119 Pounds. Zero Offers.

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In today’s edition…

For the first time in Joker Mag history:

One story in two different formats.

• Click here for the video version on YouTube (6 minutes and 39 seconds to watch)

• Keep scrolling for the written version (7 minutes to read)

He was only a 5'4", 119-pound high school freshman – and that's only because he was wearing ankle weights.

By the end of his final high school game, he had zero college offers.

But everyone underestimated his work ethic.

Here's the inspiring story of how he became an NFL star and Super Bowl MVP.

Let’s dive in 👇

How Cooper Kupp Went From 5’4″ 119-Pound High School Freshman to Super Bowl MVP

No time to read now? Click here to save it for later 🐶

Cooper Kupp almost didn’t make it past 6th grade.

During a middle school basketball game, his legs felt like Jell-O.  At one point, he felt so weak that he fell to his knees.

The coach pulled him out of the game.  They thought he was dehydrated, so he started chugging Pedialyte on the bench.

After the game, walking up the stairs, he passed out on the floor.

Turns out he had stomach ulcers.  And he’d lost about 60% of his blood.

On his way to the hospital, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he was having a total out-of-body experience.

“I saw everything happening from about 10 feet above," he said on The Pivot Podcast.

"I’m looking down at myself, I’m lying in the back of the car in the fetal position…I’m seeing the nurses take me, put me in the bed, shoving IVs in me, and everything…over the next 3 days, they’re just pumping me back full of blood, because they’re like, a few more hours, it would’ve been over.”

He said that moment was a turning point in his early life. And it shaped his mindset and approach to everything that came after it.

Especially athletics.

Now, think back to the smallest kid in your high school. Did that kid look like an athlete?

Did he look like he belonged on any varsity team?

Probably not.

Back then, you might’ve even laughed at the idea of that kid putting on pads and playing football.

In the city of Yakima, Washington, that kid was Cooper Kupp.

There was a small difference, though.

Cooper’s grandfather was a 6’4” NFL lineman, and his dad was a 6’3” NFL quarterback. But that’s not what drove his football dreams as a kid.

“I never had the thought, like, ‘Oh, my grandpa did it, my dad did it, this is what I’m going to do.’ It was just truly something that I fell in love with.”

Going into high school, Cooper had the passion for football, but he didn’t have the body.

In fact, he was one of the smallest kids on the field.  He just didn’t look the part.

That’s right. Before he was a Super Bowl MVP and 3rd-generation NFL player, Cooper Kupp was just a 5’4” high school freshman.

In his first year at A.C. Davis High School, he tipped the scale at only 119 pounds.

And that was only because he was wearing jeans to cover up the 2-pound weights he wrapped around his ankles.

“Being a late bloomer was probably one of the hardest things that I’ve gone through in my life," he said. "The lesson I learned from that was that I was going to have to go out and earn everything.”

But even back then, he knew in his heart that he could become an NFL player, just like his father and his grandfather before him.

He said he was surrounded by kids who were much better athletes. But he would not let anyone outwork him.

• He’d train before and after class.

• He’d set up cones and go through drills at public parks.

• And he’d run home from school – his mom would come by just to pick up his backpack.

His parents never made him get a summer job, which gave him the privilege of working out and honing his craft with those three straight months of downtime.

The key for him was that he fell in love with the process of getting better.

“I was excited to be able to go and attack something, and go after it with everything I got…I think when your goal is the destination, that can be a really hard thing…what you want out of this really has to be about that journey to that destination.”

In his sophomore year, he dropped two touchdown passes in a game against the 4th-ranked team in the state.  It crushed him.

So the next day, he went down to the park and had his dad throw him so many passes that he couldn’t lift his arm for a week afterwards.

That same year, he cornered his receivers coach and asked him a question: “Do you think I can play in college?”

Yes, maybe.  The coach later told Sports Illustrated he thought Kupp would probably end up at a Division 2 school.

Then Cooper asked, “What about the NFL?”

The coach said he held back his laughter and laid out the odds – the minuscule number of high school players who ever sign an NFL contract. But he kept his real opinion to himself.

Then the teenage receiver admitted his biggest goal: to someday be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Instead of shutting him down, his coach chose to let him dream.  Cooper even wrote that dream on a vision board he kept in his bedroom.

Looking back on it, his dad said, “I really did think it was not out of the realm of possibility.”

After all, Cooper’s belief was backed up by an unmatched work ethic.

His high school coach, Rick Clark, who was a coach at the University of Michigan in the late 90s, said he knew the young receiver could be special.

“Tom Brady, when I was there, we would work out from 3 to 5, he would come back at 7, and work another 3 hours every night in the field house," Clark said.

"And that’s the way Coop was.”

But despite putting up great numbers as an upperclassman, his measurables held him back.

Top Division 1 programs look for players who hit specific thresholds. A certain size, a certain speed, a certain build.

Cooper Kupp didn’t have those things.

So after his final high school game, he left the field without a single college offer. Most recruiters thought he was too small and too slow.

Cooper and his family did everything they could to find him an opportunity at the next level.

His grandfather even tried phoning in a favor at his alma mater, the University of Washington. But they didn’t even get a call back.

His high school coach called his friend at Washington State, but they couldn’t get anything going there either.

"I believed that I could play at the next level," Kupp said, "but there is that voice in the back of your head saying, 'Well, right now, no one else thinks that you can.'”

He eventually did get an offer from an FCS school – Eastern Washington University.

And when he got there, he heard murmurs that he’d never see the field.

He was no longer the star player. He was back to being just another freshman who had to prove himself and justify his roster spot.

But, just like in high school, he was determined to “earn it” every single day.

"I wasn't gonna be the guy that sat back and waited for someone to hand me a job."

So he convinced a janitor to let him into the facilities in February to study film and catch tennis balls from a machine.

Even though he was redshirting his first year in 2012, he attacked every practice and every workout as if he was playing that weekend.

Every day, he asked himself: “How can I earn it today?” “How much better can I get?”

That hard work and self-belief paid off. He won a starting role in his redshirt freshman year in 2013, and he set national freshman records for:

• Receiving yards (1,691)

• Receptions (93)

• Touchdown catches (21)

• Consecutive games with a touchdown catch (14)

“I set my goals very high that year," he said.

"That’s the attitude I took towards life. I mean, I wanna set my goals laughably high. You know, if people aren’t doubting you, if people aren’t saying ‘that’s ridiculous’, then I don’t think you’re setting your goals high enough.”

That freshman season set the table for an incredible 4-year college career, where Kupp won all kinds of awards and accolades.

In each season, he put up no less than 1,400 receiving yards and 16 touchdowns.  He finished with eye-popping career totals:

• 428 catches

• 6,464 receiving yards

• 73 touchdown catches

The natural next step was to think about the NFL Draft.

But he had some cards stacked against him.

He ran a slower 40-yard dash than 39 other receivers.  And on top of everything else, that hurt him.

His pre-draft scouting report listed weaknesses like “no early separation” and “some scouts question ability to be a productive starter.”

Kupp summarized that sentiment nicely:

“Look, you’re a white receiver from a small school who ran a slow 40. Like, easy, I’m moving him back [on my draft board].”

When it was all said and done, the Rams selected him 69th overall in the 3rd round of the draft.

NFL fans know the rest.

After coming in as a mid-round draft pick, Cooper Kupp became an All-Pro, Offensive Player of the Year, and Super Bowl MVP.

He sits within the top-15 in all-time receiving yards among active NFL wide receivers.

“I’ve had people doubt me for a long time through my life. In some ways, rightfully so…but with all those doubts and all those things, it’s never been about proving other people wrong…it’s been about being who I am, like, believing in myself and knowing that I can be who I see myself becoming."

"When I’ve taken that attitude, when I’ve taken that mindset, that’s always when I’ve been at my best.”

🐶 

Today’s story was written by yours truly.

If you liked this one and know someone else who might find it inspiring, please share it and encourage them to subscribe:

And remember, there are 300+ underdog stories over on my website, Joker Mag. Here are a few you might’ve missed:

• This Patriots Running Back Had Zero College Offers

• The NFL Legend Nobody Saw Coming: How an Unemployed 19-Year-Old Became a Hall of Famer

• He’s Got Gusto: Cut 3 Times in High School, This Pitcher Willed Himself to the Big Leagues

Fight Back Against Big Sports Media

Big, bad sports networks are flooding our screens with a constant stream of negativity:

• Silly “hot takes”

• Brainless debates

• Degenerate parlay “advice”

I believe we – and future generations of sports fans – deserve better.

That’s why I built Joker Mag: to shine a light on the positive stories in sports.

As long-time reader Scott D. said: “I really love that it’s this special little corner of the sports world.”

Joker Mag is 100% free to read and powered by your support. If you believe in the power of the underdog mentality and the message we are spreading here, please consider contributing:

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What underdog story should I cover next?

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Til next time,
Tyler

Extra Innings…

🌟 Trivia Answer: A) Cincinnati Bengals. They rank at the bottom with a $5.25 billion valuation. Though CNBC begs to differ.

⚾️ This kid is a switch-hitting stud who makes better adjustments than some MLB hitters (and he’s only 3 years old). I need the Phillies to sign him as soon as he’s eligible.

🥹 Such a cool moment: watch Michele Strom commentate her own daughter’s gymnastics routine on ESPN

💰 Money isn’t everything: Hear why Jose Ramirez accepted a contract extension well below market value to stay in Cleveland

👀 In case you missed it: This zero-star recruit spent 18 months working minimum wage jobs on his road to the NFL