The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
One Falcon’ s football dream took 2 years off
Unwanted by colleges after high school, he worked to prove himself.
After high school, Sharrod Neasman loaded trucks and worked retail before a path to college and the pros emerged.
FLOWERY BRANCH — After Sharrod Neasman’s high school football career was over at Braden River High School in Bradenton, Fla., he still loved football. But football was not loving him back. Come college signing day, there was no cable television network at his school. He would not flip around some ball caps to reveal his college decision.
As a matter of fact, he had no offers. Not even after he personally shopped around his YouTube. com highlight tape to 30 schools via email.
“That didn’t really work out,” said Neasman after the Falcons’ practice on Sunday.
A determined sort, Neasman still intended to attend college and play football.
He’d been playing since his Pop Warner youth
football days with the East Manatee Bulldogs, where one of his teammates was future Falcons nickel back Brian Poole. But when no college offer came, Neasman went to work, taking a 3-8 a.m. shift at FedEx, loading trucks. Then he’d go to his second job at a clothing store. This went on for two years before he finally received an offer to walk on at Florida Atlantic.
“I knew that I needed to stay in Florida,” Neasman said. “I did well academically in high school. Florida Atlantic gave me an opportunity.”
“It was real tough,” he said. “I knew I didn’t have money to go to a school and pay for college tuition. What I did was save up all of that money for a year and a half before I could even go to school.”
He also pulled up his SAT scores to match his strong 3.1 grade-point average. “I had to retake the SAT test and I had to do different things first to get into a school and then on the football team,” Neasman
said. “I made sure the situation was right before I picked a school.
“I had to get an actual shot to walk on to the team. I made sure that was all in place so that I could move forward.”
He played on special teams at FAU for two years before earning a scholarship.
“I just grinded and worked my way up from there,” he
said. “I got awarded a scholarship going into my junior year, right after I tore my ACL my sophomore year. I just rehabbed from that and got back on the field.
“My new head coach (Charlie Partridge) said that they hadn’t even seen me play yet granted me that scholarship.”
Neasman started 24 games over his final two seasons with the Owls and earned a degree in mechanical engineering.
“I was always a guy down in the box (defensively),” Neasman said. “I also played nickel. At Florida Atlantic, my junior year, I was a nickel back that kind of stayed in (the lineup) when it was base offensive personnel.”
After he went unpicked in the 2016 draft, the Falcons signed Neasman. He made it to the final cut and then signed to the practice squad after clearing waivers.
After defensive end Derrick Shelby tore an Achilles tendon and was placed on injured reserve, the Falcons moved Neasman to the 53-man active roster on Oct. 18. Neasman, who has a three-year, $1.62 million contract, played in three regular-season games and the three playoff games, including Super Bowl LI. He is set to make a base salary of $540,000 this season, a big step up from the predawn shift with FedEx.
After the Falcons tried him at both free safety and strong safety, things started to click for Neasman after they left him exclusively at strong safety.
“It helped a lot finding him one spot to play,” Falcons coach Dan Quinn said. “This spring, we really ironed it out and found his role, covering tight ends, playing in the box, playing physical and then a role on (special) teams.”
With starting strong safety Keanu Neal out with an injury, Neasman (6 feet, 198 pounds) started the exhibition season opener against Miami on Thursday. He made a nice tackle on a screen play on third down to force a punt.
“He just jumped in the first group the other night,” Quinn said. “The communication was on point. Playing in coverage was on point. We are excited. We expected that from him. He’s put the work in. We’re hopeful that he’ll make a big jump.”
Neasman is more than glad he’s not loading packages any more, but he doesn’t plan to stop working.
“I’m continuing to learn the defense,” Neasman said. “I’m a little farther along. ... I feel more comfortable about the defense, what I’m doing and however piece of the defense fits. That allows me to play a lot more comfortably and faster.”