Julian Edelman Shares Letter From College Professor Who Doubted His NFL Future

By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) -- Julian Edelman, as you know, is not a very large man. Yet there aren't many athletes on the planet who have as much drive and desire as the Patriots' receiver, and that's evident in the highly successful career he's carved out for himself in the NFL with the Patriots.

But as you might imagine, there were some people in Edelman's past who looked at him and didn't quite see an NFL future. And those people might have tried steering him toward a more realistic career goal when he was young.

One such adviser happened to write a letter to Edelman, and Edelman was kind enough to share it with the world on Tuesday morning.

The letter came from Edelman's English teacher from his time at the College of San Mateo. (Note: This story erroneously said the professor was from Kent State, where Edelman transferred for the fall of 2006.)

"I've been wanting to write to you for, oh, what seems like a thousand years, to apologize to you for a flippant comment I made to you that semester," the unnamed professor wrote. "You may not even remember it, but I've felt bad about it for years. You had made some comment about 'going to the league,' and I said something about setting realistic goals, about how few people successfully enter the ranks of the professional athlete, blah, blah, blah. I don't think it fazed you, frankly, but whenever I think back on it, I feel terrible, not because you proved me wrong, but because I stupidly voiced an uneducated opinion that implied I had distain (sic) for your passion for the game."

Hey teach -- that's a run-on sentence, buddy! And the word is "disdain."

"How I could ever have doubted your tenacity and grit is beyond me!" he continued. "Again, I doubt you've even thought about it twice, but even so, I am sorry for wedging my foot so firmly in my mouth that day."

As everyone who's ever heard an NFL analyst speak on TV knows, Edelman was a quarterback at Kent State. His passing stats were never beautiful -- 30 TDs, 31 INTs, 54.5 percent passing -- but he showed his athleticism and heart with a 1,370-yard, 13-touchdown rushing performance in his senior season. He also ran for 7 TDs in his first season at Kent State.

Despite being undersized and inexperienced as a pass catcher, Bill Belichick decided to take a flyer on the kid with a seventh-round pick. He's since caught over 400 passes for 24 touchdowns and more than 4,500 yards, he's returned more than 150 punts and brought four back for touchdowns, he's got another 1,000 receiving yards and five touchdowns in 15 playoff games, he's thrown a pass in a critical moment of an AFC Championship Game, he was arguably the MVP of Super Bowl XLIX and made one of the most unbelievable catches in football history during Super Bowl LI. At 31 years old, he's still got some more to accomplish before hanging up his cleats.

Clearly, the English professor was being reasonable in offering his advice, and Edelman was being completely unreasonable to hold such high expectations for his career path. But sports are a meritocracy, and Edelman's hard work and natural talent have led to him proving a whole lot of people wrong.

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