One Miami Dolphins rookie defensive lineman was a product of the South, drinking from segregated water fountains in small-town Florida, picking fruit as a migrant worker from age 10 and never considering college until the Bethune-Cookman football coach saw him play pick-up basketball.
The other rookie defensive lineman was a product of the lily-white Midwest, living in a small Iowa town with no Blacks, farming his family’s land as a child and dreaming of that farm more than football while playing at tiny Central College in his home state.
It’s a small story, from a distant time, involving two lesser names amid the roster’s iconic stars.