Wilson’s rise to NFL unlikely, unmatched
DAVIE — Everyone comes with a story.
story arrived Wednesday. The wide receiver crouched on the field after Dolphins practice amid the visiting Port St. Lucie High School football team as a photographer said, “Thumbs up.”
All thumbs went up.
That’s a picture of success, Wilson as an inspirational centerpiece to this team he once starred on … while moving between foster homes since age 12 … as his parents were in jail … after he’d moved between state shelters starting at age 8 … while attending so many schools he lost count — five in eighth grade alone.
“I came up from the bottom,’’ Wilson said. “But I’m here to show other people they can make it, too.”
This, then, is a story you cheer for. It’s the story of a kid who steered clear from becoming just another statistic to grab his dream. It’s one of hope and faith and strangers’ love and unnatural dedication and football. Always football.
“Football was always my dream,’’ Wilson said.
His athletic talent was always there, so much that his father,
once said to the 2-year-old everyone called Junior, “You’re our ticket out.”
Albert Sr. was a forklift operator when arrested for selling drugs when Junior was 8. Both his parents were in jail for most of his youth. They remained part of their son’s life as he traded letters, phone calls and regular visits with them until they got out while he was in high school.
By then, he had moved in with and parents of a high school teammate, who noticed him leaving their home at 11 o’clock one night and asked their son where Wilson was going.
“Well, he’s in between foster homes right now, so he’s going to find a place to sleep,’’ their son, Mo, said.
Wilson was in ninth grade. The Browns took him in. He’d had another family that helped, the Baileys, before them.
If this all sounds like a COMMENTARY sequel to the movie, “The Blind Side,” of a player taken in by another family who made the NFL, you’re partially right.
Wilson actually was taken to that movie by Sherri Brown.
“That’s my story,’’ he said.
“It’s our story,’’ she said.
Except with more hurdles. Different issues. Unlike of “Blind Side” fame, Wilson wasn’t a first-round draft pick or a five-star college recruit.
In fact, he was undrafted out of college — and as a college recruit carried, “a rating of 70, making him a 0-star prospect,” the recruiting site 247sports.com wrote.
“One thing he had was a work ethic second to none,’’ said his Port St. Lucie High coach. “I would get phone calls from people saying, ‘Is Albert OK? I saw him jogging before school.’ Or: ‘I saw him back-pedaling down the road with his hoodie on.’ I’d say, ‘That’s him.’ ”
Wilson ran the option offense at quarterback his senior year well enough to be named the Scripps Treasure Coast Player of the Year. But Port St. Lucie had just one win that year. It hadn’t had a winning season since 1991, too, meaning college recruiters weren’t going out of their way to find him.
So the too-small player with a too-tough background went to a school with no football background.
Georgia State was in its second year of football. He became its first star. As a freshman, he returned a kick against Alabama 97 yards for a touchdown. Georgia State lost 63-7.
Undrafted, he signed with Kansas City. Four years later, he got a rich deal from the Dolphins. There he stood Wednesday, 90 minutes and light years from his youth in Port St. Lucie, talking with players in the uniform he once wore.
“I’m pretty much the story of any low-income neighborhood where if you get into the wrong things, it’s hard to get out of,’’ Wilson said. “I tell them to keep their heads on straight, and if this is something you want to do, you’ve got to keep your head on right.
“Everything that happened to me prepared me for life. Look at every situation. Find out what good I can pull from it. Keep my head down and keep marching.”
That’s his story. And it’s a good one. And if you don’t believe so, ask those who helped along the way. Poole congratulates him after every accomplishment Lewis makes. Sherri Brown says she texts him after every game about how proud she is. And her husband?
“Every time I see Albert I smile,’’ Robert Brown said. “He’s become the person I hoped he’d become.”