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Small-Town Coloradan Dalton Risner Makes Improbable Journey To The NFL

WIGGINS, Colo. (CBS4) - Welcome to Wiggins, Colorado. Home of NFL hopeful Dalton Risner.

Wiggins Sign Generic Colorado's Eastern Plains
(credit: CBS)

Home to just 887 residents, Wiggins is 65 miles from Denver - and about a million miles away from the glitz and glamour of the NFL gridiron.

Dalton Risner
Dalton Risner #71 of the Kansas State Wildcats (credit: Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

"Coming from Wiggins, a lot of people will stay around here and farm, which I respect, we need that. But I always told myself, regardless of what people say you can or can't do, if I set my mind to something, I'm going to do it," Risner says. "The NFL is definitely a long way from this. But I just love this game of football and I want to go play as long as I can."

Dalton Risner
(credit: CBS)

Dalton's football life fits the bill of a small town, country kid. From peewee through high school, Dalton's coach was his father, Mitch Risner.

"It was a balance, and probably one that I didn't do a great job of every day. There was some dad of the year moments that weren't so great. A lot of tears going home when he was younger," Mitch Risner said.

Dalton Risner and Mitch Risner
(credit: CBS)

"It was really hard for me because we'd go from two hours of him ripping me to 15 minutes later giving me a ride home being dad," Dalton says. "But I respect that so much. He did such a good job of being a dad and a coach. I could talk here for 30 minutes about what him and my mom taught me growing up that I attribute to being in the position that I am."

Wiggins Sign Generic Colorado's Eastern Plains
(credit: CBS)

Seeing isn't believing -- believing is seeing.

The last time Dalton went to a Broncos game he was a senior in high school. And while everyone else watched 22 men battle it out between the lines, Dalton saw his future.

"I said you're going to be out there playing next time you're here. I haven't been back since. It would be really cool, maybe I'll be playing against the Broncos, but hopefully I'll be playing for the Broncos."

Dalton Risner
Dalton Risner of Kansas State speaks to the media during day one of interviews at the NFL Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 28, 2019 in Indianapolis. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)

As Dalton prepares for life in the NFL, he carries Wiggins with him and hopes his story will inspire others to believe that there's no such thing as too big a dream

"I'm a 1A kid from Wiggins, Colorado, that was raised around cattle. I wasn't raised trained by NFL players. I was raised on the farm. I want to give kids belief that you can dream as big as you want, because that's what I always did."

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