Sammis Reyes' journey to the NFL goes beyond your typical rags-to-riches story.
The 25-year-old former basketball star, who signed with Washington last week to play tight end, went within months from delivering food for DoorDash during the pandemic to wowing NFL scouts with his impressive 6-foot-6, 260-pound frame and blazing 4.65 40 time.
His journey began with a failed attempt at NBA glory, leaving his family in Chile at the young age of 14 to travel alone to a new country. Within a year, he'd be stranded in South Florida, bargaining for day-old donuts and eating beans from a can just to survive, completely unable to contact his family back home.
"I left home when I was 14," Reyes told 106.7 The Fan's Grant Paulsen and Danny Rouhier. "My family stayed behind — my dad, my mom — they stayed back in Chile, and I came here with a basketball scholarship trying to make the NBA."
"That was my ultimate goal. I think I got that part wrong," he joked. "But I'm just so happy to be here today in this position. It's truly a blessing."
Reyes was first recruited to come to the U.S. at 13 while on a basketball trip with the Chilean national team.
"Someone saw me play and they were like, 'Hey, you're doing great. You should come to the States. We'll give you a scholarship. Come to Florida,'" Reyes recalled. "So I moved to Florida. I went to Wesley Prep. It was a small high school in [South Florida], and halfway through the year the program shut down for whatever reason, so I actually ended up living by myself for four months at 15 years old. So I had to grow up quick. I had to learn quick."
"What?! Is that even legal?" a flabbergasted Paulsen reacted. "Did you just order pizza every night? What did you do? You couldn't even drive."
"Honestly, at that time my parents couldn't send me much money so I had to figure it out," Reyes said. "Whenever like donut shops will close at the end of the day, they'll dispose the donuts, so I'll go there for a dollar and the guy will give me a whole bunch of donuts, like 12 donuts."
"I ate canned beans for a long time. So it was very rough," he said. "It was tough, but I look back now and that's what made me who I am. That's what gave me the mindset that I have today to get here and to be in the NFL today."
Fortunate for Reyes, he was staying in a team-provided apartment at the time and still had six months to figure out a new living arrangement, and in that time he was able to catch on with the renowned Each 1 Teach 1 traveling AAU team. From there he received a scholarship to play high school ball for North Broward Preparatory School.
"Things got better after that," he said. "I was able to receive another scholarship to go to a boarding school, so things got a lot better after that. But it was very hard. It was really hard. At the time, I didn't have a computer, I didn't have a phone to talk to my parents, so for the first year I didn't even get to see them."
"But I always tell people," he continued, "life will make you or break you. Your challenges, your struggles will make you or break you, and I was fortunate enough that they made me and they didn't break me."
Reyes parlayed that experience into a basketball scholarship at Tulane University, and while he did hit the ceiling of his basketball career there, he was also able to graduate with a degree in business, finishing one class shy of a dual-major in finance.
At age 23, Reyes was plotting his next move when his friends began pushing him to pursue a new opportunity in football. Around this same time, he started receiving calls from agents, eventually becoming one of only 11 athletes accepted into the NFL's International Player Pathway Program, an outreach program designed to give international athletes an opportunity to improve their football skills and compete for a spot on an NFL roster.
"About a year ago I gave myself a year," Reyes said. "I was like I'm gonna give myself 365 days to see where this can take me. It's been about that time and I'm here."
Reyes, who says he's a quick learner, notably exceeded the pace of the program, which aims to have its athletes competing for roster spots by the end of training camp. If a player does not make his team's 53-man roster, that team is awarded a practice squad exemption, allowing it to keep the player for the season without being docked a spot on its practice squad roster.
Just 12 days after showcasing his abilities at Florida's pro day, Reyes had already made an NFL roster. As teams fought for his attention, Washington had a built-in advantage.
"Honestly, I knew I was gonna test well, but I didn't know it was gonna be this crazy," he said. "Over 20 teams reached out to me. I had about seven visits scheduled with different teams. But I told my agent, Tabatha, that Washington was number one choice. My girlfriend's family, they live here, so we wanted to stay here."
"I love this city. For the first time in my life, I have some stability," he said. "I've been bouncing around from home to home. At some points I had to sleep at friends' house every week, and move around from friend's house to friend's house, and for the first time ever, I have my own place, my own apartment and I'm truly blessed that the city took me in in a great way. I've had great contacts, great connections. My closest circle is here. So I love this place. I love Washington, D.C. I love being close to Virginia, being close to Maryland, and I couldn't be more thankful to have Washington believing what I can do."
Learning a new sport that's completely foreign to his home country, Reyes has spent the past year soaking up as much knowledge as he can about American football from professionals around the game, including a 10-week training camp at the famed IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. He received his first playbook from Washington last week.
"Coach Rivera is an amazing guy. I really look up to him," he said. "Everything he's been going through for the past couple years has been truly inspirational for me. I'm just taking it easy, day by day, but at the same time trying to make the longest strides that I can."
Fellow Washington tight end Logan Thomas took an unconventional path in his own right to playing tight end in the NFL. He was one of the first to reach out to Reyes upon him signing with the Football Team.
"When I saw he signed, I got his number and gave him a call," Thomas told The Sports Junkies. "The kid is very humble, very excited to learn, to grow, and the dude is a mountain of a man. He makes me feel small when I walk beside him."
"It's one of those stories that you say, 'That cannot be real,'" Thomas said of Reyes' path to the NFL. "I'm excited to see where that toughness takes him, because that's really one of those things that shines in a league like ours."
"They are very excited about me being in the position," Reyes said. "They want me out there as soon as possible. It's just developing me. I know this is not gonna be an overnight thing, I know I'm gonna have to work very hard, but that's what I'm known for. If anything, I'm known for working hard.
"So I think Coach Rivera really believed in me from the start, ever since they saw me at Florida's pro day, and it's time to work. It's time to sit down and learn the playbook, and get out there and show what I can do on Sundays."
Listen to the full interview with Reyes around the 24-minute mark below.
