The 6'8" tight end they call Zeus has everyone gawking again. Only this time, the highest-paid practice-squad player in the NFL isn't gliding across a football field.
He's humiliating men on a basketball court.
This is familiar territory for 272-pound Rico Gathers. Just two months before signing with the Dallas Cowboys—who selected him in the sixth round of the 2016 draft—Gathers put the cherry on top of a banner college hoops career by breaking Baylor's career rebounding record while finishing third on the Big 12's all-time list.
But there are no stat crews on this March evening nearly one year later—no cheerleaders or television cameras at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, where 27 randoms watch from the stands as Gathers sets picks for Tony Romo and takes post feeds from Jason Witten and Ezekiel Elliott.