Too Small for the NFL. Then He Broke a Chiefs Record. | Dexter McCluster

Dexter McCluster is five-foot-eight and 165 pounds. Bobby Bowden told him he could play defensive back. Urban Meyer told him he could return kicks. He turned both of them down because he knew who he was, and he needed the ball in his hands.

He went to Ole Miss instead and became the first player in SEC history to rush for 1,000 yards and catch for 500 in the same season. He ran for 282 yards on Lane Kiffin's Tennessee with the coach who recruited him standing on the other sideline, won back-to-back Cotton Bowl MVPs, and got drafted 36th overall by the Chiefs. In his first NFL game, on Monday Night Football, in the rain, he returned a punt 94 yards for a touchdown.

This week I sat down with Dexter to talk about all of it. Becoming a father at 17 and telling his parents within half an hour. Waiting for the draft call on a couch with a Nokia phone and camera crews watching. Buying his mom the house he promised her as a kid. Making the Pro Bowl and then being told he wasn't really a running back or a receiver.

We also get into the part that never makes the highlights. Getting named a captain in Tennessee and then getting cut before the season, the year Derrick Henry showed up. Crying the whole drive home. Three retirements. The months he spent on his patio from six in the morning to six at night, drinking more than he should have, until his wife told him, "Don't forget who you are."

Today Dexter trains athletes, coaches running backs at Father Ryan, and just had his sixth kid, his first boy. We weigh exactly the same. Only one of us has a Chiefs record. Hope you guys enjoy this one.

Follow Dexter: @dextermccluster and @mcclusterfit

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Chapters

(00:00) Meet Dexter McCluster