True Hollywood Story: De'Cody Fagg

De'Cody was born into this world the same way everyone else is - he kicked, he gasped, and he wondered why the hell it was so cold. Something that De'Cody was, I'm sure, unaware of as he was shivering and gasping was the fact that his last name was Fagg. Pickle juice (being the worst thing I can think of to pour on a paper cut) began to trickle.

Fast Forward 10 years, and young De'Cody is getting his first sense of how ruthless little kids can be when they've found the definition of a word, but don't understand meaning and context. For 5 years, young De'Cody is relentlessly taunted for being...well...a Fagg.

Then De'Cody grows. And he keeps growing. Soon he's running circles around guys 4 years older than he, and the teasing stops. It stops from his friends, because it's juvenile, and it stops from others because Fagg can now whip some ass if he has to. In High School he's named to the Florida Super 75 list, ranked 4 stars by Rivals, and given the #15 wide receiver ranking in his national class of '03. Fagg's gone from having pain delivered to delivering pain. The pickle juice stops momentarily.

With great pride, De'Cody Fagg commits to the most bangin' school Florida has to offer. He dons the Garnet and Gold of Florida State with dreams of Orange Bowls and BCS championships. Sure enough, as a Sophomore, the Seminoles get to that Orange Bowl where they proceed to lose nail biter to Penn State. As was often the case in Fagg's life - pickle juice was rubbed in the now open wound by the fact that the FSU kicker couldn't kick.

That started a tiny snowball at the top of a snow covered mountain. FSU doesn't have a quarterback. All-world recruit Xavier Lee isn't that good. The defense abandons them. All the things that De'Cody can't control are collecting in that small snowball, and they're headed down that hill at a pretty good clip. De'Cody stands in the path. He can't control the snowball anymore than he could control being a Fagg. All he can do is watch the destruction.

In his final and best season for the Seminoles he catches 758 yards and 5 TDs worth of passes from inept Florida State quarterbacks; a paltry number for somebody so physically gifted. That Orange Bowl loss in '05 was as good as it would get for Fagg and his team - his final two years they would play in the Emerald Bowl and the Music City Bowl, both named and created to sell TV viewership and sponsors more than football. The Music City Bowl poured on more pickle juice in the now gaping wound, partly because it's sponsored by "Gaylord Hotels" but mostly because his teammates deserted him by deciding to cheat in an online course.

Finally free of Florida State, Scandals, and Gaylord, Fagg thinks he has it made. He's got the size, speed, and measurables to be an immediate impact receiver in the NFL. He visits the combine confident that his skills will impress enough to be drafted in the first few rounds. After a lifetime of being called a "Fagg" for the wrong reasons, he may finally end up in a situation that would make it right, stop the flow of pickle juice, and halt the snowball. Something to the tune of a paycheck containing lots and lots of zero's.

Then, in a life full of disappointments, disaster strikes again in the form of a knee injury most are calling "career ending"

So now, instead of making at least hundreds of thousands of dollars playing football, De'Cody will make nothing rehabbing. The most acclaim he may ever receive will be when future athletes head to the combine and their buddies say "good luck out there - don't Fagg it up."

And that's sad.

Good luck De'Cody. Get well, and come play some ball on Sundays. If anyone deserves a break - it's you.