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EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – As a student at Henry County High School just south of Atlanta, Dalvin Tomlinson was called the renaissance man. He was an outstanding student who could have attended Harvard. Tomlinson was an all-state football player, three-time heavyweight wrestling champion and a goalie and striker on the school's soccer team. He was an artist who excelled at drawing with pencils. Tomlinson is also a talented musician who can play the drums, trumpets and xylophones.
But Tomlinson's most impressive skill was clearing the hurdles life kept placing in front of him and thriving on the other side. His father, Willie, died when he was just five years old. Tomlinson was very close to his mother, Melinda, but she passed away suddenly just prior to his senior year of high school. That year, he tore his ACL playing soccer. After enrolling at the University of Alabama and sitting out a season, Tomlinson's other ACL ripped apart, forcing this active young man to spend another year as a spectator.