There might not have been a chance for New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman to make it to the NFL had former Kent State University football coach Doug Martin not taken a chance on the Redwood City, California, native.
Martin brought Edelman to Kent State to play quarterback. But when professional scouts were at practice, Edelman would do a little bit of everything to show his versatility, a skill that has led him to the NFL's biggest stage, Super Bowl XLIX against the Seattle Seahawks.
"Coach Martin is one of the only coaches who believed in me that I could play quarterback at a Division I level," Edelman recalled. "He's a part of where I am at right now, so I am very thankful for him. We played a couple snaps here and there. I wasn't playing special teams. He would help me out. When scouts were at practice, he'd have me go catch punts. He definitely was looking out."
When the Patriots scouted at Kent State, they saw enough in Edelman to select him in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL Draft. Already having Tom Brady, a three-time Super Bowl winner, entrenched behind center, New England turned Edelman into a wide receiver and punt returner.
In six years with the Patriots, Edelman has returned 132 punts for 1,620 yards and taken four of those kicks back for touchdowns. During the postseason, Edelman has turned 18 punt returns into 257 yards.
"A punt return play is one of the plays that you can be prepared for the most out of any play in football," Edelman said. "You can look at the situation, you have time to look at the wind pattern, where you're at on the field, what time it is in the game, all that kind of stuff, the trajectory of the punt, it all comes into consideration if you're going to return it, if there's a block.
"As a punt returner, your job is to get 10 yards. If you get 10 yards, you're happy. Anything after that is cream. Ultimately, your job is to give the ball to the offense with some good field position. They have a tough unit. They're fast, they play hard on that unit. We're definitely going to have to bring our A-game and prepare to get ready for it.
"Special teams is one third of the game. Anytime you have an explosion play in special teams, whether it's a kickoff return, punt return, good coverage, all of those types of things give momentum to a team and percentages of winning the game go out the roof when those kinds of things happen. We take special teams seriously here. Seattle, they're a hard-working team that's well-coached. You can tell that they take pride in their special teams unit as well. It's going to be a battle."
In addition to his contributions on special teams, Edelman has been on the receiving end of 266 passes, and gained 2,742 yards and 14 touchdowns. Edelman had his first 1,000-yard season in 2013 when he gained 1,056 yards and scored a career-high six touchdowns on 105 receptions.
He followed that career year in 2013 with 972 yards and four touchdowns on 92 receptions this season.
"I've watched a lot of film on Wes (Welker)," Edelman said. "I was fortunate to get to play behind him and learn how he played the position. I learned how to be a professional around a guy like him, the day-to-day activities like preparing, taking care of your body, those types of things. Troy Brown, he's an unbelievable player who's played with the Patriots. Deion Branch, Jabar Gaffney, all those guys.
"When I first came into the league, Randy Moss. I'm not the same style as him, or body type, but if you take a little bit of everything from all of those guys -- they're such smart football players. They were hard-working. They had little niches that they could do -- you definitely watch a lot of film on those guys."
Although Edelman recognized Coach Martin for giving him a chance and his Patriots' teammates for showing him how to play, and thrive, in the NFL, he was quick to credit his father, Frank, for giving him the best example of what it means to put in a hard day's work, which is exactly what he plans on doing against the Seahawks today.
"My father has been the biggest help in my career with everything," Edelman said. "He may not have been able to coach me in certain situations, but he was always there to find me a coach, take me out and see what that coach would do. Then, we would do those practice things for hours literally every day, whether it was football season, baseball season or basketball season.
"If it was raining, he'd go rent out a gym and we'd shoot. When it was football season, you'd have the rocks in the street. When it was baseball season, he'd have my older brother hitting ground balls to me as hard as he could. My father has definitely been a huge part of my career.
"All I know is hard work. I've had a father who I watched growing up that I wouldn't see in the morning and he'd come home at five o'clock at night and he did that every day. I don't know if that's from him or it's in the blood or whatever, but that's kind of how we do it in my household. My mom has been a hard worker. Whatever she had to do, she did it. I guess it would have to go through there."
