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Cowboys See Potential In Gathers’ Switch From Power Forward To Tight End
Saturday, April 30, 2016 7:58 PM CDT
By Rob Phillips @robphillips3
IRVING, Texas – Rico Gathers has played a big game inside AT&T Stadium before. Against third-ranked Kentucky. For Baylor’s basketball team. He grabbed 13 rebounds and the Bears won, 67-62, in December 2013.
Now, the 22-year-old Gathers is committed to playing football for the first time since age 13.
The Cowboys drafted him with their final pick on Saturday (sixth round; No. 217 overall) as a tight end prospect following a stellar college career at power forward.
Gathers stopped playing football in eighth grade to focus on basketball. Named an All-American in college for his prowess on the glass, he posted career averages of 8.2 points and 8.0 boards.
He said he began seriously considering football again last September, and eventually he declared for the draft in March.
“That was pretty much the first grown-man decision I’ve ever made in my life,” he said. “A lot of people thought I was crazy, like, ‘What? You want to give up on basketball to go play football?’ But I knew what I wanted to do.
"I never saw myself being a first round guy; I always saw myself making the team and working my way up, because a lot of people thought this was a mistake because I haven’t played since I was 13. But I see it differently because of the hard worker that I am.”
Gathers reportedly ran between 4.75 and 4.85 in the 40-yard dash time during a recent pro day. Clearly, the Cowboys were impressed enough with his workout to draft him as a developmental prospect Saturday with the third of three sixth-round compensatory selections.
http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/2...ntial-gathers’-switch-power-forward-tight-end
Saturday, April 30, 2016 7:58 PM CDT
By Rob Phillips @robphillips3
IRVING, Texas – Rico Gathers has played a big game inside AT&T Stadium before. Against third-ranked Kentucky. For Baylor’s basketball team. He grabbed 13 rebounds and the Bears won, 67-62, in December 2013.
Now, the 22-year-old Gathers is committed to playing football for the first time since age 13.
The Cowboys drafted him with their final pick on Saturday (sixth round; No. 217 overall) as a tight end prospect following a stellar college career at power forward.
Gathers stopped playing football in eighth grade to focus on basketball. Named an All-American in college for his prowess on the glass, he posted career averages of 8.2 points and 8.0 boards.
He said he began seriously considering football again last September, and eventually he declared for the draft in March.
“That was pretty much the first grown-man decision I’ve ever made in my life,” he said. “A lot of people thought I was crazy, like, ‘What? You want to give up on basketball to go play football?’ But I knew what I wanted to do.
"I never saw myself being a first round guy; I always saw myself making the team and working my way up, because a lot of people thought this was a mistake because I haven’t played since I was 13. But I see it differently because of the hard worker that I am.”
Gathers reportedly ran between 4.75 and 4.85 in the 40-yard dash time during a recent pro day. Clearly, the Cowboys were impressed enough with his workout to draft him as a developmental prospect Saturday with the third of three sixth-round compensatory selections.
http://www.dallascowboys.com/news/2...ntial-gathers’-switch-power-forward-tight-end