ST. JOSEPH
Long before Charcandrick West stepped on an NFL practice field, long before he envisioned himself eluding tacklers as a running back, he toiled in the Louisiana sun, snagging passes in hopes of being the next Randy Moss.
“Man, I wanted to catch everything,” said West, a second-year back who is fighting for a roster spot with the Chiefs. “So me and my stepdad used to get out there every day. … He’d throw 100 balls at me, and every one I dropped, I had to do 10 pushups.”
That ritual with his stepfather, Toccara Ford, started at age 12, he said, and it’s a habit that West, now 24, continues to this day whenever he returns to his hometown of Springhill, La.