Texans' Ross Blacklock among bumper crop of Houston-area talent
May 3, 2020
HOUSTON -- New
Houston Texans defensive tackle
Ross Blacklock grew up with a basketball in his hand. His father, Jimmy, played at the University of Texas before performing with the Harlem Globetrotters from 1974 to 1987. Jimmy coached the team for more than 10 years as well.
Even though Blacklock first dunked a basketball when he was 13 years old, he couldn’t resist the call to football. He joked that “basketball was just too soft” for him, and said he used to always foul out when he was playing in AAU games.
“I’d come off football season and go straight to basketball,” Blacklock said at the NFL combine. “Sometimes I’d be too aggressive, and I was like, 'Dang, this is just too soft for me sometimes.' But it’s a good sport. I’m glad I got into it. But I just like the physicality of [football]. You’ve got to be tough.”
Led by WR CeeDee Lamb, who was picked by the Cowboys, Houston-area high schools produced 13 players in the NFL draft, including four in the first round. Ten were picked in the first three rounds:
PLAYER | POS. | ROUND |
---|
CeeDee Lamb | WR | 1 (17) |
K'Lavon Chaisson | LB | 1 (20) |
Kenneth Murray | LB | 1 (23) |
Jordyn Brooks | LB | 1 (27) |
Ross Blacklock | DT | 2 (40) |
Grant Delpit | S | 2 (44) |
Antoine Winfield Jr. | S | 2 (45) |
Jalen Hurts | QB | 2 (53) |
Josh Jones | OT | 3 (72) |
Jordan Elliott | DT | 3 (88) |
| | |
It’s no shock that Blacklock, now 6-foot-4 and 305 pounds, eventually found his way onto the gridiron instead of the hardwood. He did grow up in Texas, perhaps the country’s foremost high school football hotbed, where 33 of the players picked in the draft last week grew up, by far the
most of any state. It was the first time Texas led all states in players drafted since 2016.
Blacklock, who went to Elkins High School in Missouri City, was one of 13 players from a Houston-area high school who was drafted last week.
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