University of North Carolina Athletics
IndyStar: From Pumping Gas To The Colts Ring of Honor
September 23, 2015 | Football
Story courtesy of the Indianapolis Star
by Zak Keefer: Indianapolis Star, zak.keefer@indystar.com
After every last one of the scouts at his North Carolina pro day told him he was too small and too slow, that his arms were too short, that he'd never sniff a single down in the NFL, he hopped in his car and headed to his afternoon shift at the Eastgate BP. That's where the All-ACC center worked in the summers, where he pumped gas, cleaned bathrooms and plugged tires.
His boss saw him slog in, head down, shoulders slumped. "How'd it go?" James Spurling asked.
"I guess I'll be pumping freakin' gas the rest of my life," Jeff Saturday said, choking back the tears.
Seventeen years later, on the eve of his induction into the Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor, he laughs about that day. He couldn't then. It was the spring of 1998, and Saturday sat slumped on a bench outside the gas station, sulking for hours, dejected and despondent. He assumed he'd bombed his best chance at the pros. At that point, his NFL prospects were thin, his odds impossibly long.
What did he do next? He ignored them. He defied them.
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