‘All gas, no breaks’
How a bracelet helped Erick Hallett II rise from scout team to NFL prospect
Erick and Nia Hallett were on the edge of their seats. Bundled up on a bitter cold Saturday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium, the couple watched anxiously as their son Erick II took the field with the rest of the Pitt hands team with only 47 seconds left in the Panthers’ senior day contest against Duke.
Trailing by two, the Blue Devils needed an onside kick to keep the game alive. However, as he’s done in numerous pivotal spots throughout his time at Pitt, Erick Hallett II blocked out the pressure, locked in on the moment and took matters into his own hands to help his team get the win.
Just as the right kicking toe of Duke’s Charlie Ham connected with the football, No. 31 for the Panthers reacted accordingly, wasting no time for the other 21 athletes on the field to step in and alter his intentions. Off a short bounce, Hallett took a few steps forward and secured the football.
The ballgame — which could possibly be the final one Hallett plays on the North Shore as a Panther — was over.
“I tell you what,” Pat Narduzzi said after the game, “on the hands team, that was a big play and he snatched it up at the end of the game.”
Hallett’s ability to quickly evaluate a situation, make a sharp judgment and react has taken him far. After battling year after year to earn more opportunities on Randy Bates’ secondary, the redshirt senior has asserted himself as a pivotal member within the Pitt defense.
“That is a critical position for us,” Bates said. “The last time we were really good before that was when we had Damar Hamlin, who is an excellent NFL player. That’s what makes us good. That’s why we’re a good defense, because we have a good player at the most difficult position in our scheme. When that player is good, we’re good.”
His efforts in the fall have not only earned him respect among his peers, but also brought his name into the national spotlight, being named a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe award and earning several midseason AllAmerican honors.
“He’s made us very proud,” Erick Hallett Sr. told the Post-Gazette. “We know what type of player he is. We’ve seen him grow into the football player that he is now, knowing what he’s fully capable of. To be able to see all of it come full circle, and be out there having fun and enjoying it, it makes us proud.”
With another year of eligibility remaining, Hallett will soon be faced with a tough decision — attempt to cash in on his big 2022 campaign and test his stock at the next level, or return to Pitt next fall where he can work to improve his craft a bit more.
As his team prepares for its final contest of the regular season — an 8 p. m. matchup on the road against Miami — Hallett says his future plans are “still up in the air.” Right now, the senior defensive back’s top priority is helping his team finish a perfect 4-0 stretch in November.
Throughout his football career, getting the job done, regardless of the obstacles at hand, has always been Hallett’s primary focus.
Becoming a leader
Before their senior year of high school even started, Erick Hallett and his fellow classmates at Cy-Fair High School in Houston were unexpectedly handed the hardest test of their lives.
In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey devastated the greater Houston area, causing catastrophic flooding that led to more than 100 deaths and more than $125 billion in damage. Hallett says his family’s home wasn’t dramatically impacted by the storm, but flooding put nearly everything in his life on delay.
“All of Houston was flooded,” Hallett said. “There was just water everywhere. We didn’t have school weeks, our first football game was canceled. It was a really bad time.”
With nothing to do during what’s normally a hectic time on his yearly calendar, Hallett says at first, he and his friends enjoyed the freedom.
“We were having all kinds of fun,” Hallett recalled with a laugh. “We were paddle boarding in the flooded areas — it was wild.”
However, after a few days, his friends group, which grew up playing football together since early elementary school, decided to put its energy toward a more productive cause. Instead of playing in dirty water, they spent their time away from school and football helping other community members rebuild their homes or participating in group cleanup events.
“We really came together as a community during that time,” Hallett said. “I hadn’t seen anything like that before.”
Once school resumed, Hallett says that sense of community pride was transferred onto the gridiron. In his final high school football season, Hallett and his friends who started the fall paddle boarding in the streets ended it by winning their school its first state championship in 78 years.
“It was a very eventful year,” Nia Hallett said. “To see the boys come together, especially during the football season, to help the community, to help each other, it makes me emotional just thinking about it. It was special.”
Hallett and his teammates always had the talent. At each level of football growing up, from Pop Warner to high school, his class always won. The difference that allowed them to take home the state’s ultimate prize, however, was maturity — something Hallett believes he and his friends gained from the tragedy that struck his hometown.
“Harvey made me a better leader,” Hallett said. “Just the fact that it taught us to take better initiative to do things that we needed to do. We learned that we couldn’t just sit and wait. Nothing was going to come to us just because we wanted it. We had to go make it happen.”
Not long after receiving his state championship ring, Hallett moved across the country to Pittsburgh, where he looked to continue “making things happen” at the next level.
Overcoming doubt
Being a Division I athlete requires confidence. Anytime Hallett has an ounce of self-doubt, a quick glance at his wrist reminds him what he’s capable of.
For the majority of his time at Pitt, Hallett has worn a plastic wristband that reads “all gas, no breaks.” While the accessory is the furthest thing from flashy, it carries a meaningful message that resides in Hallett’s heart.
Hallett says that early on during his time at Pitt, the bad moments seemed to outweigh the good ones. Year 1 at the collegiate level presents a handful of challenges for many student-athletes, and Hallett was starting to feel the lasting effects from all of them.
“When I first got here, my world crashed,” Hallett said. “I was on the scout team. I wasn’t even learning our defense; I was learning the other team’s. That really gets you down. On top of that, you have freshman classes, which is your first taste of college. All of it was a really big adjustment.”
After never struggling with confidence, Hallett says he was starting to doubt if he’d ever pan out as a productive player for the Panthers. In the midst of his struggles, he learned that there was at least one person who was in his corner — a friend who one day decided to get him a small but significant gift.
“I feel like she was one of the first people that really believed in me,” Hallett said of his friend, whom he decided to have remain nameless for this story. “She was always there for me. One day, early in my sophomore year, she gave me this bracelet once I started getting some playing time. She told me that she saw it and she thought of me. I put it on and never really took it off.”
Perhaps the bracelet is Hallett’s good luck charm. After earning special teams opportunities early in the 2019 season, Hallett made his first start against Syracuse near the end of the year. The next season, he inserted himself in the starting lineup for good, moving from cornerback to safety, where he started Pitt’s last four contests in 2020.
Since then, Hallett has become a staple of the Pitt defense, starting every game in each of the past two years.
“He just keeps improving,” Bates said. “Erick has gone from being OK, to good, to being very good, in my opinion.”
2022 has been Hallett’s best statistical season, entering Pitt’s regular-season finale with 40 tackles, nine pass breakups, three interceptions and two fumble recoveries.
Like every other player in the country, Hallett is susceptible to making the occasional mistake. When the miscues occur, the now-All-American defensive back uses the small gift from his friend to get his head back in the game.
“I still wear it today because it reminds me that people believe in me,” Hallett said. “I might doubt myself, I might have a bad play, I might have a bad game or even week. I know that people care about me. That bracelet taught me that I don’t have to attack my problems alone and that, with a clear mind, I’m capable of overcoming challenges.”
A different perspective
Some football players struggle to figure out what to do next in life once football comes to an end. Hallett, on the other hand, already has a plan in place.
“Ultimately, I’d like to go to law school,” Hallett said when asked about his nonfootball ambitions during training camp. “We’ll see how things go.”
Since giving that answer in August, Hallett says his intentions to one day be a lawyer have only intensified this fall. His interest in pursuing a career in law, he says, was sparked midway through his time at Pitt, through an unconventional source.
“It all started from a TV show,” Hallett said with a laugh. “The show ‘How To Get Away With Murder,’ is one of my mom’s favorites. Annalise Keating [who is played by Viola Davis] is a great character who I relate to. I know, it sounds crazy, but I feel like her character and I see the world in a similar way.”
Hallett has already earned degrees from Pitt in philosophy and political science. Similar to what he learned in those fields, he believes the key to being a lawyer is having the ability to see things differently. Coincidentally enough, Hallett’s knack to view things from a different lens is also what helps him on the gridiron.
While others might be bigger, stronger or faster, numerous members of the Pitt coaching staff say Hallett’s vision and intuition allow for him to be in the right place at the right time. For at least one more contest, along with the upcoming bowl game, the Panthers will benefit from their senior safety’s skills.
Both Hallett and his coaches understand that his time in Oakland is limited. Whether it’s just a few more games or a whole extra year, eventually No. 31 will move on, where he will look to use his quick thinking abilities and instant analysis for any team — or court room — that will give him an opportunity.