Hoping against hope, they waited for the call.
It was last Saturday, cutdown day in the NFL, and Reginald and Linda Gilliam were driving to Buffalo to visit their son, Reggie, a rookie tight end fighting to break camp with the Bills.
Any minute now, as the mid-afternoon deadline for teams to trim their rosters to 53 players loomed, they would learn whether his storybook ride — which had previously reached its heights at the University of Toledo — would add its best chapter yet or take a momentary detour.
Reggie himself knew the odds were long.
It is not every year that an undrafted former college walk-on makes an NFL roster, let alone one of a contender during a pandemic that forced teams to close their facilities for four months.
Still, the hell if he wasn’t going to try. Always, he had found a way: from Toledo, where, as a blocking tight end, he became a two-time captain, to Buffalo, where, despite not arriving until late July, he had made it to the final round of cuts.
If anyone could will himself on to a team, it was Reggie, with his big smile, bigger heart, and the motor of a Camaro.
Maybe, just maybe ...
As the anticipation mounted, Linda’s phone rang. She put her son on speaker.
Reggie skipped the greeting.
“I made it.”
“No, you didn’t,” Linda replied.
“Yes, mom, I made the team!”
Reggie’s biggest fan was so thrilled for her son that his words barely registered.
“The practice squad?”
“No,” Reggie said, “I made the roster.”
“And then it all just sunk in,” Linda said, “and I shouted, ‘Say it again! Say it again!’”
“Mom, I made the team!”
How cool is that?
“Surreal,” Reggie told me last week as he prepared for his NFL debut on Sunday, when the Bills will host the New York Jets.
Thinking back on the phone call to his parents — the emotions of which evoked his call home after he was put on scholarship his junior year at Toledo — he laughed.
He would forgive his mom’s incredulity, except there was nothing to forgive. He couldn’t believe it, either.
“I knew I wanted to be here,” Reggie said, “but it seems like one of those dreams that is unbelievable, like, ‘Wow, this is really my life now.’ It’s amazing.”
And, I should add, well-deserved.
If a lot of athletes talk a big game, all Reggie has ever done is play one, a tribute to what is possible when ordinary traits — hard work, selflessness, resilience — are taken to extraordinary lengths.
Consider his time in Toledo.
A prep running back from Columbus (Westland), Reggie paid his way to UT — the only Division I or II school to so much as offer the chance to walk on — then made everything of the opportunity.
He spent weekdays earning his degree in marketing, and nights and weekends promoting his teammates, embracing his bone-rattling role in the offense. It didn’t matter that he had all of 17 career catches. He had zero complaints and, besides, he gained notice all the same. His effort as a blocker so screamed off the film that he was the first player scouts asked about when they visited Toledo.
“Reggie is a guy who has always put work and responsibility and commitment to being who he said he was going to be ahead of everything else,” Toledo coach Jason Candle said. “That's very rare in today's world with young people. That's really, really hard to do. But Reggie always answered the bell.”
Just as he has in Buffalo.
The pandemic was especially problematic for the many hundreds of fringe NFL hopefuls. Without an invite to the scouting combine, Reggie had looked forward to impressing teams at Toledo’s pro day, including the Bills and Lions. He planned to meet with both teams.
The shutdown canceled the audition and, let’s be honest, could have done the same to his dream.
But then what was one more hurdle in a career of them?
As always, Reggie made do, including with his own pro day. (He bought a tripod for his cell phone at Walmart and filmed a workout.) Once he got his foot in the door as a free agent in Buffalo, well, look out. One “full-throttle” day at a time, the 6-foot, 244-pound plow on wheels vowed to make the Bills’ practice squad.
“And work my way up from the bottom as usual,” Reggie said.
Of course, the Bills had other plans.
While they did not have an obvious place for Reggie — he began camp as a fullback and is one of four tight ends on the Buffalo roster — the coaches knew they had to find a place for him. They liked everything about him. His attitude. Effort. Versatility on special teams. (Remember, Reggie blocked six kicks at Toledo, a program record.)
“We think he has a bright future,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “You can never have too many good football players, and we feel like he's a good football player that is only going to continue to learn, grow, and get better.”
So, yes, Mrs. Gilliam, your son made it, the lone undrafted free agent to crack the Bills’ roster.
“We are so proud of him,” Linda said.
Again, how cool is that?
Better yet, how cool will it be to watch what happens next?
When I asked Reggie if the best pages of his remarkable story remain to be written, I could see him smiling through the phone.
“I guess we’ll see.”
First Published September 12, 2020, 10:09 p.m.
