Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert barely knew what a tight end was when he started playing the position, but he’s about to play it in the Super Bowl.
Goedert reflected this week on his journey as a walk-on at South Dakota State who began to recognize that his athletic profile aligned more with tight ends in the NFL than with any other position, and who did everything he could to learn to play the position at a high level.
“I didn’t really start playing tight end until college. When I got to college I just looked up different tight ends’ weight and their 40 times. I didn’t know a lot about the position. Early in my career, walking on to South Dakota State, it was a dream of mine, but it was a big dream to make it to the NFL, so it was a lot of work to do,” Goedert said.
Goedert grew up in South Dakota just dreaming of playing sports, any sport, for a living.
“Growing up I probably wanted to be in the NBA just as much as the NFL, but that dream got shot down earlier than football, obviously,” Goedert said. “I played all the sports I could as a kid. I was just a super-competitive guy. So whatever sport I could get into, that’s what I was doing. It didn’t matter swimming, soccer, baseball, football, basketball, whatever I could play, I would play games just so I could compete.”
Goedert didn’t specialize in any one sport, or any one position, and he came from a small state and a small college, but he made his way to the Super Bowl.
