Why Greenville's Jayden Wilson-Abrams started loving football after one of NFL's most controversial TDs

The journey to becoming a collegiate or professional athlete is less like a paved road and more like an untamed land with no cell phone reception. But with someone who's blazed that trail by your side, the trip becomes a little less daunting.

For Greenville defensive end Jayden Wilson-Abrams, the No. 11 player on 864Huddle's Dandy Dozen list, his father Joshua Abrams has made the journey feel more like an already-blazed trail.

"Throughout my life, he was always my coach, my trainer. Even when he wasn't on that team's coaching staff, he still coached me and helped me get better," he said. "Having him there beside me throughout this whole experience has been just like, crazy. It's great for me because he knows me so well."

Jayden Wilson-Abrams chooses football

After starring at Dunwoody High in Georgia, Abrams played four seasons as a running back and special teams standout at Ohio University, a couple of seasons as a practice squad defensive back for the Green Bay Packers, and a season in the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts.

Having a father with that sort of experience could make someone assume that football was inevitable for the now 6-foot-3, 280-pound defensive lineman who holds offers from Ohio, Charlotte, Furman and others.

That wasn't the case. Abrams didn't want to force football on him. "I wanted him to choose football, and not have football choose him," he said.

And in September 2012, when the Seattle Seahawks hosted the Packers in a Week 3 Monday Night Football game, that's exactly what Wilson-Abrams did.

"As a kid, I liked football but it wasn't my favorite," Wilson-Abrams said. "But ... one specific game was really memorable for me as a kid. It was that Seattle-Green Bay, catch-not-a-catch, game. I remember just being like, 'Oh, yeah. This is it.' Ever since I've been in love with football."

After watching Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson heave a Hail Mary pass toward a gaggle of players for one of the most controversial touchdown calls in NFL history, now known as the Fail Mary, Wilson-Abrams was all in, and that's all Abrams needed to see.

"Once he decided that he wanted to play, I just let him know the things that come with it and reminded him that this is sort of my expertise," Abrams said. "I told him that if he wanted to do this, we were going to go for it full force, and to his credit, we haven't looked back."

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The moment Jayden Wilson-Abrams knew he could be special

It's one thing to love the game; it's another to have the ability to achieve what Abrams did. For Wilson-Abrams, the moment he knew that he had that ability came about five years after he chose this path.

"It was versus Liberty in rec ball ... I remember telling coach to give me the rock and on the very first play, the QB hands me the ball. Touchdown," Wilson-Abrams said. "The next series I get it again. Touchdown. On the third series, touchdown. ... That was one of the big moments in my life that I felt like no one could stop me."

For Abrams, it was a more gradual realization.

"There wasn't really a moment the light bulb went off ... it was more of me just watching him over time when he trained alongside older kids I was coaching," Abrams said.

"Eventually I just thought to myself, 'We might have something here.' Add in that his doctors were saying he was going to be a big kid, and it was just kind of like, 'Let's see where this can go.'"

Where it's gone is a junior season that saw him named to the Class AAAA All-State team, while recoding 54 tackles, seven for a loss, four sacks, two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and a touchdown.

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Their last run together

Abrams has had the best seat in the house to watch his son's football journey and now is an assistant on the Greenville football staff for Wilson-Abrams' last season of high school football. He's doing everything he can to soak up the moment.

"I already know when it ends I'm going to be tearing up," Abrams said. "The second that clock strikes zero, I think it'll set in that he's going off to college and I won't be there. I know I'll always be dad and can coach him from afar, but I won't be there like I am now."

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Fail Mary made Greenville DE Jayden Wilson-Abrams love football