In the world of college football, few people cover the sport with the diligence, passion, and joy that Andy Staples does. Currently covering college football for The Athletic and SiriuxXM Radio, Staples has built a long and distinguished career in the media, providing one the most unique voices currently covering the game of football today.

You can trace that perspective and enthusiasm for the sport directly to his roots in the game. Growing up in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida, Staples got his start playing the game as a freshman in high school. After a rocky start, he soon found his footing and his love of the game grew by leaps and bounds.

“So, I was too fat to play as a younger kid,” said Staples with a laugh. “It’s weird though. I kinda stretched out as I got older. I was like 5’1” and 180 [pounds] in sixth grade and then like 6’3” and 185 [pounds] in tenth grade. I actually went out for the team my freshman year in high school, but practice was so hard. It was just push-ups and grass drills. I just walked off and said I didn’t want to do this. My parents were so mad at me, but they didn’t make me go back out there. They told me ‘You’ll figure this out on your own.’ As the year went by, it just nagged me and I knew I couldn’t leave it like that, so I went back the next year and stuck it out.”

While Staples admittedly had no idea what he was doing once he got the pads on, he soon found a home on his team’s offensive line. Through perseverance and practice, he would earn a spot on varsity and soon a starting job by his junior and senior years. Undersized by offensive tackle standards, Staples made up for his lack of dimension with gumption and determination. When it was time to attend college, he had a vision for what he wanted to do. Find somewhere to go to school on scholarship and go somewhere with a journalism program. Enter the University of Florida.

“I ended up walking on at Florida, but I really had no idea how that process worked,” he said. “I was a 6’3”, 245-pound offensive lineman, but there was no way that was good enough to play Division I football anywhere. I chose my school based on school alone and I got an academic scholarship to Florida but had no idea if I’d keep playing or not. Basically, at that level, I was told later, if you are a minimum size, can chew gum and walk at the same time, you’ll make the team as an offensive lineman. They need bodies for practice, so that’s how that went.”

Staples would man the scout team for the Gators his freshman year and was on the team and on the field when Florida was crowned National Champions in 1996. While he knew he was never going to make the main team and earn playing time, Staples was content doing his job the best he could for the betterment of the team.

“It wasn’t quite like Rudy for me as a walk-on,” he said. “They actually did look at me and once I got on the team, everyone was really nice to me. There were a lot of times where I honestly didn’t know what I was doing. I was 17-years-old and it was 95% humidity. It took maybe one play for me to realize that ‘oh my God these guys are so much better than I am.’ But being part of the team, everyone was nice and everyone really did look out for each other.”

It was also during his freshman year that Staples was faced with a career crossroads. As a journalism student with a desire to cover sports for a living one day, his logical next step was the student newspaper, The Independent Florida Gator. However, for a player on the football team to want to cover the athletics program, there was a clear conflict of interest. Knowing his future was not at the next level in the NFL, Staples chose to leave the team and begin his journalism career.

“Back then, there was just one way to get through the door, into the media and that was to write stories for the newspaper and then maybe the newspaper would hire. So, that’s what I did,” Staples said. “I knew I wasn’t going anywhere with football, but I had an aptitude for writing, so I thought, ‘let’s give this a shot.’ So, I wrote for the school paper and I was a stringer for the Orlando Sentinel and the Tallahassee Democrat covering Florida football. It took me a year to work up to that, but my last year in college I was covering my former teammates, which was a little weird. But they knew I wanted to do this and they were all cool with that. I don’t regret quitting because it was the only way to get where I wanted to be, and I got where I wanted to be.”

Now a respected member of the media covering the sport he loves; Staples can’t help but continually look back and reflect on what football has taught him. While his journey through the sport was not always the easiest or smoothest, every snap he took part in along the way added up to teach him valuable life lessons he still relies on to this day.

“Football is such a team sport, especially on the offensive line,” he said. “But it teaches you so much. I always go back and think about what happened in my freshman year. That will bother me for the rest of my life. But I think about that lesson and how I handled it. Don’t quit. Stick it out. I think that’s probably the greatest lesson the sport teaches you. Life is hard but you just have to keep trying and you’ll get through it no matter what it is.”

Photos are courtesy of Andy Staples and Awful Announcing.