After sitting through seven rounds of the 2004 NFL draft with no phone call, only to be signed by the Buffalo Bills, former Razorback Jason Peters spent 21 years playing pro ball and became the oldest offensive tackle to play in the league. He shared his unlikely success story during the Sept. 28 meeting of the Little Rock Touchdown Club.
“When you see his athleticism, he’s not your normal guy,” said David Bazzel, co-founder of the Little Rock Touchdown Club. “When you see a guy who’s 6-5, 320, he’s not supposed to move that fast, jump that high and have hands like him.”
It all started when the sports standout at Queen City High School in Texas was recruited to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Recently inducted into the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor, Peters told the club he never regretted becoming a Razorback.
“I’m very happy,” he said. “Sometimes, you know, you look back, like, ‘If I could have did this different,’ but I don’t regret it. I loved being there in Arkansas. I loved the way the city loved the players and wanted us to do well, so that really was a blessing for me to come to Arkansas.”
Then-head coach Houston Nutt said in a video message to the touchdown club that when he went to recruit Peters, he was impressed not only by his football skills but by his basketball skills, as well.
“I saw him on the basketball court, and he had ball-handling skills like a point guard,” Nutt said. “I mean, great skills and just a soft shot and had a beautiful jump shot, and this guy had it. He was just so athletic.”
Nutt initially recruited Peters as a defensive tackle but later put him at tight end. Peters said he considered leaving Arkansas because of the move, but, not wanting to sit out a year, decided to give his all to the new position.
“Whatever I had to do to get the win on Saturday, then that’s what I did,” he said. “Coach Nutt came at me with the idea of playing tight end, and I was just trying to make the best of it. You couldn’t leave the college. There wasn’t a portal back then. You was just stuck or sat out a year, so I just decided to go with tight end.”
Positioned next to offensive lineman Shawn Andrews, another Arkansas great, Peters was a formidable force on a field that also included wide receiver Matt Jones, running back Cedric Cobbs and linebacker Tony Bua, who also submitted a video to the club.
“Coach Nutt told me that he was going to be a defensive lineman, and I was so excited because I was going in to my second year, and I thought that if Jason Peters was in front of me, that he would be able to just destroy people and nobody would be able to get to me, and I’d be able to make all the plays,” Bua said. “I was so upset when Jason moved to tight end, but I quickly realized why. He was so athletic, and he had such the softest hands that it just made sense at the time for what we were doing on offense.”
Yet when it came to draft time, Peters’ phone stayed silent.
“I really thought I was going to get drafted, but after the third round, I was like, ‘OK, this might not happen today,’” he said. “Fourth round, fifth round — went undrafted. Then I got a call by every team in the league wanting me, so I chose the Buffalo Bills.”
Bazzel noted that Peters signed with the Bills for $5,000 and left the NFL as the seventh-highest-grossing offensive lineman in league history, having earned $120 million.
“Coming from where I came from and to get all the accomplishments that I’ve earned, it just speaks volumes of the people, the community, that get behind you, you know, blue-collar workers,” Peters said. ‘You come home, and they’re giving you lemonade stands and parades all down the street. It means a lot to go from that to this.”
Buffalo was much like Fayetteville, he said, adding that the fan base was “rowdy — a lot of beer drinking and blue cheese and wings.” After four years there, he made the move to the Philadelphia Eagles, where he spent the majority of his NFL career.
“The city of Philly is different than any city you ever play for — rowdy, rowdy fans,” he said. “I remember getting booed. We was up 20 at halftime, so they were rough on us, but, you know, they keep us on point on Sunday.”
Even sustaining a season-ending injury during the lead-up to the 2017 Super Bowl title did not dim Peters’ enthusiasm for the team.
“Just watching my guys Lane [Johnson] and [Jason] Kelce be making that run for the Super Bowl, I just felt like I was out there anyway,” Peters said. “So it didn’t bother me any.”
Peters spent a year with the Chicago Bears and then returned to his home state to play one year with the Dallas Cowboys before moving to the Seattle Seahawks, where he finished his NFL career. He said he came to the decision to retire during practice.
“My defense was pretty good, and the guys, you know, they’re pushing me, double-teaming running games, and I went to the sideline and hit a knee,” he said. “I was like, ‘You know what? I’m done. I’m done.’ I’m like, ‘I’m done.’ That’s what I thought, and I’m like, ‘Man, this is over with. I’m going to go sit my butt down.’”
A prospective first-ballot pick for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Peters said he never expected the honors he has received and will “probably shed some tears” when he gets the call enshrining him as a member of the NFL elite. Bazzel asked if he would return to the touchdown club after he gets his gold jacket, to which Peters replied, “I’ll be back.”
“God is good,” he said, “and I thank him for giving me the ability to run fast and do all the things a guy my size normally can’t do. It’s all a credit to him.”
Feature photo of Peters and Bazzel by DeWaine Duncan
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