Former Bills FB Corey Knox: Exclusive Interview

BuffaLowDown: What’s it like trying to work your way back onto an NFL team and how do you keep in shape in case a team does call?

Corey: I know it’s incredibly difficult to make it back to the NFL and it’s a long shot but me getting signed by the Bills three years after I played my last year at UB was also astronomical so I don’t give up. I’m not giving up. I’m doing everything I can to send film out, to get in front of scouts, to let people know what I’m about. I stood out in front of Ralph Wilson Stadium about three months ago in the middle of a snow storm with a sign saying “Nobody wants it more than me”.

I stood out there for two hours until the cops came. I had frost all over my face, my arms were beat red and I was frozen but I didn’t care because I wanted Russ Brandon to see, I wanted Rex to see, I wanted Doug Whaley to see, I wanted every single coach who came in that day to see that nobody in or out of that team wants it more than me and I know I got my message across. I emailed Rex Ryan, I emailed Greg Roman and I keep trying to put it in their mind what I am willing to do. I’m not trying to say these others guys aren’t [willing] but when they see a guy not giving it everything they have or they are at the end of their career or maybe they just don’t have the same passion for the Bills that I do, [I hope] that they will think of me.

I think that’s a huge thing I bring to the table. The passion, the desire, the fact that it’s been in my blood for years and I would do anything for it. It should carry me through any of those guys. I know for a fact it will and I know in my heart it will. I’m doing everything I can to stay on that. It’s stressful, hard and there are always doubts that creep in and the fear that I’ll never play again but I can’t let that consume me. I wake up every day and I go and train and I keep positive thoughts in my head and I keep trying to take different avenues. I have people who are behind me and people call me all the time to see how I’m doing and what I’m doing to make it happen. I’ve never been a quitter. I’ve never quit on anything in my life especially if I believe in my head and in my heart that I can do it then I’ll never give up on it and I’m not giving up on it. I just need somebody to think ok this guy’s relentless we got to at least give him a look and get him in pads to see what he can do.

You know what, if I were to go through and get in pads and I got my butt kicked, it’s not going to happen but let’s say it did, I would be able to walk away and say you know what it wasn’t for me, maybe I was wrong. But I know that’s not going to happen so until I get that opportunity I cannot stop. Those are the things that go through my mind every day. I train at STA (Sports Training Academy). I’ve been a strength coach since I graduated college. It allows me to stay in shape while being able to make a living. It also gives me the hours to train, do sprint work, to lift heavy weights.

I went into the OTA’s and I was the strongest guy on that team. You can go and ask Eric Ciano and all those strength coaches. They knew what I was doing and how I was doing it. That also blows my mind, that you take a guy who was physically clearly ahead of a lot of the guys there and not giving him a chance. It floored me that they didn’t give me a chance is what I guess I’m trying to say. I’ve worked really hard, I’ve squatted a lot of really heavy weights, I’ve done a million sprints, I’ve box jumped until my legs felt like they were going to fall off. I’ve done everything I could to be a better athlete in every way shape or form to prepare for that moment and to get it stripped from me was really difficult.

I’m not saying I was perfect at everything I did with the Bills but knowing that I was able to handle a player like Khalil Mack gave me the confidence I needed to know I could compete with NFL caliber players in practice once they put the pads on. I let that motivate me, I still do, I still train incredibly hard, I think about those things. I’ll be honest, I think about Jerome Felton, I think about Glenn Gronkowski, I think about how I missed my opportunity and how these guys are still getting chances.

So it’s fuel to the fire. I’m over here getting stronger so that when I do get an opportunity I can go out and unleash hell on people. That’s really all I can do. I can’t sit here and put my head down and sulk and be sad and point fingers. It is what it is. There are politics involved in the NFL, there is a system to how it works and a little of that happened to me but I can’t do anything but work hard and be ready for it when it does happen. That’s really all I can do right now at this point.

Next: If Corey could say one thing to an NFL GM it would be...