Forgotten passer proves memorable

FROM WHERE I’M SITTING

- Jim Ducibella

The road to the Washington Football Team was long and winding for Taylor Heinicke and it may or may not be his final destination.

But this much is clear: Heinicke, the unlikely hero of Washington’s 31-23 wild-card round loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after throwing for 306 yards in just the second-ever NFL start, has been overlooked his entire football career.

Maybe that’s about to change. What won’t change is his too-good-to-be-true, Hollywood-type tale.

Consider how Heinicke came to receive a scholarship at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. The school had restarted its football program in 2009, just two years before Heinicke arrived. He wasn’t even a blip on its recruiting radar.

A university official was riding a shuttle bus at LaGuardia Airport after having watched ODU play Monmouth. He was wearing an ODU ballcap, which Heinicke’s trainer in Atlanta, a man named Earl Williams, noticed. He asked the administrator if he was a football coach, then told him that ODU should be recruiting this kid, Heinicke. After all, the boy was on his way toward a career passing mark of 4,218 yards – a Georgia high school record. He would be named the state’s Group 5A player of the year and a nominee for Gatorade player of the year.

Yet, he had no offers.