Eastern Michigan football player gives away scholarship to walk-on teammate
YPSILANTI, Mich. (CBS DETROIT) - An Eastern Michigan University football player is defining what it means to put your teammate first.
In a moment captured on video and posted to the team's YouTube channel, EMU's Brian Dooley and his walk-on teammate Zack Conti embrace one another after Dooley surprised Conti by giving him his scholarship.
EMU head coach Chris Creighton described the moment Dooley told him what he planned to do.
"He said, 'Coach, that guy has earned it. And I've talked this over with my family and the whole bit, and if there is a way to make this happen, I am willing to give up my scholarship and to give it to Zack Conti,'" said Creighton.
Conti, an offensive lineman from Trenton, is a senior walk-on who paid his way through school while playing ball, according to the university. Creighton says he even sold his plasma to make ends meet.
Conti says the heartfelt gesture from Dooley, a fellow offensive lineman from Bowling Green, Ohio, was unbelievable.
"I have never heard … I never seen anything like that ever before," Conti said.
Creighton says he repeatedly asked the NCAA for an extra scholarship for Conti but was rejected.
"We're at 85 scholarships. We have 84 given out. No matter how many times, how many years I go to the NCAA, man, I'm just telling you, we need 86. Is there any way we can have an exception to this deal? The answer is "no." You have 85."
Dooley officially handed Conti his scholarship in front of the entire team on Thursday after practice.
It's a moment he and his teammates will never forget.