Rags to riches stories are made for Hollywood, and while the Browns may no longer be the NFL’s underdogs, they have the ultimate underdog trying to make their stacked team.
Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi, who talked his way into an NFL tryout, went untouched as he raced 86 yards for a touchdown after fielding a punt in the fourth quarter Thursday night against Washington.
That was until his teammates tackled him in the end zone in celebration.
“That was just an amazing moment,” Sheehy-Guiseppi said. “I saw all my teammates excited for me. It was just a blessing to see a team like that have my back and be excited for someone else doing something great and I just felt all the love and I was just blessed.”
If the return wasn’t enough to catch head coach Freddie Kitchens attention, the celebration did.
“It is good to see good people, hard-working good people succeed,” Kitchens said. “He definitely fits the bill with being that. If you stick around after any practice, you will see him on the practice field getting extra running in and before practice getting extra work in. He is always at the office. He is a good kid.”
Sheehy Guiseppi’s story is as improbable as they come.
He didn’t even have the right cleats for the preseason opener so star receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who was given the night off, took his custom OBJ cleats off and handed them to him.
“We have the same size shoe and everything, and so he just blesses a lot of people with his shoes,” Sheehy-Guiseppi said. “He just blessed everyone in the locker room and if anybody wants a pair, he just gives them out.”
Beckham was among the Browns that sprinted onto the field as fast as Sheehy-Guiseppi made it to the end zone Thursday night.
How he ended up in Cleveland is just as remarkable.
Sheehy-Guiseppi, who didn’t even play high school football, talked his way into an NFL tryout in Miami earlier this year telling those in charge he knew Browns vice president of player personnel Alonzo Highsmith.
Highsmith had never heard of him before, but Sheehy-Guiseppi acted like he did, shaking Highsmith’s hand before running a 4.38 during the workout.
Highsmith invited him to Cleveland for another workout, this time in front of general manager John Dorsey.
With no place to stay in Florida before heading north, Sheehy-Guiseppi slept outside the facility of NFL combine trainer Pete Bommarito, where he trained for the next week in preparation.
With little money in his pocket, he was resourceful. He found a 24-hour fitness center to shower, a laundromat to charge his phone and he only ate one or two meals per day.
He nailed his workout in Cleveland, the Browns signed him and for the time being Sheehy-Guiseppi has a place to sleep and all the food he can eat, but the pressure is on.
“We get fed whenever so that part is the easy part,” Sheehy-Guiseppi said. “It’s just you have to perform at a high level at all times, that’s probably the hardest part. You gotta perform no matter how your body feels. You gotta go out there and perform because that’s what you have to do.
“It’s probably the best experience I’ve ever had. It’s just about being ready mentally to go out there and perform at a high level.”
Sheehy-Guiseppi’s odds of making the team are long, at best, but if he doesn’t make it, it won’t be for a lack of effort. He’s already developed a reputation for showing up at the team’s facility to work out late at night when he can’t sleep.
Kitchens has had to send him home on a few occasions, for his own good.
“I have seen him over here a couple of times, and I send his ass home to get some rest,” Kitchens said. “One thing everybody needs to understand is rest is crucial to your development from a mental standpoint and a physical standpoint. That is the body’s natural means for correcting imbalances in the mind and the body. He needs to understand that. He has been over here [late] before. He is probably not over here very often now.”
After practice Friday, Sheehy-Guiseppi was still working out before running into a member of the team’s media relations staff. He had a throng of reporters waiting to talk with him.
It was just one of many interviews he would do on Friday.
“I don’t know if I’m an inspiration,” Sheehy-Guiseppi said. “I get inspired by little things. I could see someone working out, sweating and that inspires me. If I can inspire somebody to do great things, then I hope they get inspired, but I don’t know if I look at myself as an inspiration.”
So how would Sheehy-Guiseppi describe his story?
“Someone trying to chase their dreams,” Sheehy-Guiseppi said. “Doing what they love and not listening to anyone else.”