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Steve Greenberg
Sporting News
Ex-UNC star Greg Little seeks redemption in NFL Greg Little, who missed the entire 2010 season at UNC, says he made a mistake by having improper dealings with an agent.
PHOENIX — There is no NFL draft prospect with more to prove throughout the scouting process than Greg Little.
No player who is more of a mystery. No player whose story, and reputation, is in greater need of an update.
Little took a significant step toward changing that this week. In the ex-North Carolina wide receiver's first interview since he was suspended for the 2010 season for improper dealings with an agent, Little told Sporting News this week that he made a "terrible mistake."
His mistake reportedly involved accepting jewelry, travel and other benefits totaling approximately $5,000 in value.
"Not to say that it excuses my behavior, but I understand there are consequences for every action that you do," said Little, a former running back who switched positions as a junior and then led the Tar Heels in all receiving categories in 2009, then had seemingly realistic first-round hopes pinned on a senior season that never happened. "I'm a living and walking testament to college guys — the road not to go down."
The path he's been on since, though, has pointed him toward a redemptive trip to Indianapolis next week for the NFL Scouting Combine.
During football season last year, after being banned from the UNC facilities, Little worked out up to 15 times a week — as many as three hour-long sessions a day — with MMA fighter Wayne Hunter in Little's hometown of Durham, N.C.
"It was the most unorthodox training I've ever done," he said, "but I knew I had to stay in the best shape of my life."
Little (6-2, 220) has a frame similar to the Texans' Andre Johnson. Rated 12th among wideouts by Sporting News draft expert Russ Lande heading into the Combine workouts, Little could skyrocket up draft boards should he surprise scouts and runs the 40-yard dash in the mid-4.4-second range.
He has wowed the who's-who of receivers he's been training with in Phoenix since the end of the fall semester. It's a group that includes the top two in the draft at that position, Georgia's A.J. Green and Alabama's Julio Jones.
Green calls Little "a steal for whoever picks him."
Former NFL star Roy Green, the Combine coach here at the Athletes' Performance complex, said Little — like A.J. Green and Jones — is a better prospect than either of the wide receivers who was first off the board in the 2010 (Demaryius Thomas, Broncos) or 2009 (Darrius Heyward-Bey, Raiders) drafts. That's significant because both of those first-round picks were coached in Phoenix by Green.
Also here at the Phoenix facility is Blaine Gabbert, widely expected to be the first quarterback drafted April 28. Gabbert has thrown to Little five days a week since early January and calls him a "freak of nature."
"He's incredible. He'll run through you, over you, around you," Gabbert said. "And he's one of the hardest-working guys I've been around — and extremely bright."
Roy Green describes Little as "cerebral" — not the word one expects to hear about a player who was eighty-sixed from his college program.
But any preconceived notions about him have been based, after all, on a single mistake. NFL personnel men and coaches still have much to learn about Little, who could be in line for a dramatic rise on draft boards this spring.
"I understand there are moments that define you and mold you as a person, moments where you say, 'Hey, I get it now,' " Little said. "When the thing happened at school, I got it ... and the result was devastating.
"That's my message to the NFL: I made a mistake and am not going to shy away from it. I'm trying to fix things."
Sporting News
Ex-UNC star Greg Little seeks redemption in NFL Greg Little, who missed the entire 2010 season at UNC, says he made a mistake by having improper dealings with an agent.
PHOENIX — There is no NFL draft prospect with more to prove throughout the scouting process than Greg Little.
No player who is more of a mystery. No player whose story, and reputation, is in greater need of an update.
Little took a significant step toward changing that this week. In the ex-North Carolina wide receiver's first interview since he was suspended for the 2010 season for improper dealings with an agent, Little told Sporting News this week that he made a "terrible mistake."
His mistake reportedly involved accepting jewelry, travel and other benefits totaling approximately $5,000 in value.
"Not to say that it excuses my behavior, but I understand there are consequences for every action that you do," said Little, a former running back who switched positions as a junior and then led the Tar Heels in all receiving categories in 2009, then had seemingly realistic first-round hopes pinned on a senior season that never happened. "I'm a living and walking testament to college guys — the road not to go down."
The path he's been on since, though, has pointed him toward a redemptive trip to Indianapolis next week for the NFL Scouting Combine.
During football season last year, after being banned from the UNC facilities, Little worked out up to 15 times a week — as many as three hour-long sessions a day — with MMA fighter Wayne Hunter in Little's hometown of Durham, N.C.
"It was the most unorthodox training I've ever done," he said, "but I knew I had to stay in the best shape of my life."
Little (6-2, 220) has a frame similar to the Texans' Andre Johnson. Rated 12th among wideouts by Sporting News draft expert Russ Lande heading into the Combine workouts, Little could skyrocket up draft boards should he surprise scouts and runs the 40-yard dash in the mid-4.4-second range.
He has wowed the who's-who of receivers he's been training with in Phoenix since the end of the fall semester. It's a group that includes the top two in the draft at that position, Georgia's A.J. Green and Alabama's Julio Jones.
Green calls Little "a steal for whoever picks him."
Former NFL star Roy Green, the Combine coach here at the Athletes' Performance complex, said Little — like A.J. Green and Jones — is a better prospect than either of the wide receivers who was first off the board in the 2010 (Demaryius Thomas, Broncos) or 2009 (Darrius Heyward-Bey, Raiders) drafts. That's significant because both of those first-round picks were coached in Phoenix by Green.
Also here at the Phoenix facility is Blaine Gabbert, widely expected to be the first quarterback drafted April 28. Gabbert has thrown to Little five days a week since early January and calls him a "freak of nature."
"He's incredible. He'll run through you, over you, around you," Gabbert said. "And he's one of the hardest-working guys I've been around — and extremely bright."
Roy Green describes Little as "cerebral" — not the word one expects to hear about a player who was eighty-sixed from his college program.
But any preconceived notions about him have been based, after all, on a single mistake. NFL personnel men and coaches still have much to learn about Little, who could be in line for a dramatic rise on draft boards this spring.
"I understand there are moments that define you and mold you as a person, moments where you say, 'Hey, I get it now,' " Little said. "When the thing happened at school, I got it ... and the result was devastating.
"That's my message to the NFL: I made a mistake and am not going to shy away from it. I'm trying to fix things."
