The way Cardinals fullback Derrick Coleman sees it, it’s not only what is between his ears that has kept him in the NFL since 2012, it’s also what is behind those ears.
Coleman, who has been legally deaf since age 3, has never hesitated to talk about his impairment and his journey to the NFL. Because without the impairment, he said, there would have been no journey.
“It forced me to work harder, not just on the football field but in the classroom,” he said. “Like when somebody tells me I can’t do something, I take that personal.