL; close knit like a family, unlike some other teams he played on where everybody felt more distant. He is thrilled that sometimes he gets to line up next to Terrell Suggs, a former Arizona State star who was the NFL’s defensive player of they year in Guy’s first pro season. Suggs is something of a legend at ASU, especially among defensive players. But since Suggs is much older, Guy had never met him until he signed with the Ravens.
“I was star struck,” he said.
Now they play together and have lockers near each other. Guy’s career might not have worked out the way he hoped that day he sat outside a strip mall near the Arizona State campus but it has been far from a disappointment. He has managed to linger in the NFL for four years, has a seemingly stable role and is on a team with players he likes. He has a wife and a goal to play football for at least seven more years. These are the things he wants to focus on, not his low draft pick or the worry everyone had that he was making an enormous mistake.
“I’m lucky in that I feel like I’ve been around some great people,” he said.
He laughed once more.
“Hey man, I wake up every day and live life,” he said.
Maybe this is the point. Maybe it doesn’t matter that he was a seventh-round pick when he could have been so much higher. Maybe it doesn’t matter that three teams told him to go away before he found one that said he could stay. Maybe everybody’s worries were misplaced. Maybe this is the happy ending for the football player who didn’t know the words “no” and “can’t”.
