There’s something to be said about taking the road less traveled. The back roads, the scenic route.
It strays from conventional wisdom, defies all sense of time and urgency and proves there are always multiple ways to arrive at the destination.
Ashton Jeanty’s journey was far from normal – and he decided to elaborate on that in a letter he wrote for The Players’ Tribune ahead of the 2025 NFL Draft.
The son of a military father, Jeanty didn’t have the luxury of playing football like most prospects. His family didn’t settle down in an area and dedicate all of its time to turning Jeanty into a future NFL star.
Bouncing around the world, the running back has no shortage of confidence heading into the pros, comparing his potential impact to what Saquon Barkley did for the Philadelphia Eagles.
‘Most people, they watched the Eagles win the Super Bowl a couple of months ago, they watched Saquon run through everyone in the playoffs, and they thought to themselves, ‘This is amazing,” Jeanty wrote. ‘I watched it and I thought something different. I thought, ‘That can be me.”
He wrote about the impact of getting into football after playing soccer and basketball, explaining the impact of moving to Italy just after finding his way on the field.
Jeanty had to pause his football dream, resuming it when the family moved to Texas during his sophomore year of high school. The running back didn’t start again until his senior year and led to the absence of offers from the top college programs, which he chalked up to bad timing.
Instead, the Boise State star celebrated his journey of playing many different positions against all levels of talent across the world.
‘I’ve gone from Jacksonville, to Chesapeake, to Naples, to Frisco, to Boise … all these places. I’ve played defensive end, safety, outside linebacker, special teams, slot receiver, lead running back, backup running back, backup everything. I’ve played street football, rec league football, road trip to a small town in Belgium football, 5A Texas high school football, college playoff football and no football. I’ve played with the older kids, with the military kids, with the European kids, with the zero-star kids, the five-star kids and everyone in between. I’ve played under those Friday Night Lights, and I’ve played on that Bronco Blue. My journey to the NFL, it’s definitely been different.’
The road less traveled is Jeanty’s street and he seems to prefer it that way.
Expected to be a first-round pick in next week’s NFL draft, the Heisman Trophy runner-up had one last selling point for the teams he hopes to soon play for.
‘It’s TACKLE football … you know what I’m saying?’
‘I’d draft the guy they can’t tackle.’
