Michael Ricks
The following ran in Sunday’s newspaper.
COURTLAND — The ceramic tile floor turns to cold concrete where the barber shop becomes a training center.
It’s Friday morning and a million miles from anywhere resembling the National Football League.
But walk past the waiting room, beyond the lone hair-shaping station, and there stands the embodiment of A Weekend’s Passion Fitness and Barber Shop — not flashy but more than functional.
Bulldogging through another round on the bench press, Michael Ricks shouldn’t be dreaming of the big leagues — not after his roundabout college career.
He didn’t make grades after signing with Alabama. Twice.
Two years at a junior college.
One semester at Troy.
Two years away from football.
Finally, a career resurrection came just down the road from his original destination. His career at Division II Stillman College in Tuscaloosa now complete, Ricks is back where it all started, training for the career that hardly seemed possible.
