YANQING, China — Charlie Volker has spent most of his 24-year-old life seeking out competition wherever he can find it. He played half a dozen sports growing up, and two in college. He took up CrossFit afterward. But all along, at heart, he’d been “a football guy,” and so, at this time two years ago, he was an NFL hopeful.
He had a Princeton degree but no interest in a desk job.
He’d been an all-conference running back, and received an invite to an NFL rookie minicamp, and wanted one more shot.
It was a long shot.