Haason Reddick started the next chapter in his success story Thursday night.
The Temple product was taken 13th overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL draft. He becomes the second highest selection ever for a Temple player.
Reddick will call a new coast his home next season, but he has plenty in common with his new head coach Bruce Arians. Arians was Temple's head football coach from 1983-88.
"To play for a fellow Temple guy, that's special," Reddick said through a smile at the podium sporting a red tie to match his Cardinals fitted hat.
But that's not all of the ties Reddick has to Arians.
While Arians was at Temple, he coached running back Paul Palmer, a former Heisman Trophy runner-up who was selected 19th overall in the 1987 NFL draft.
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Palmer is an assistant coach at Haddon Heights High School in Camden, New Jersey where Reddick went to high school. Palmer witnessed the transformation Reddick went through from a cornerback at Haddon Heights to a dominant edge rusher for the Owls.
"Coach (Palmer) coached me and now (Arians) is going to get a chance to coach me as well," Reddick said. "It's just like a generational thing. It's being passed down, passed down, passed down from Temple alums. That's special right there."
For Reddick, the process of walking across The Philadelphia Art Museum steps and hearing his named called in the city he played college football in was a long one. At one point, Reddick thought he was going to be a "regular college student."
Reddick walked-on to Temple and was told he wasn't being brought back by then-head coach Steve Addazio in 2013.
But when Addazio left North Broad Street for the head coaching job at Boston College and Matt Rhule became the head coach, Francis Brown, the defensive backs coach, fought for Reddick to stay on the team.
Rhule trusted Brown and brought back Reddick, who helped Temple win its first conference championship since 1967.
"I never thought what could come out of it until my junior year in college," Reddick said. "And I put in even more work the senior season and continued to grind, continued to work hard. And now that I'm here, I finally got my name called and it's still sinking in, man. It's still sinking in. I'm being overwhelmed by emotions but it's still sinking in."
Prior to getting a scholarship at Temple, his mother took out a loan for him to have a meal plan. His father was also always there to support Reddick when he was uncertain of his football career.
Reddick has often talked about getting his mother a house where the sun shines in the lead up to the draft. Somewhere in Arizona might be a good spot.
"It was beauftiful," Reddick said on getting the phone call from Cardinals general manager Steve Keim. "I'm glad I had the people I had around me. Most of the people there are people that stuck with me throughout this whole journey. And to be able to share that moment with them, I wouldn't want to spend that moment any other way."
