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-Derrick Coleman Jr, Marcus Brotherton, Adam Wison,
-A Memoir-No Excuses- Growing Up Deaf and Achieving My Super Bowl Dreams
-New York
-Gallery Books/Jeter Publishing
-2015

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Derrick Coleman is now a former NFL fullback who went to the University of California, Los Angeles. He went as an undrafted free agent in 2012 to later on sign with the Minnesota Vikings. Coleman was the first legally deaf offensive player in the NFL. Later that year he went on and signed with the Seattle Seahawks. He then went on to win a Super Bowl and became the first ever deaf player to win a Super Bowl trophy.

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Derrick Coleman Jr. was born on October 18, 1990. There was a lot happening between Derrick's parents while he was about to be born. They where sometimes together and sometimes not. But when his Mom was about to go Labor she called Derrick's father. He arrived right after his son's birth. Before Derrick was born, his father was unsure and a bit uncomfortable of the idea that he was going to be a father, but once Derrick was born , his father had never been prouder than he was.

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When the hospital was testing Derrick for PKU (Phenylketonuria Test) it came back positive, this means that it was harder for him to break down amino acids that contained proteins, but Derrick got medicine and was sent home with his mother. But at home he started vomiting abnormally all the time. His mother took him back and the hospital checked him out and said he was fine. Then Derrick vomited so hard it flew and hit the wall, this really scared his mother and she took him back to the hospital. They found he had pyloric stenosis, this is where food gets blocked from going to the stomach and to the intestine. After surgery Derrick was sent home and was in great health. But his mother was so worried after these incidents that even if he spat up she would take him back to the hospital.

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While Derrick was in the hospital, his mother's house in Inglewood caught fire. Derrick's brother was inside during this incident. But luckily someone had went inside and rescued him. After this their mother had bought an apartment in Gardena. She hadn't started working yet as she was on welfare.

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When Derrick was old enough, his mother had started sending him to day care. This was because she had went back to school so she could become a licensed vocational Nurse. He either was at daycare or with a babysitter. Sometimes he would stay with his grandma at her house.

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Derrick's Mom told him he was always a hyperactive baby. One time when his mom wasn't near he had pulled a iron of the table and it had burnt his leg. She had rushed him to the hospital. She was scared to tell the doctors what happened because she wasn't near and didn't want them to think that she was abusing him. But Derricks brother was near and was able to explain what had really had happened.

Textual Evidence 1 : "I was a hyperactive baby. Mom tells me I got into a lot of things as a toddler. One day when Mom wasn't looking I pulled the clothes iron down on me and burnt my leg."(33)

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When Derrick was almost a two year old he went to his Grandma's house for a Easter egg hunt. He saw many kids, but didn't know what to really do. He just thought you  had to run around and pick as many eggs up. He realized that he was competing against the other kids and that he had to beat them. He ran as hard as he could and even ran into kids and even pushed them over. Many where even bigger than him. After the hunt one of the parents said to his mom, "when that kid grows up, he's going to be a football player."

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Derrick's mother noticed when she would call him or tell him top do something he wouldn't and not even respond. She thought he was just being stubborn. She would have to say the same thing over and over. She also noticed she had to talk very loud for him to hear her. Since Derrick's mom had school, he would be dropped off at a babysitter. One day his sister got sick and stayed home from school and also went to the baby sitter. She told Derrick's mom when they got back home that the babysitter had yelled, screamed, and cursed to get Derrick's attention. Him mother was mad at the babysitter and he never went back.

Textual Evidence 2 : " ... Tanisha told Mama that the babies header was yelling and screaming at me, cursing me out, because I wouldn't listen.” (35)

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Just Uncomfortable or is Something Going on

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Just Uncomfortable or is Something Going on

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Derrick's mother also noticed he didn't speak much and that he could only say a couple of words, but didn't think much of it. But Derrick did not like it when anyone touched him near his Face or Head, especially near his ears. They thought that might be related to his hearing problems. Sometimes he even tried to bite people when they came to close. One day, his sister was playing, but he didn't know that and when she touched his face, he bit her right on her nose. She started bleeding, but luckily enough she did not need stitches, but she did get a small mark on her nose after that and still has it. He felt really bad and was really sorry.

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Derrick's Mother finally decided it was time to take Derrick to get a hearing test. She first took him to a school as they offer free tests and she could get it done the next day. They did find out that something was wrong but told them nothing else. So then she scheduled with a doctor. After the tests they said he had hearing loss in his left ear, his right ear had more hearing ability but was also deteriorating, they did not know why this was happening. His mom recalls that the response from them pretty much was that their child is deaf and they have to deal with it. For his mom this was a completely new experience as she knew no one with hearing problems. The doctor's just told her that Derrick would need hearing aids and that would be it. They said to develop his speech his mother would have to talk with him a lot and that it may develop and may not.

Textual Evidence 3 : "I had some hearing loss in my left ear … They knew for sure that my ear wasn't responding as it should. My right ear had more hearing ability than my left." (38)

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When Derrick first got his hearing aids he immediately smiled and this made his parents happy. But a little bit after he tried to pull them out and found them uncomfortable. His mom got him used to the aids and he started going to preschool with them. No one made fun of him back then for wearing them. He only needed them for his left but the doctor said he should just where them in both. His Mother & Father both recalled how it was hard to get a hyper boy like him to wear hearing aids all the time. They did everything for him like cleaning them, putting them in & out, changed batteries, etc. His Mother & Father also told him how his hearing disabilities brought them two closer together as they agreed to work together for Derrick.

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In Derrick's early ages he first had to learn how to talk. His mom would try to talk to him hours on end so he would learn how to speak. This helped him develop speech and talk like all other children. As he got older he would sometimes be bullied for having hearing aids as children would call him "four ears" and would make fun of him. Derrick hated this and would sometimes cry and recall these incidents to his mother.

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Derrick started playing football in seventh grade as his parents where unwilling to let him play earlier but his mom got a MRI done that showed his skeletal structure would easily be able to take hits. Because of this he was signed up for football. They put him in football so he could release all of his energy in sports and not in other things. He started working out and started doing many things so he stayed fit for football. He hated bear-crawls but still did them since he knew how much they helped. He would run a lot to keep him as lean as possible because he was right at the brink of the 145 pound weight limit of his league. He started getting more serious with football and by high school he became really good and figured out ways to communicate with the quarterback during plays. He played offense and defense in high school. he played running back on offense, and linebacker on defense. He had gotten really good at running back and his high school team even went 9-1.

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When Life Started Shaping Around Football

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When Life Started Shaping Around Football

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In Derrick's senior year his School, Troy was 2nd in the county and 28th the in the whole country. They played a Smash-mouth style of football which means a team didn't pass the ball that much but would run the ball much more. This meant Derrick was getting many hand-offs. They where well on there way for playoffs or even a state championship, but then the CEF(California Interscholastic Foundation) Disqualified them. But they kept their heads up high and dealt with this and went to the playoff games and supported their rival team out of sportsmanship. When Derrick graduated he was ranked 3rd in the country and 1st in California amongst running backs. He then committed to UCLA after deciding between them and USC. After starting to practice there he realized he had a torn meniscus in his knee. He had never been injured like this, and was unfamiliar with injuries as a whole. After he finally got to suit up & play against Arizona. That year didn't go too good for UCLA football but Derrick knew they would all do better.

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A Injury That Almost Ended Derrick's Career

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A Injury That Almost Ended Derrick's Career

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In a game against Stanford he had been hit in the back of the head and when all of the players piled off him he realized that it was dark and he couldn't get up. When his mom saw this and noticed he wasn't getting up she jumped out of her seat and sprinted towards the field. In a big college game security is very tight and they don't let people just get on the field. When Derrick was conscious again he was surround by medical personal and training staff, but he also saw his mother and wondered how she even got on the field. His father was also there they did some test and laid him on a stretcher and took him to a hospital on a ambulance.

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The Friendship that Became Thunder & Lightning

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The Friendship that Became Thunder & Lightning

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After that he got better but realized he may not get to start because Johnathan Franklin had started to play really well and this caused Derrick to stay on special teams where he was great but felt kind of dissapointed not getting starting position. Later Derrick finally started getting some snaps and Him and Johnathan started becoming great together. The next year him and Johnathan both played tremendous and become a dual threat running back corp. They where nicknamed Thunder & Lightning. Johnathan was the one who came in and exhausted defenses while Derrick would execute plays quickly and score.

Textual Evidence 4 : " ... The press and fans started to compare Jonathan and me to thunder and lightning. Jonathan would start a game with a bang and wear down the other team. Then I'd come in, execute plays at the speed of light, and take us home..." (146)

Outside Source 1: https://www.ocregister.com/2010/09/23/ucla-football-coleman-or-franklin/

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Draft Day 2012. It is day 3 of the NFL Draft. Derrick is waiting and is starting to worrry and is getting anxious. He is worried he may not get drafted. Later on, Derrick starts playing basketball with his buddies but can't focus as his mind is still intensely caught up in the draft. He looks at his mom as she is with his phone but she nods a "no" and this just gets Derrick more stressful. Then as they are playing a phone call comes, Derrick's Mom picks up. Derrick quickly walks over with excitement, but then again loses hope as it is just someone from a team asking if some other team had called. This really disappointed Derrick and he had a feeling he may not get drafted.

Textual Evidence 5 : " ... I looked her way and she smiled at me, but her smile was tense. No call had come. Who are we kidding? I was never going to play in the NFL." (5)

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The Draft was almost coming to a close and Derrick had lost all hope of being drafted. Then his agent Mark Bloom called, he told him about entering the NFL as a free agent. This once again got Derrick excited as well as his family excited. They now knew that Derrick still had a chance to get in even if he did not get drafted. The cons where that he won't have the appreciation of being drafted and this means that his signing bonus would be much less. This was a very big con because a signing bonus is the only amount of guaranteed money a rookie can get.

Textual Evidence 6 : "And that's when another call came. This one was from one of my agents, Mark Bloom,  who talked to me about going to the NFL as a free agent …  when we got that call, suddenly the atmosphere at my house went from solemn to excited" (154)

Outside Source 2: https://yourhearingcenter.com/audiology-blog-hamilton-oh/derrick-coleman-an-inspiration-to-deaf-and-hearing-individuals

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Seattle Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman is an inspiration to both deaf and hearing individuals. An incredibly moving depiction of Derrick's personal struggle with profound hearing loss is the subject of a recent Duracell advertisement ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2HD57z4F8E). This ad has been viewed more than 19 million times on YouTube and Derrick has become an Internet sensation for being the first deaf NFL player to play in the Super Bowl. Twenty-three year old Coleman is a tireless advocate for children with hearing loss, sharing his stories of having to tape his hearing aids to his head inside of his helmet playing football as a child.

Riley Kovalcik, a 9-year-old girl with hearing loss from New Jersey, wrote Coleman to tell him, "Just try your best. I have faif in you," Coleman replied with a handwritten letter of his own, telling her he had faith in her as well. "Even though we wear hearing aids, we can still accomplish our goals and dreams," wrote Coleman, who later surprised Riley and her twin sister Erin with Super Bowl tickets ( https://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/01/derrick-coleman-fans-meet-super-bowl/).

Leading up to the big game, #40 also surprised deaf 10-year-old fan Jack Coleman with an in-person appearance, a jersey and a signed football at a sporting goods store ( https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/exclusive-derrick-coleman-surprises-hearing-impaired-boy-jersey-article-1.1598556), and also handed out hearing aids recently at Yankee Stadium. Coleman has raised money to help design football helmets that can accomodate cochlear implants as well.

When the Seahawks coasted to victory on SuperBowl Sunday night, thousands of American households who have never followed football, much less rooted for the Seahawks, had reason to celebrate. Coleman became deaf when he was three years old, yet continued on to a successful career in NFL football in spite of significant challenges. He was signed by the Seattle Seahawks in December 2012, scored his first NFL touchdown in December 2013, and proudly represented his team in the 2014 Superbowl as the first deaf offensive player in the history of the NFL. It's one thing for parents and educators to tell special needs children that they can achieve the highest of heights. It's another to show them an example of someone who actually did. While Derrick Coleman's athletic accomplishments are certainly admirable, the true nobility of his character is made evident through his charitable actions and outreach to those who live with hearing loss.

Photo: Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman speaks to the media during Super Bowl XLVIII Media Day at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2014. (Credit: Newsday / Thomas A. Ferrara)

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Derrick Coleman: An Inspiration to Deaf and Hearing Individuals

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Seattle Seahawks fullback Derrick Coleman is an inspiration to both deaf and hearing individuals. An incredibly moving depiction of Derrick's personal struggle with profound hearing loss is the subject of a recent Duracell advertisement ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2HD57z4F8E).

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After the draft was over, Derrick became a undrafted free agent which means he could sign anywhere he wanted to. This means he had the choice of accepting a team that wanted him that he thought was best. He had offers from 8 teams that he narrowed down to Miami & Minnesota. His agent told him to talk about it with his family and after consulting call him back. Derrick called scouts as well to get their perspective and after this he had made a decision. Miami wanted him to play fullback, while Minnesota wanted him to play Half Back(Running Back). He went with Minnesota as he really wanted to play running back.

Textual Evidence 7 : "Then it was decision time. The big difference to me was that Miami wanted me to play fullback while Minnesota wanted me to play running back. I wanted to play running back, because that was the position I knew best." (155)

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After playing for the Vikings in the first preseason game, Derrick wasn't fully proud of himself as he did not do great and made some mistakes. He practiced hard for the next couple of days and prepared for the next preseason game. After that they where going to play the Buffalo Bills in week 2 of the preseason. During the game Derrick went for a tackle on special teams but missed. What he really did was get his foot stuck while running and this gave him turf toe. He was in grueling pain. But he still tried playing, and cause of this he fumbled and the coaches got mad. When he was in for another play he fumbled again and after that the coach just said "don't worry about it" which gave the message to Derrick that he was done. He then finally revealed his foot injury only so they would let him stay for a while. After they helped with his foot they called him to talk and said that he was going to get cut and that if it didn't work out with another player they would bring him back. But to Derrick this meant he was done and he flew back home and just watched from their.

Textual Evidence 8 : "I missed Jackie Battle by a mile and cursed myself for that, but what was really on my mind at the moment was my toe. The pain was agonizing. Immediately I knew what the problem was. They call it turf toe where your toe gets hyperextended." (166)

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After this Derrick had gotten a call from the Giants. He went out and practiced with them for one day before they let him go. After that Derrick felt his career was over and then one day after he was sleeping when his mom banged on the door and yelled at him that he didn't pick up his agents phone. Mark the agent told him Seattle had called and that they want him there to work-out. Coleman left that night without telling any of his friends where he was going. When he got to Seattle he felt a welcoming attitude and was greeted by everyone. He went hard at practice and tried his best. He may have annoyed some guys but he did his best. At the end of the week he was scared that he may get cut and he went to Pete Carroll's office and asked him about his chances and Pete said that they where going to keep him for another week.

Textual Evidence 9 : "Everybody I met smiled at me and said hello. The whole environment was professional but relaxed and friendly." (177)

Outside Source 3: https://www.bet.com/photo-gallery/41ca5e/10-things-to-know-about-derrick-coleman/2bmyhg

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After getting to stay in Seattle, Coleman finally showed what he could when he got to play after 3 running backs where unavailable and it was just him and Marshawn Lynch. He got a couple good plays and had one where he had a good opening and ran it right up. There were some where he caught them on the tips of his fingers. All in all he was having a decent season. After that he went back to the practice squad and didn't get to play, but he had made his stamp in the team. After the Hawks season came to a close, Derrick once again was worried about what would happen and what he would do. But right after that Coach Pete Carroll called and told him they want him to stick around and gave him a 3- Year $1.5 million deal. It wasn't fully guaranteed, but Derrick said it meant he was for sure part of a team and that's what mattered.

Outside Source 4: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/1933035-unbelievable-story-of-seahawk-derrick-coleman-hes-not-supposed-to-be-here

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When the next season started, Derrick was again a back up and was behind Michael Robinson. Later in the preseason Michael Robinson got sick and started losing weight which meant he wasn't ready to play. This meant that Coleman would be the starter. In his first preseason game he did really well as a Fullback and on Special Teams. After preseason Derrick found out he made the team while Michael had been cut, he was happy but felt bad for Robinson. After that there season started and they did really well as they went off to a 4-0 start and progress through the season exceptionally and ended with a 13-3 record as the #1 seed in the NFC. Seahawks fans where really proud and happy. After that, right before the playoffs Duracell had called him to do a advert with them, took him all day and he was really tired. He didn't really how much this would inspire kids with hearing disabilities, but it was one of the most inspiration adverts ever made. After that the playoffs started and they played the Saints, they had a good lead that the Saints chipped away, but int the end Seattle held them off and won. The greater victory was that Derrick's ad had played right before the game and the whole country was watching this game, it being a divisional playoff game. This meant this was a mega commercial. His phone went crazy and he got many messages and calls. After they where set to play the San Francisco 49ers. It was a dogfight from the beginning and at the half the Hawks where down 3-10. The second half started and the Hawks did better, but know one could predict the outcome of the game. With a few seconds remaining, Colin Kapernick threw it to Michael Crabtree but Richard Sherman deflected it and it landed in the hands of Malchom Smith. This meant Seattle was going to the Super Bowl. After that it was The Seattle Seahawks Vs. The Denver Broncos. And finally it was game day and there was a lot of anticipation built up for everyone. It was time for Kick-off and the Seahawks won the toss and deferred (Kick-off). The Seahawks had a commanding lead of 22-0 at half. The third quarter started and the Seahawks returned the Kick-off for a touchdown making it 29-0. By the 4th quarter it was 36-8 and the Hawks scored again to make it 43-8 and this was the end of the game and the Seattle Seahawks were World Champions. When they arrived back in Seattle there where huge crowds of fans everywhere and it took them forever to make it back to Renton. A few days later there was a giant parade with thousands of fans all over the place. After this Derrick finally realized that he achieved something and it wasn't something small it was a Achievement only few get to have. He just showed the world what a child with a disability could turn to be. He showed the world the strength of hearing disabled children. This was the Ultimate Achievement

Outside Reference 5: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/C/ColeDe00.htm