Like many football players Bill Noethlich went undrafted in this past month’s NFL draft. 7 Rounds, each one passed him by. And yet, he landed a shot with the Vikings and at the conclusion of mini camp he walked away with a contract. Cut to training montage, the end.
Not quite.
Bill has overcomed tremendous odds and seemingly unending sadness to get where he is now. Starting with playing 9 on 9 high school football, followed by Playing at Division II Southwest Minnesota State, and then of course the tragedies. Shut Down Corner has the details:
Noethlich is 15 years old. That’s when his mother died as the result of a car accident.
Depression set in for the youngster. His grades dropped. But then he sat down and had a heart-to-heart with his grandfather, who convinced him to lift himself up and try to become a football player. That’s when his grandfather died.
Bill went on to college, though, and his father remarried. The new family built a house together, and they all moved in. That’s when the family house burned down.
Bill continued on at college, though, studying and playing football. And that’s when his sister Jennifer went into a diabetic coma, and she died.
If there is any justice in the world Bill will make the Vikings final roster or at least the practice squad, but I think that would mean more to us than to him. He has already accomplished so much.
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