'Sideline Kill' Helped Colorado Buffaloes' Laviska Shenault Become Top NFL Prospect
BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4)- The NFL Draft gets underway Thursday night and the top prospects will see their dream of making it to the pros come true. One of the players who will be drafted is Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Laviska Shenault Jr.
Shenault, is one of the hardest players to tackle as he's forced 44 missed tackles, which is the most among wide receivers in college football since 2018.
His hard-nosed style of play comes from a game he grew up playing in DeSoto, Texas called "Sideline Kill." Here, he and his friends would play a game of two-hand touch football on the street, but the rules changed from touch to tackle football under one circumstance.
"When a player with the football got near the side of the street where the grass started, you could hit him," Shenault explained in The Players' Tribune. "The idea was that players would be tackled into the grass, so it'd be no big deal.
"Everyone in my neighborhood played that game like our lives depended on it, even the little kids. Some of the fiercest hits I've ever seen, taken, and delivered were in Sideline Kill. It was common for kids to limp on home and not come back around for a few days."
Oftentimes Shenault and his friends would dust themselves off from a tackle and continue playing, but sometimes the rough play would leave some serious scars.
"I remember this one time I got tackled right into a pole that was sticking out along the sidewalk, Shenault said. "It had this sharp piece of metal attached at the bottom, and it caught me right in the leg. It was one of those cuts where it was so deep that the white meat was showing. You know what I mean? I still have the scar."
Shenault says the game helped him developed the resilience he played with for the Buffs. He caught 149 passes for 1,943 yards and 10 touchdowns and ran the ball 42 times for 280 yards and seven scores.
The only slight to his successful college career was several nagging injuries. He needed surgery for a shoulder and core muscle injury and in many mock drafts he has dropped from a 1st Round pick to the 2nd Round. Even with the injury concerns, Shenault is confident he will be a playmaker at the next level, bringing the toughness he developed from a childhood game to the NFL.
"If you're looking for a tough player who takes pride in his route-running, knows how to make contested catches, can run after the catch, and break tackles, and play through pain, and who will physically and willingly block any defender … I would love to be part of your team," Shenault said.
