KIRKLAND – Destiny didn’t just tap Marcus Tubbs on the shoulder. It came at him from all sides.
Football, people kept telling him, is your life’s calling.
A basketball star and junior-to-be at DeSoto High School in suburban Dallas, Tubbs felt football coach Ben Dial pulling at one arm and offensive coordinator Jim Brown tugging at the other. Six-foot-4 bodies are hard to find, especially when they are attached to a pair of athletic feet like those of Tubbs.
So they kept coming at him.
“He was a big, good-looking kid, and I knew he could help,” Brown said.
“We weren’t doing it for selfish reasons,” added Todd Grimes, the defensive coordinator at DeSoto. “We just honestly thought that Marcus might have a chance to do what he’s doing now.”
What Tubbs is doing now is playing professional football. The Seattle Seahawks’ most recent first-round draft pick is on the verge of becoming a multi-millionaire – thanks to those who pushed him in that direction.
But it definitely took some prodding. And not just from the DeSoto coaching staff.
Bruce Chambers, a football coach at a rival high school who lived across the street from the Tubbs family, was more intrigued by Marcus’s pingpong ability than his basketball skills. Seeing rare hand-eye coordination and unusually gifted footwork, Chambers suggested Tubbs give football a try.
“I told his father (Mack), ‘You need to let him play football,’” Chambers said. “He kept talking about how good at basketball Marcus was, but I told him he needed to let Marcus play football.”
Marcus’s father was an athlete in his day as well, a junior-college basketball star who had never played football. Mack Tubbs just figured Marcus would follow in the family footsteps.
Marcus’s mother, Jeanette, was in favor of basketball as well, but for different reasons. “I was looking forward to sitting in the gym,” she said, “instead of out in the cold.”
Under the constant prodding of others, the Tubbs family finally relented.
DeSoto’s coaching staff was happy to see Marcus that fall, but his junior year was relatively uneventful. As a tight end, Tubbs was in on less than 10 plays per game and caught only a handful of passes all season.
Yet Chambers still believed in him. The University of Texas had hired Chambers as an offensive assistant, and he begged Tubbs to attend a Longhorns summer camp prior to his senior year.
The under-utilized tight end did, and impressed the Texas coaching staff so much that head coach Mack Brown personally offered him a scholarship on the spot.
“It was flattering,” Tubbs said, remembering his first meeting with the Longhorns’ coach.
Tubbs enrolled at Texas as a 240-pound tight end, but he kept filling out. After a redshirt year, he moved to defensive end for his freshman season. Then his weight got over 300 pounds and he went to defensive tackle. Tubbs now tips the scales at 325.
“The one thing he never did lose was that quickness,” Chambers said. ” … In football, they like to talk about a player’s upside. And he’s got that upside. He’s still growing and maturing as far as being a football player.
“Some kids get to their senior year of college, and they’ve been playing football for 20 years. It’s a grind. Marcus isn’t like that. He’s still having fun learning the game.”
Had he stuck with basketball, Tubbs might have never known how much fun football can be. And, as a 6-foot-4 power forward, he probably wouldn’t be playing professional sports at all.
“I had no idea he’d go this far in football,” Mack Tubbs said. “Otherwise, I’d have let him play sooner.”
Despite his late start in football, Marcus Tubbs said that he wouldn’t change a thing. He’s grateful to people such as Jim Brown and Chambers for helping push him in the right direction.
One of the people to whom Tubbs is most thankful is Dial. The longtime DeSoto head coach died of a heart attack in April 2001. He was 58 years old.
“If it was up to me, I would have still been playing basketball, and I would have still been struggling in college somewhere,” Tubbs said. “He saw something in me.”
Although Dial is gone, Tubbs believes his high school coach is still looking down on him. Sometimes he might even feel the pull of Dial, leading him through the world of football.
“I think he’s really proud of me right now,” Tubbs said. “But I don’t think he’s proud just because of my athletic achievements. I think he’s more proud of how level-headed I’ve stayed.”
Since Dial passed away and Jim Brown took a job at Kimball High School in Dallas, there aren’t many coaches remaining at DeSoto High from when Tubbs played there. Grimes is one of the few, and he’s happy that everything worked out for the best.
“It worked out for him,” Grimes said with a laugh. “But we’re still here making the same money.”
Unfortunately, NFL contracts don’t come with finder’s fees.
Notes: Because of an asthma condition, Tubbs did not participate in the past two days of practices. He left his inhaler in Texas and had breathing difficulties Friday, so team doctors didn’t want to take any chances. … The 20 rookies on the roster were sent home after Sunday’s practice so they could return to classes. NFL rules forbid rookies from taking part in practices when their respective schools are in session.
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