There’s a standard path to the NFL, shared by nearly every player who suits up on Sundays.
They dominated for their high school teams, earned dozens of scholarship offers and ended up at major college football powerhouses. By their second or third seasons, they were making an impression on scouts and paving the path to hear their names selected in the NFL draft. Reaching the league is always a dream come true, but for these players, it’s been ordained for nearly a decade.
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Not Emari Demercado. It was only four years ago, midway through the 2021 season, that the Arizona Cardinals running back wondered whether football was really for him.
As a junior in high school, he had been buried on the depth chart behind a teammate, who commanded the attention of Division I schools. As a senior, he was limited to nine games by injuries. The colleges, deterred by Demercado’s lack of tape and undersized, 5-foot-9-inch frame, never made their offers.
So Demercado took the junior college route and proved himself at Saddleback College in Orange County, where in one four-game stretch, he averaged 204 yards and three touchdowns a game. Finally, the Division I schools started calling. Demercado opted for TCU because it was the first to believe in him.
It was a journey that seemed, at the time, like some type of storybook launching pad to greater heights.
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But for four years in Fort Worth, those heights never arrived. By the halfway point of the 2021 season, he had seen just 162 touches in four seasons.
“Putting in the work, not seeing the results,” he said.
That’s when he thought about quitting the sport altogether. After one game, he went home to his apartment, sprawled out on the floor, stared at the ceiling and wondered why he was putting himself through this. He had always loved the game. The game, it seemed, did not love him back.
“I was really just over it,” Demercado said. “… Just over football. Use the scholarship to get as many degrees as I can and then figure it out from there.”
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This time of year, Demercado’s mind often wanders back to that moment.
“In the first game, that definitely settles in,” Demercado said. “It’s hard to balance the emotions. After that, it’s pretty easy. But that first game, the national anthem, … that flyover is really when I have to control the emotions.”
It was hardest that first season, when Demercado stood on the sidelines at FedEx Field in suburban Washington, not quite believing where he was. “I had to hold back tears,” he said. His place in the NFL feels a bit more real now.
But he still needs no reminders to savor every moment, because none of it has been easy.
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Thanks to injuries above him on the depth chart, he broke out down the stretch in his fourth year at TCU. But in his fifth season, he was returned to backup duty, spelling Kendre Miller. He never heard his name called in the NFL draft, instead maximizing his opportunity to make the Cardinals roster as a free agent.
Even now, his roster spot never quite feels secure. This summer, he had to compete with Bam Knight, DeeJay Dallas and Michael Carter for the final two slots at running back.
On cut day, he said, “You just kinda wait around and then hope you don’t get called up” to Jonathan Gannon’s office.
Throughout the day, it’s a process of elimination, with increasing relief until the catharsis that comes with the final roster.
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Inevitably, Demercado seems to take that roster spot and outperform all expectations. Through two seasons, he’s averaged 6.2 yards per carry. He consistently earns praise from the Cardinals coaching staff for his work as a receiver and in pass protection.
And yet, he is once again mired on the depth chart, expected to play third fiddle behind James Conner and Trey Benson. But when you’ve been through everything Demercado has lived through, that’s no problem.
These days, his mindset is to simply “turn it loose” every time he steps on the field.
“You’ve just gotta cherish every moment,” Demercado said. “Just not take anything for granted.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: After nearly quitting football, Emari Demercado savors each moment