Kendrick Ings Took Bizarre Route To Detroit Practice Squad
By Ashley Scoby
Two summers ago, 5-foot-10, 170-pound Kendrick Ings was trying hard not to be a fanboy.
A wide receiver who had bounced around semi-professional and arena leagues virtually since high school, Ings had just gotten the chance to work out with Calvin Johnson at Georgia Tech. Bengals receiver A.J. Green was there; Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford was there. But Johnson was the one that Ings had watched film on, had idolized.
Ings worked out in Atlanta that day like "just another player," but he admitted he asked for a picture afterwards. The moment was just too surreal for Ings, who never played college football but was still trying to fight his way to the NFL.
On Monday night, two years after first meeting his idol, Ings got a phone call from Lions front office staff offering him a chance to work out for Johnson's team. And on Wednesday, Ings signed the paperwork that gave him the same team's jersey that Johnson wore. He was only on Detroit's practice squad, yes, but it was a long ways away from where Ings had been.
"I was like, 'you remember me?'" Ings said, remembering the conversation he had with Johnson when he came for his workout this week. "He was like, 'yeah, the little fast guy!'"
Ings said he ran a 4.37 40-yard dash during the workout – "I guess that's pretty fast, right?" he said, still caught between realizing the dream he'd worked seven years for, and not believing it had actually happened.
Thanks to a long line of what would have been dream-stealing circumstances for many other people, Ings never played a down of college football, not even at the JUCO level. His scholarship papers got lost before they could make it to Northwest Mississippi Community College. He went to Fort Valley State for a year as a normal student, trying to keep his grades up so he could play the next season.
Then when he was finally going to get the chance to play for Northwest Mississippi, he didn't have enough money to pay for medical tests that would prove the heart murmur he had had since childhood was safe enough for him to play football with. The school wouldn't pay, so Ings decided to go home. Without football, he had "no push" to keep his grades up and stay in school.
He went back to his mom and told her his body was getting older. If there was ever a time to put all the eggs in the football helmet, then now was that time.
Ings bounced from a semi-pro team (the Atlanta Chiefs) to arena football teams (Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay). He switched positions to wide receiver two years ago (he'd played stints at running back and cornerback, then was an ambidextrous quarterback before he tore his ACL his senior year).
"I never was scared," Ings said of traveling his unorthodox path to the NFL. "You can't be scared when you're trying to go to the next level or trying to play football. You have to have great confidence in yourself. I just stuck to it. My faith is strong."
The faith paid off with Monday's phone call.
"I like this route I went," he said. "I would have liked to go to college and go the easier route, but I'm cool with this one. I'm here."
"He's a guy that can run," said head coach Jim Caldwell. "Our guys, they look any and everywhere for talent and it just so happened he came up on the radar screen. We brought him to work him out and obviously, he can run. He has ability, so we wanted to take a look at him."
Wide-eyed and in his new Lions ball cap on Wednesday, Ings still showed a childlike fervor for the game, even though he's 25 years old. When he found out he was getting his chance with Detroit, he broke down into tears.
"This has been a dream since I was little. I never had no doubt," he said. "I always compare my times, my workouts to people that are already in the NFL. When I see, hey, he runs a 4.4 – I run a 4.4. He lifts 225 ten times, (and) he's a receiver, I can lift it nine times. I mean, I got the ability to do it. I just got to get my shot."
The Lions gave him that, after signing him to the practice squad. Although (barring multiple calamities at the receiver position this year) Ings most likely won't touch the field in a game, he's still getting the chance to go against NFL defensive backs. For the guy who's studied film on NFL players , then cut up his own film to get someone to notice him, that chance is something he's not taking for granted. Honing his craft is his obsession; he gave up an education to chase what's now right in front of him.
"(My family) knew I came out of the womb with a football in my hand," he said. "My mom, my dad, my sisters, my aunties and uncles, they all supported me. My uncle was texting me last week: 'Hey man, I'm ready to see you on Sundays instead of Saturdays.
"I was like, 'One day.' One day."
