http://www.patriots.com/news/index.cfm?ac=latestnewsdetail&pid=25181&pcid=41
5/10/07
Meet the Rookies - LB Justin Rogers
Leading up to this weekend’s rookie mini camp, we’ll introduce you to some of the Patriots 2007 draftees. Today’s spotlight shines on linebacker Justin Rogers of Southern Methodist University. For more in-depth profiles of each player, grab the latest edition of Patriots Football Weekly, on newsstands this week.
I guess it’s the thought that counts.
Low on cash and ideas, Justin Rogers picked up a mail-order catalog, hoping to find a gift for his stepmother. Instead, he found inspiration.
“I saw a coyote rug and I was like, ‘Man, I can do that,’” Rogers, an avid hunter, recalled. As fate would have it, he had slain a coyote only recently.
“So I skinned it out and gave it to her,” the through-and-through Texan continued. “She still has it. It's in the living room.”
Proof that beauty really is only skin-deep.
But this wasn’t the first animal Rogers had ever skinned.
“I've skinned all kinds of stuff. I grew up in the country so I grew up skinning animals,” he revealed to reporters shortly after being drafted by the New England Patriots in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft.
As much as he’s hunted, Rogers also knows what it’s like to be easy prey.
The skinny on Rogers is that when the 6-4, 250-pound former defensive end arrived on campus at Southern Methodist University (SMU) as a freshman, he was, well…skinny. Barely more than 200 pounds, to be exact.
Linemen that light don’t last long, and he got roughed up a lot in the beginning. But Rogers gradually bulked up.
“It was just kind of a thing I had to be persistent about,” he explained. “I was on a pretty rough eating schedule. I'd eat six times a day, and drink shakes so it was just a matter of being patient about it.”
He also needed to be patient while waiting to experience his first collegiate victory.
In 2003, his SMU Mustangs went a miserable 0-and-12.
“It was probably the worst year of my life because you put so much work into a season and then you get really no pay back,” he reflected. “But it's little stuff like that that makes you who you are as person and as a player, and I wouldn't trade that for the world.”
Who he’ll be as a player with the Patriots is a linebacker in New England’s 3-4 scheme. To do that, however, he’ll have to learn a position he hasn’t really played before. For more on Rogers and his transition to the NFL, check out his in-depth player profile in this month's Patriots Football Weekly.
