“I need to be building things,” chargers RB Austin Ekeler says. He owns 115 rental properties. He's the star of a Yahoo fantasy football show and livestreams “Ekeler Dome,” a Twitch competition. He's working on an app. And chasing all that’s possible.
Back then, approaching six years ago now,But nearly 7,000 yards, 59 touchdowns and countless celebratory strums of an imaginary guitar later, Ekeler’s height matters little compared to the long shadow cast by his heart.
One way to express drive in football is by finishing plays. No one in the NFL has finished more plays in the end zone over the last two seasons than Ekeler.As a rookie, his chiseled frame was stuffed with potential and nerves, so many nerves that after Ekeler stepped into his first huddle of his first practice in his first offseason session with the Chargers, he had to step back out — so he could throw up.
The stepfather also built fencing, which meant Austin and Wyett also built fencing, mile after mile of barbed wire. They’d spend their days pounding posts into the dirt and their nights sleeping in a camper. He was fast and strong and explosive, winning a state championship as a long jumper and accumulating football statistics so video game-ish that, still today, the numbers seem to grow each time the stories are retold.
It would be years before Ekeler even pondered the NFL as a possibility. He didn’t grow up watching football. He watched rodeo, his stepfather involved in team roping. Only a few small schools showed interest in Ekeler and Bains was the only coach who said he could remain at running back. Others wanted him to play in the secondary or sign as an athlete.
“He was dodging people just to take the handoff,” said McConnaughey, who now works for the Jacksonville Jaguars. “It was not a good team. It was watching him evade the first guy and the second guy and then trying to plow through the third and four guys. And he usually was able to do it.” “We’d be in here on a Saturday getting some work done,” Bains said. “You’d look down into this facility — it’s just massive — all the lights are on and there’s one guy in there. Of course, it’s him.”
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