The last time the world saw Donte Rumph, his pain and his shame were laid bare for HBO’s cameras. He was an unwitting star of last summer’s “Hard Knocks” series from the moment his defensive line coach nicknamed him “Cupcake.” Eventually, to no one’s surprise but his own, viewers watched as he was cut.
When the cameras stopped following, though, Rumph’s story got much worse. But now, as the 25-year-old emerges from the “dark depression” he fell into in the ensuing months, he’s so desperate to get back into the NFL that two weeks ago he literally camped out in front of the Atlanta Falcons’ door.