DC ExtraTime: Cory's Football Friends

Following is an excerpt from a DCBLOG Pulse during The Challenge Invasion from earlier this year, reposted in the interest of our readers and featuring a key figure from this week's premiere of Champs vs. Stars, which we will cover here tomorrow as this is being reposted on Thanksgiving Night.

BY DC CUEVA                     
■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

At the halfway point of this Invasion final, Cory knows he is in for a battle if he wants to make a run at his first Challenge title. We just saw him struggle with Camila and Nicole, and is in dead last among the guys, but there's still a lot left to go. Often, it's how you close down the stretch that will get you some good luck... take what happened with him & Mitch on Bloodlines when they won the last two regular challenges and made a strong Day 2 showing in Berlin Olympic Stadium to place 2nd in the final. And if he needs some inspiration, Cory can look to the support he has of fans and friends he's met along the way, including two here in ExtraTime.
   As we covered here last week, NFL fans starving for something football related this long offseason were afforded the ultimate treat when Philadelphia hosted the NFL Draft on the Rocky Steps at the Museum of Art last weekend. A record crowd of 250,000 packed Ben Franklin Parkway in front of the museum to watch the three days of this annual spring ritual where Myles Garrett was picked #1 by the Browns, where the Bears shocked everyone with the very next pick in trading up from the Niners, and dreams coming true for many college players. And of course, those notorious fans there were given something to boo at in giving commissioner Roger Goddell the appropriate Philly treatment in a city known for booing everyone from their own teams to Santa Claus.
   After his original Real World Ex-Plosion season ended three years ago, Cory had the opportunity to soak up the fame a little bit in meeting two NFL stars: one who was a star back then but would have to endure rough waters, the other was just drafted and would begin his ascent to status of a giant in the Big Apple. We've dug up two photos from his Twitter & Instagram @MTVCoryWharton, and given that one has recently changed addresses during this period of free agency and the challenger being in this final, this felt the perfect time for us to share these pics with you.

● First, the legend. Ten years ago, Adrian Peterson was in that spot waiting for his name to be called onto the Radio City Music Hall stage. After a solid high school career in Texas, he went to Oklahoma in 2004 and had a record freshman college career: 1,925 rushing yards, 11 100-yard games including 9 in a row, and finishing second to USC's Matt Leinart in the Heisman Trophy voting. After a light 1,200-yard season due to an early injury, in his junior year Peterson's dad, Nelson, was released from prison and was in the crowd when Peterson played Iowa State and in the last drive broke his collar bone when he dove into the end zone for the winning TD. He missed the rest of the regular season but did return for the Fiesta Bowl where he had a TD and 77 yards before Boise State's "Statue of Liberty" play upset the Sooners in what would be his final college game after 4,041 rushing yards.
   Peterson would forgo his senior season for the NFL, and his name was picked 7th when the Minnesota Vikings drafted him in 2007, and instantly made an impact in being one who the Purple People Eaters could build their team around. It didn't take long for AP to make his mark: two games with 200+ yards rushing including a league record 296-yard game vs. the Chargers, and Offensive Rookie of the Year and Pro Bowl MVP honors. A year later came his first Rushing Title, including a 192-yard game where he scored the winning TD vs. the Packers, among 1,760 in 2008. Two more 1,000 yard rushing seasons then came, followed by an ACL/MCL injury at the end of 2011. He came back the next season more than strong: 2,097 yards - becoming only the 7th running back in NFL history to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards in a single season. After a late 26-yard run, Peterson only needed 9 yards to break Eric Dickerson's 2,105 mark set in 1984, but as the Vikings were playing for a playoff berth they opted for the clinching field goal and he fell short... but was both the NFL MVP and Offensive Player of the Year.
   In 2014, Cory had the chance to meet Adrian when the both ran into each other in Las Vegas for Memorial Day Weekend when he captioned, "Ran into Adrien Peterson on the strip, best Running back in the league hands down." But it was during this time that it would all come crashing down: in October 2013, personal matters sidelined Peterson but was later revealed that his 2-year old son was hospitalized and then die from injuries suffered from an assault by the live-in boyfriend of his mom. A year later, he would be indicted on charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child stemming from photos posted by TMZ of his 4-year-old son having slash-like wounds after being beat up around a tree for bad behavior. It was front page news in and outside the sports world and a black mark for the NFL, which suspended him for the rest of the 2014 season. He ultimately won reinstatement months later and returned with a strong 2015 season in winning the rushing title for a 3rd title (1,485 yds). But injuries derailed his last season in purple & gold, where the Vikings cut him before a $18 million option would go into effect, and as a free agent, he signed a few weeks ago with the Saints.
   And there's another link between Cory and AP: it's been documented, if you've been seeing the challenger's Instagram, about his ACL from all the pictures he's posted there in the surgeries done on his ankle and whether or not it can withstand this final. So far, it has not hampered him, but Cory has something in common with AP as they have had to endure having surgery done on that crucial part of the leg which has meant that when it's torn, the season is done like what we've seen so many athletes go through across all sports. Cory's not alone.

● And second, the upstart. Earlier that May of 2014, Cory got a chance to hang out down in fellow future Underdog Tony's home turf of Baton Rouge, LA with someone who had just gotten drafted was spending the last month or so at home before heading up north. Odell Beckham, Jr. attended the same New Orleans high school - Isidore Newman School - that Peyton, Eli and Archie Manning went to, and made his own mark there. While he lettered in hoops and track, it was on the gridiron where he became the biggest star in his school: while he was a QB, running back and cornerback, it was at wide receiver that he excelled: as a senior in 2010, he caught 50 catches, had 19 touchdowns, and joined Manning sibling Cooper as the only two players in history to have a 1000-receiving yard season when he had 1,010.  He stayed close to home in choosing LSU for college and was an All-SEC as a freshman and a leading wide-out in year 2. As a junior, he had his breakout in teaming with future Dolphin Jarvis Landry as one of the college game's top WR duos and both were named All-SEC also. In one of those games, Beckham returned a missed field goal attempt for a record-long 109 yards for a touchdown and held that record by himself until that Kick Six by Auburn's Chris Davis' vs. Alabama saw not only that record tied by surpassed in lore.
   Like Peterson, Odell felt three years was enough and after a 2013 that saw him catch 57 for 1,117 receiving yards and win the Paul Hornung Award, he skipped his senior year for the big time, and the New York Giants drafted him 12th in the 2014 NFL Draft. Cory met him just after his Real World ended, and he captioned on Instagram on Draft Day, "With my boy @iam_obj3 down in Louisiana, Tonight we will see what NFL (team) picks him up, either way he's gonna ball out of the league. PEEP the dude in the back Photo bombing the picture though LOL." And he reposted the picture later in the season with the odd local in Louisiana's state capital photo bombing their shot he made a prediction too: "My boy @iam_objxiii should get Rookie of the Year in the NFL and he missed 4 games: BEAST."  Cory was right.
   Because of an injury, it took a little longer for Odell him to get into his rhythm, but it was under the Sunday night lights against the Cowboys in mid-November 2014 where everyone got to see OBJ for the first time. Of the 10 catches, 146 yards and 2 TD's that night, the one that brought him into the spotlight was the one where with full extension and diving backwards, he caught it with one hand. It left everyone from NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth to LeBron James to say it's the "catch of the year," and indeed it helped accelerate Odell into another level with a breakout rookie season that saw him garner all kinds of records and accolades, notching his 1,305 yards in 12 games - the 4th first-timer to garner that many receiving yards, and was the landslide choice for Offensive Rookie of the Year, as well as a Pro Bowl selection.
   Not surprisingly, Beckham beat out Rob Gronkoski to become the youngest player ever to grace the cover of the Madden NFL video game series when he was named to that honor in 2015, and he slayed the curse generally given to those being on that cover by having career highs in his second season: 1,450 receiving yards, 13 touchdowns, another Pro Bowl and 10th on the NFL Top 100 Players of 2016 list. Last season... only better: reaching 200 receptions in only career 30 games on his way to 101 catches in 2016, 1,367 receiving yards, 10 TD's and a trip to Orlando for the Pro Bowl. And yes, there's also what else we've seen from him on field: getting into it and getting flagged four times in a 2015 game with the Panthers' Josh Norman, fined nearly $50,000 total for two penalties in a blindside hit on a Saints player and another for a dance celebration at Dallas; and catching 33 passes in one minute for a world record attempt at Super Bowl XLIX. And his dad, Odell Sr., was a minor character in the famed book Friday Night Lights which inspired that movie and TV show.

When we first saw Cory working out on that playground in his first episode, everyone knew that not only was he one of those seven chosen to go through the first "twist" Real World, but also he was cast with the spinoff show in mind. Yes, it will safe to admit that he's not performed perhaps as well this season as he has in his first two Challenges, but everyone will remember what you do in the final and he's in his second opportunity to win money. People have been expecting great things from him since he arrived in Turkey over a year ago, and a lot of fans have pegged him to be the face of this next generation of challengers who are now coming into this ecosystem.
   Though Cory is still behind in 3rd, there's still a day & a half of this final left and a lot can still go down, and he's taken advantage of giving current guys leader CT the 5-minute time buster after winning the first night challenge and making his seemingly insurmountable lead look closer to him and Nelson. You can't count him out just yet - and things can happen with those comebacks we've seen before, but if Cory comes back and win, that will be fantastic. In having met Adrian and Odell, those two men have gone on to great things on Sundays and Cory knows that if you want to become great, you have to do something great when the lights shine brightest.

- I AM DC