You might’ve heard Julian Edelman used to play quarterback for Kent State, but before that, the New England Patriots wide receiver was a precocious student at the College of San Mateo.
It was there that English 100 professor Katherine “Teeka” James told Edelman to set realistic goals when she heard him talking about the NFL, but she recently apologized in a letter that Edelman shared on Twitter. And James wants everyone to know how proud she is of the 31-year-old for making his dreams become a reality.
“Jules is an exceptional man — driven, talented, confident, relentless in his work ethic,” James told the Boston Herald’s Bill Speros in an email. “The story isn’t that some teacher wrote a letter to him. The story is that he worked his ass off and got lucky … He made sure he was prepared to take advantage of whatever opportunities came his way. You know, luck equals preparation plus opportunity.”
James didn’t just send an apology to Edelman after he won his second Super Bowl ring, but rather it was part of a longer letter congratulating him on the birth of his daughter and included some books for the baby. It turns out Edelman really stood out in his introductory English class.
“Jules is a very memorable person,” James told Speros. “He was (and is) smart and remarkably focused on his goals. He participated a lot in class; his contributions to discussions were thoughtful and honest.”
When James sent the letter, she had no idea it was going to blow up. She said she simply “wrote a letter to a former student” and didn’t believe she had some sort of profound impact on Edelman in the first place.
“In all fairness, I didn’t say ‘oh, you’ll never make it’ nor anything about his athleticism in particular,” James said. “I said something about the odds of going pro in general and about the importance of not putting all one’s eggs in one basket. I don’t think Jules felt shut down or discouraged by me in the slightest.”
Thumbnail photo via Bob Donnan/USA TODAY Sports Images
