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Spotlight: Daunte Culpepper
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
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When you're built like a Zamboni, overcoming obstacles isn't something you spend time worrying about; that's for other people to worry about whenever they see you coming. But for mammoth quarterback Daunte Culpepper, the roadblocks he raced through were made possible more so because of heart and perseverance than his 6-foot-4, 266-pound frame.
|  | | Daunte Culpepper of the Minnesota Vikings looks to pass
the ball during the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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For starters, Culpepper's life began on Jan. 28, 1977, in a prison. His mother, Barbara Henderson, gave birth to him at the Lowell Correctional Facility in Florida while doing time for armed robbery. The next day, his life with his real mother would begin when Emma Culpepper, a 62-year-old widow who had taught Ms. Henderson at a center for troubled young girls, took him in as her own. He was the last of 12 other children she raised after they were born to another woman.
Growing up in Ocala, Culpepper's freakish athletic abilities in baseball, football and basketball were already apparent before his teen years. By the time he got to Vanguard High School, he was well on his way to an athletic scholarship in any of the three sports. Unfortunately, Culpepper struggled in the classroom, and free rides aren't handed out to those who can't make the grade off the playing field. Despite leading Vanguard all the way to the state title game his senior year, passing for 3,074 yards and 31 touchdowns while rushing for another 602 yards, collegiate powerhouses such as Florida State and Florida backed off when they saw his marks.
Though he made a dramatic comeback in the classroom later in his senior year to cause all the D-1 juggernauts to come back calling and was drafted by the New York Yankees that spring, Culpepper honored his commitment to attend Central Florida, a commuter school in Orlando. Being a small program that hadn't moved up to Division I-A, it wasn't exactly a place where an All-American nominee was expected to reside for four years. Yet the decision thrilled his high school coaches, who felt that the color of Culpepper's skin combined with his size and abilities would hinder his chances of lining up under center at the next level even though the talent was there.
To make the NFL from a school that wasn't even on the NCAA map, and at a position like quarterback, Culpepper would need to light the world on fire. He didn't waste any time getting his own name on the college football radar screen by finishing 28th in the nation in passing efficiency (122.9) and 40th in total offense (189.9) as a true freshman for the Knights. By the time his sophomore season began in 1996 for UCF's inaugural season in D-I, he was already being touted as a preseason All-American. Over the next three seasons in Orlando, Culpepper single-handedly vaulted the Knights onto national television and attracted heavyweights such as Purdue and Auburn for non-conference affairs.
In re-writing the Central Florida record book from start to finish (over 30 records in all), Culpepper's career was culminated during his senior year, leading UCF to its best record ever at 9-2 in a season which saw him pass for 3,427 yards passing and 26 TDs. Most impressive was the NCAA record he set for single-season completion percentage at 73.6, which broke a 15-year-old mark set by Steve Young (71.3).
On the wheels of such numbers, he finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy balloting and was quickly hailed as a top five selection in that spring's NFL Draft. Culpepper lasted all the way to the 11th selection in the 1999 NFL Draft.
Just one-and-a-half years later, he proved all naysayers, who questioned his mental abilities on reading defenses after playing "small-time" college football, to be poor judges of talent. The criticism intensified before the 2000 season when Dennis Green announced Culpepper as his starting quarterback for the Vikings. But after exploding onto the scene by rushing for three touchdowns in his first game as a starter to beat Chicago, a legion of admirers started singing his praises as the ultimate weapon to compliment the slew of Pro Bowlers the Vikes have at the skill positions.
The love affair continued throughout the season, as Culpepper soon became a household name. By throwing for 3,937 yards and 33 touchdowns and rushing for another 470, he led Minnesota to a 11-5 mark and eventually to the NFC Championship Game. Though his squad ran into a buzzsaw in the New York Giants, it certainly didn't tarnish the accomplishments this soon-to-be 24-year-old posted in just his first year commanding the veteran Vikings.
Confident that he'll have several more chances in championship games, never mind many trips to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl, the soft-spoken Culpepper is spending the off-season back in Ocala where he is active in the community. Whether he gives riveting lectures to children or not, the example he's set by succeeding at a position that a man of his size, and often skin tone sadly enough, isn't supposed to play is role-model-worthy.
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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