COURTLAND — The ceramic tile floor turns to cold concrete where the barber shop becomes a training center.
It’s Friday morning and a million miles from anywhere resembling the National Football League.
But walk past the waiting room, beyond the lone hair-shaping station, and there stands the embodiment of A Weekend’s Passion Fitness and Barber Shop — not flashy but more than functional.
Bulldogging through another round on the bench press, Michael Ricks shouldn’t be dreaming of the big leagues — not after his roundabout college career.
He didn’t make grades after signing with Alabama. Twice.
Two years at a junior college.
One semester at Troy.
Two years away from football.
Finally, a career resurrection came just down the road from his original destination. His career at Division II Stillman College in Tuscaloosa now complete, Ricks is back where it all started, training for the career that hardly seemed possible.
But in this out-of-the-way gym far from the draft assembly lines, the former R.A. Hubbard star is putting the finishing touches on his football rebirth. He has remained in contact with a handful of NFL franchises, who are telling him he could go anywhere from the fourth round on up. The draft starts Thursday and runs through Saturday, and Ricks is feeling good about his chances.
Not bad for the defensive back once written off as a college washout.
Rocky road
Flat on his back, pushing through the end of another set on the bench, Ricks hears his stepfather and trainer Johnny Fletcher go all Vince Lombardi.
“Remember all the people who said you took two years off school,” Fletcher shouts. “You can’t come back!”
Now 24 and the father of a 1-year-old girl, Ricks hears that chatter around his Lawrence County hometown. They don’t say it to his face, but there are still plenty who don’t believe he’ll pull this one off.
These are the same people who watched him rise to prominence about a mile down Jefferson Street from the barber shop/gym. Ricks was The Decatur Daily Class 1A-3A player of the year in 2004 after leading the Chiefs to the 1A state title game. He was a running back/cornerback on the football field and a Mr. Basketball finalist on the basketball floor.
In December of his senior year, he committed to Alabama.
By July, the first domino fell. His ACT score fell one point short of qualifying academically.
So it was on to Northeast Mississippi Community College. There his stock rose after two big seasons. Rivals.com rated him the fourth-best junior college prospect in the nation in 2007 with a one-sentence proclamation.
“A future NFL player that is the best in Mississippi,” the site stated.
Again, Ricks was headed to Tuscaloosa. He was one of the prized catches for newly hired coach Nick Saban, but he never wore a crimson jersey.
Again, academics undid the dream — ruled ineligible for a second time.
“That doesn’t mean that something couldn’t happen that he might get back on the radar screen, but that’s for him to prove that he’s willing to do and wants to do,” Saban said at the time. “He had an opportunity to go to junior college, and he knew what he needed to do.”
Ricks spent one more semester at Northeast Mississippi Community College before one of his coaches took a job at Troy. Ricks followed. He signed in 2008 and appeared ready for a long-awaited debut at a four-year college.
Ricks even took out a $10,000 loan with the help of uncle Harry James Ricks to attend classes at Troy before the scholarship kicked in.
Once again, he never saw the football field.
Family issues brought him back to North Alabama before the 2008 season. He lived with his father, Michael Ricks Sr., in Leighton for a while.
It was about then when Ricks began to stray from his goals.
“I was just always in the club, partying, getting into fights and stuff,” Ricks said.
It took tragedy to change Ricks’ way and refocus his career.
The reawakening
Harry James Ricks was just 41 when a single gunshot took his life in November 2008.
He was the victim of a home invasion-turned-murder — shot in the head with his wife and daughter in the house.
“When they killed him, it just showed me that wasn’t the life to live,” Michael Ricks said. “My uncle was the best person around in the neighborhood. He’d give you the shirt off his back, and they took his life. So I was like, ‘I’ve got to change my life and my way of living.’ ”
A few months later came a phone call from Stillman and one of Lawrence County’s great athletic exports.
Stillman’s track and field coach was Pierre Goode, a former standout at Hazlewood and Alabama, and an NFL draft pick. There was a new coach at the Division II school and a return to football presented itself.
This time, nothing could keep Ricks off the field even after he wondered if he’d ever play again.
“Man, it crossed my mind,” he said. “Should I go back, or not? But the life I was living wasn’t the life to live. Then my uncle died and it was a great motivation for me — to go back to school. That’s what he wanted me to do.”
So, in the fall of 2009, Ricks was back in pads after two wayward years.
Still, it was strange being so close to the Crimson Tide program while playing in college football’s minor leagues. The reminders were everywhere.
Some days they would be working out at Stillman, and Ricks would hear the Tide fight song echoing from Bryant-Denny Stadium as they tested the sound system.
“I was like, come on man,” he said smiling. “Man, I just wish I had one snap at Alabama, but it was on me.”
A rainy day in Tuscaloosa made it even more uncomfortable. The Stillman program packed up and drove across town to the University of Alabama’s indoor practice facility.
“I was like, ‘Man, this is where I was supposed to be the whole time,’ ” he said. “Everything happens for a reason.”
Saturdays were wild, too.
Ricks remembers driving through Tuscaloosa on a particular October afternoon in 2009 after playing earlier that day. The roar of more than 92,000 was unmistakable “over the music and everything” when Terrence Cody blocked a field goal to beat Tennessee and kept the perfect season alive.
Ricks didn’t just sit around wondering what could have been, though.
He intercepted five passes and made 50 tackles as junior in 2009. After the season, coaches called him into their office with a sobering message.
“You’re on deck,” they told him.
The NFL scouts started coming to practices last fall when, as a senior, Ricks had 58 tackles and two more interceptions.
“The first visit I ever had from an NFL team was from the team I wanted to go to — the Dallas Cowboys,” Ricks said, eyes widening. “It was like a dream come true to have the Dallas Cowboys to come visit me to see how I play football.”
Nervous?
“Man, very nervous,” he said. “Then I had three meetings with the Cowboys, and they brought the head scout. He was like ‘When I come, I mean business.’ ”
He is still hearing from the Cowboys as well as the New York Giants, Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens, among others. Before Friday’s workout, a text message came in from the Atlanta Falcons.
If football doesn’t work out, Ricks would like to coach. He stands one semester away from his degree in physical education, and he looks forward to working with youth leagues in Courtland and Colbert County if the NFL lockout continues into the summer.
But it’s all about the NFL for now.
The whole draft process can be dizzying. Ricks said it’s nothing like he expected.
In January, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound defensive back was in Mobile, working the lobby at the Senior Bowl with his agent. NFL scouts were everywhere. Then in March, he participated in pro day workouts at Alabama, alongside former Tide running backs Terry Grant and Roy Upchurch.
There, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.47 seconds, but his stepfather said the workout serves as a motivating factor because he didn’t perform to his potential.
Thus, the daily workouts in the barber shop/gym.
“So for him to have that bad day, he wanted to prove a point,” Fletcher said. “When he shows up at the first day of camp for whoever picks him, he’ll show the progress made since pro day. It made him grow up a little bit and show it wasn’t easy.”
He won’t make that mistake again.
Ricks’ T-shirt came off after 20 minutes in the weight room Friday morning. He already had run sprints after an 8 a.m. wake-up call, and there were 40 more minutes in the gym with his stepdad and buddy L.J. Hampton.
They lift. They laugh. They lift some more.
Most mornings, Ricks’ daughter, Joyden, tags along and she’ll get her little 3-pound weight and act like she’s benching right next to her father.
It isn’t the workout regimen of a Cam Newton or Marcell Dareus, but it fits Ricks well.
It’s not about appearances.
Well, maybe until the workout ended and Fletcher broke out the clippers. It was time for Ricks’ high and tight, and his trainer turned back into his barber.
That’s full service.
And that’s life in Courtland, Alabama’s only barbershop/NFL training center.
No glitz. No glamour.
Just a cold concrete floor and a once-forgotten top prospect and the brink of a comeback completed.
It’s Friday morning and a million miles from anywhere resembling the National Football League.
But walk past the waiting room, beyond the lone hair-shaping station, and there stands the embodiment of A Weekend’s Passion Fitness and Barber Shop — not flashy but more than functional.
Bulldogging through another round on the bench press, Michael Ricks shouldn’t be dreaming of the big leagues — not after his roundabout college career.
He didn’t make grades after signing with Alabama. Twice.
Two years at a junior college.
One semester at Troy.
Two years away from football.
Finally, a career resurrection came just down the road from his original destination. His career at Division II Stillman College in Tuscaloosa now complete, Ricks is back where it all started, training for the career that hardly seemed possible.
But in this out-of-the-way gym far from the draft assembly lines, the former R.A. Hubbard star is putting the finishing touches on his football rebirth. He has remained in contact with a handful of NFL franchises, who are telling him he could go anywhere from the fourth round on up. The draft starts Thursday and runs through Saturday, and Ricks is feeling good about his chances.
Not bad for the defensive back once written off as a college washout.
Rocky road
Flat on his back, pushing through the end of another set on the bench, Ricks hears his stepfather and trainer Johnny Fletcher go all Vince Lombardi.
“Remember all the people who said you took two years off school,” Fletcher shouts. “You can’t come back!”
Now 24 and the father of a 1-year-old girl, Ricks hears that chatter around his Lawrence County hometown. They don’t say it to his face, but there are still plenty who don’t believe he’ll pull this one off.
These are the same people who watched him rise to prominence about a mile down Jefferson Street from the barber shop/gym. Ricks was The Decatur Daily Class 1A-3A player of the year in 2004 after leading the Chiefs to the 1A state title game. He was a running back/cornerback on the football field and a Mr. Basketball finalist on the basketball floor.
In December of his senior year, he committed to Alabama.
By July, the first domino fell. His ACT score fell one point short of qualifying academically.
So it was on to Northeast Mississippi Community College. There his stock rose after two big seasons. Rivals.com rated him the fourth-best junior college prospect in the nation in 2007 with a one-sentence proclamation.
“A future NFL player that is the best in Mississippi,” the site stated.
Again, Ricks was headed to Tuscaloosa. He was one of the prized catches for newly hired coach Nick Saban, but he never wore a crimson jersey.
Again, academics undid the dream — ruled ineligible for a second time.
“That doesn’t mean that something couldn’t happen that he might get back on the radar screen, but that’s for him to prove that he’s willing to do and wants to do,” Saban said at the time. “He had an opportunity to go to junior college, and he knew what he needed to do.”
Ricks spent one more semester at Northeast Mississippi Community College before one of his coaches took a job at Troy. Ricks followed. He signed in 2008 and appeared ready for a long-awaited debut at a four-year college.
Ricks even took out a $10,000 loan with the help of uncle Harry James Ricks to attend classes at Troy before the scholarship kicked in.
Once again, he never saw the football field.
Family issues brought him back to North Alabama before the 2008 season. He lived with his father, Michael Ricks Sr., in Leighton for a while.
It was about then when Ricks began to stray from his goals.
“I was just always in the club, partying, getting into fights and stuff,” Ricks said.
It took tragedy to change Ricks’ way and refocus his career.
The reawakening
Harry James Ricks was just 41 when a single gunshot took his life in November 2008.
He was the victim of a home invasion-turned-murder — shot in the head with his wife and daughter in the house.
“When they killed him, it just showed me that wasn’t the life to live,” Michael Ricks said. “My uncle was the best person around in the neighborhood. He’d give you the shirt off his back, and they took his life. So I was like, ‘I’ve got to change my life and my way of living.’ ”
A few months later came a phone call from Stillman and one of Lawrence County’s great athletic exports.
Stillman’s track and field coach was Pierre Goode, a former standout at Hazlewood and Alabama, and an NFL draft pick. There was a new coach at the Division II school and a return to football presented itself.
This time, nothing could keep Ricks off the field even after he wondered if he’d ever play again.
“Man, it crossed my mind,” he said. “Should I go back, or not? But the life I was living wasn’t the life to live. Then my uncle died and it was a great motivation for me — to go back to school. That’s what he wanted me to do.”
So, in the fall of 2009, Ricks was back in pads after two wayward years.
Still, it was strange being so close to the Crimson Tide program while playing in college football’s minor leagues. The reminders were everywhere.
Some days they would be working out at Stillman, and Ricks would hear the Tide fight song echoing from Bryant-Denny Stadium as they tested the sound system.
“I was like, come on man,” he said smiling. “Man, I just wish I had one snap at Alabama, but it was on me.”
A rainy day in Tuscaloosa made it even more uncomfortable. The Stillman program packed up and drove across town to the University of Alabama’s indoor practice facility.
“I was like, ‘Man, this is where I was supposed to be the whole time,’ ” he said. “Everything happens for a reason.”
Saturdays were wild, too.
Ricks remembers driving through Tuscaloosa on a particular October afternoon in 2009 after playing earlier that day. The roar of more than 92,000 was unmistakable “over the music and everything” when Terrence Cody blocked a field goal to beat Tennessee and kept the perfect season alive.
Ricks didn’t just sit around wondering what could have been, though.
He intercepted five passes and made 50 tackles as junior in 2009. After the season, coaches called him into their office with a sobering message.
“You’re on deck,” they told him.
The NFL scouts started coming to practices last fall when, as a senior, Ricks had 58 tackles and two more interceptions.
“The first visit I ever had from an NFL team was from the team I wanted to go to — the Dallas Cowboys,” Ricks said, eyes widening. “It was like a dream come true to have the Dallas Cowboys to come visit me to see how I play football.”
Nervous?
“Man, very nervous,” he said. “Then I had three meetings with the Cowboys, and they brought the head scout. He was like ‘When I come, I mean business.’ ”
He is still hearing from the Cowboys as well as the New York Giants, Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens, among others. Before Friday’s workout, a text message came in from the Atlanta Falcons.
If football doesn’t work out, Ricks would like to coach. He stands one semester away from his degree in physical education, and he looks forward to working with youth leagues in Courtland and Colbert County if the NFL lockout continues into the summer.
But it’s all about the NFL for now.
The whole draft process can be dizzying. Ricks said it’s nothing like he expected.
In January, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound defensive back was in Mobile, working the lobby at the Senior Bowl with his agent. NFL scouts were everywhere. Then in March, he participated in pro day workouts at Alabama, alongside former Tide running backs Terry Grant and Roy Upchurch.
There, he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.47 seconds, but his stepfather said the workout serves as a motivating factor because he didn’t perform to his potential.
Thus, the daily workouts in the barber shop/gym.
“So for him to have that bad day, he wanted to prove a point,” Fletcher said. “When he shows up at the first day of camp for whoever picks him, he’ll show the progress made since pro day. It made him grow up a little bit and show it wasn’t easy.”
He won’t make that mistake again.
Ricks’ T-shirt came off after 20 minutes in the weight room Friday morning. He already had run sprints after an 8 a.m. wake-up call, and there were 40 more minutes in the gym with his stepdad and buddy L.J. Hampton.
They lift. They laugh. They lift some more.
Most mornings, Ricks’ daughter, Joyden, tags along and she’ll get her little 3-pound weight and act like she’s benching right next to her father.
It isn’t the workout regimen of a Cam Newton or Marcell Dareus, but it fits Ricks well.
It’s not about appearances.
Well, maybe until the workout ended and Fletcher broke out the clippers. It was time for Ricks’ high and tight, and his trainer turned back into his barber.
That’s full service.
And that’s life in Courtland, Alabama’s only barbershop/NFL training center.
No glitz. No glamour.
Just a cold concrete floor and a once-forgotten top prospect and the brink of a comeback completed.