Back in 2008. James White and Phillip Dorsett were high school teammates at St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As of yesterday afternoon, the duo had been reunited, with the Patriots dealing with the Indianapolis Colts for Dorsett.
“He’s a good dude,” said White as he stopped for a brief chat in the Pats locker room this morning.” He works extremely hard, he’s extremely fast - as you guys probably know. Hey, we’ll wait and see what happens when we get out on the practice field.”
Back almost a decade ago, no one would have expected White to outshine Dorsett as pros. In fact, a couple of years ago, that was also just as unlikely. White didn’t play at all his rookie year, while Dorsett was selected in the first round by the Colts. Now about those projections…White is a Super Bowl hero armed with a new contract. Dorsett is forced to adjust on the fly and carve out a niche here in New England. It’s certainly possible.
“He's a pretty talented player,” Bill Belichick told us Sunday morning. “He was a first-round draft pick. We'll see. We'll start working with him today and see how it goes.”
St. Thomas Aquinas has a terrific track record. The school has been churning out NFL payers at a higher rate than any high school in the country. They had 9 players on opening day rosters at the start of last year, including 2016 3rd overall pick, Joey Bosa.
“We had quite a few guys, a lot of guys that have the opportunity to play in this league right now,” said White. “I think a lot of guys on that team were good people, work hard and have had a lot of success.”
The Patriots are hoping the success they’ve had with White translates in a similar manner to Dorsett.