Rico Gathers Looking at Catches Like Rebounds

Gathers was named to the Big 12 All-Defensive team in 2015

Dallas Cowboys sixth round pick and tight end project Rico Gathers is still getting reacquainted to the game after around eight years away from it.

As you’ve probably heard, Gathers did not play football in high school or college. He played only basketball at Baylor, and while he flirted with the idea of joining the Bears’ football team and becoming a two-sport athlete, he ultimately decided he would hold off and make the transition in the NFL—an option you have when you’re a 6-foot-8, 290-pound super-athlete.

Now that Gathers is getting down to the work of making that transition in Cowboys OTAs, he’s finding that one part of the game of basketball is helping him greatly when it comes to his development as a pass catcher—namely, rebounding.

“Oh yeah,” Gathers told Rob Phillips in a recent interview on the team’s official website, a smile spreading across his face. “Dez told me today in OTAs, he was like, ‘Man, everything that comes your way, you’ve got to go get.’ When he told me that, that instantly reminded me of being on the court.

“… I remember Dennis Rodman said something on one of his interviews, rebounding is a thing about want-to, you’ve got to want to go get the ball. And anytime the ball is in the air, it’s yours.”

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