While he can’t do anything to shorten the physical distance, NFL linebacker Tank Daniels is doing his part to help bridge the gap between the athletic differences.
The Philadelphia Eagles’ Daniels is teaming with several other NFL players to conduct a two-day summer football camp at Holland High School today and Friday.
“I’m just trying to do what I can to give back to the kids and be around the next generation of football players,” Daniels said. “Just to be around these players and these coaches during the summer has always been beneficial to me. Everybody gets something out of the deal.”
Daniels, a three-year NFL veteran, was on the New York Giants’ 2007 Super Bowl champion squad and became friends with wide receiver Domenik Hixon and offensive tackle Na’Shan Goddard, who both are assisting with the camp.
The variety of NFL athletes allows the camp to not just focus on fundamentals but also to offer position-specific drills, allowing enough variety for all athletes.
Daniels started the camp last year and decided to put it in Holland this year at the urging of his Harding College (Ark.) teammate and current Holland assistant coach Rae Holder.
For Daniels, the stop made sense.
“I want to come back to a small town, because I’m from a small town,” he said. “I want to show these kids, ‘I’m just like you. Anything you want you have to work real hard for. NFL players, NBA players, they are just like you. They just worked hard at what they wanted to do. If you want to accomplish that you have to work hard to accomplish it. It’s not above you.’”
Daniels admits that the possibility of any individual making it to the NFL is very slim, especially for athletes from small schools, but he emphasized from his own experiences that it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.
“We had maybe 36 boys in my class and I had a P.E. teacher and he asked, ‘How many of you guys want to be NFL players someday?’” Daniels recalled. “I’m in the third or fourth grade and so 36 hands go up. And he was like, ‘The chance of any of you guys making the NFL is slim to none.’ And out of that group two of us played in the NFL (former New York Jets running back Cedric Houston was the other).”
One of the things that helped Daniels along the way was a visit to Houston Nutt’s football camp at Arkansas. Daniels said he worked hard to save enough money to attend the camp before his senior year in high school. And it’s an experience he’d never forget.
“I went there and I just loved it,” he said. “My goal was ultimately to get to college and play college football and to be on a college campus. And I was there and I just remember thinking, ‘Wow, can I do that, can I play?’ To be there and they are showing college highlights, it was above me.
“I wish would have had an opportunity to have done camp and be around a NFL guy. As a small child, as a high school kid even, I just thought they were immortal, they were Superman.”
Daniels made it to NCAA Division II Harding, where he was a two-time All-American. When he signed as a free agent with the Eagles in 2006, he became the school’s first product to reach the NFL.
But the rise from a small high school to a small college to an NFL practice squad to an actual squad isn’t quite it for Daniels.
His NFL journey has been a rough one. He’s had to prove to the Eagles, Giants and Eagles again that he deserved a spot on the roster, and he’s mainly been relegated to special teams work. He’d like the opportunity to prove he deserves a starting role on defense.
“I’ve been a Super Bowl champion and to know guys that I look up to and I admire like Brian Dawkins or Jeremiah Trotter or Donovan McNabb, to look at the greats like Dan Marino, and to think I’m a part of something that they’ve never been a part of and not had a chance to feel that joy and excitement to be a champion, that’s definitely one of my greatest accomplishments,” he said.
“But I am by no means satisfied. When you win one - I see why guys want another and another - because it’s not good enough, and that greed starts to set in you want the feeling the rest of your career. I just want to continue to better myself and my career, earn a starting job, to better myself and my team.”
And knowing that he’s been blessed with his NFL career so far, he’s happy to give back and help others follow his path.
“To be honest, a lot of guys won’t play professional sports,” he said. “But that shouldn’t limit you from being the very best you can be and the best at whatever you choose to be. And that’s what I want kids to learn. It’s not just about, ‘I’m going to play football and chase that football dream.’ Because some people, their gift is not to play football. They may be more suited to be president or senator, principal, teacher. Whatever you choose to do, whatever door you choose to walk through, I hope you give it all you have and be the best you can be.
“But through football and sports, you don’t just learn how to be good at your sport; you learn self-discipline, you learn how to endure hardships through winning and losing and you learn how to work hard. If there is something they really want, I don’t care if it’s sports, football, basketball, if you really want to be a doctor, if you really want to be a Holland police officer, give it all you got and be the very best at what you do, and that’s what I hope these kids learn if they learn anything from me.”
NOTES: The camp is open to all students entering grades 2-12. Students entering grades 2-6 will attend the session from 1-4 p.m. each day. Students entering grades 7-12 will attend the session from 5-8 p.m. The cost to register at the camp today is $100 and includes a T-shirt and picture with Daniels. . . . Holland officials have said that a Cool Zone misting-fan area will be made available for participants to get relief from the heat.
mhood@temple-telegram.com
