“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” – Buddha
The above quote has never rung truer for someone than it has for wide receiver Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi. On the outside, the 5-11, 181-pound wide-out looks like your prototypical football player. He has a good frame, nice size, killer speed, and determination second to none. If you’ve never heard his story or met him in person before, he would come off as an average football player and normal guy. Except he’s not. Here is the story of Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi: The most improbable and unbelievable comeback story in all of football.
The Story Of Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi
To really understand who Damon is as both a person and a player, we must first go back to where it all began: Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Sheehy-Guiseppi was originally born in Orlando, Florida, but, shortly after, moved to Lake Havasu, Arizona.
There, the youngster excelled at multiple sports, with his two most notable being basketball and football. After attending high school in Arizona for two years, Sheehy-Giuseppe’s mom decided it was best for both his academic and athletic career for him to attend private school, so that’s exactly what he did.
The young athlete enrolled at St. Francis High School in Traverse City, Michigan, where he finished out his high school career, shining in both football and basketball. After he graduated, Guiseppi had dreams of making it to the NBA and decided his best bet was to enroll at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Arizona.
Once he arrived, Guiseppi set his sights on making the basketball team at the college. Unfortunately, the high school standout didn’t make the final roster and was cut from the team. He knew he couldn’t give up just yet, seeing as his family was relying on him to make it out.
A Fresh Start For Damon
One day, while hanging around the college, Damon got wind of a football tryout for the nearby Phoenix College football team. Sheehy-Guiseppi ended up attending the workout but never heard back from the team or their scouting personnel.
Down, but not out, Damon decided he was not ready to give up and began attending the team’s daily workouts despite never being on the active roster. By the end of the summer, the coaching staff was very impressed to see that this kid who wasn’t even on their roster continued coming to these brutal workouts. Ultimately, they decided to allow Sheehy-Guiseppi to stay, officially putting him on the roster.
During that upcoming season, Sheehy-Guiseppi was determined to show his coaches he deserved to be on the team. And he did just that. The special teams standout finished his first season at the college with 1,178 kick return yards.
The coaches decided that was enough to keep him around and offered him to come back for another season. The next year, Guiseppi led the nation in kick return yards and touchdowns, while also becoming an NJCCA All-American.
Bad Luck Strikes Again
But, just as everything was looking up for Damon, bad luck struck again.
After finishing a legendary season at Phoenix College, the team decided to go another direction and didn’t offer Damon to join them the next year. Now, without a team, Damon decided he had one final choice, and that was to go pro. After attending multiple CFL and Arena League tryouts, Sheehy-Guiseppi left empty-handed, seeing as no one had any real interest in signing him. But Damon knew he couldn’t just give up; too many people were depending on him.
After being out of organized football for about two years, Damon heard from a friend that the Cleveland Browns would be having a tryout in Miami soon. Deciding that he had nothing to lose, Damon began training for the workout. At this point though, he was running out of money and was almost flat broke, so this tryout was huge.
In a last-ditch effort to give himself the best chance possible to impress at the tryout, Damon spent his final $200 on training services in the days before the workout. Now, left with no money and no place to stay, Damon was forced to sleep outside of the practice facility in Miami. With only his phone, a bag of clothes, and a determined mind, Sheehy-Guiseppi set off for the workout just days later, hoping to prove previous scouts wrong. There was only one problem though: Damon’s friend had never mentioned to him that the tryout was invite-only, and Sheehy-Guiseppi never received an invite. Determined not to let his dreams die, Damon desperately attempted to research who would be at the event.
The Strange, But Brilliant Plan
As fate would have it, the Browns’ vice president of player personnel Alonzo Highsmith was going to be attending the tryout. Using his phone, which he charged inside of a 24-hour fitness center in Miami, Damon began researching all about Highsmith and his life. Once he felt he knew enough information, he set off for the tryout. Upon reaching the tryout, Damon enacted his bold plan. He lied to the staff at the door, telling them he was an associate of Highsmith’s. Once inside, Damon found Highsmith and went over to talk to him. During this part of Damon’s story, there are varying accounts.
Some say Damon went over and talked to Highsmith, even convincing him he was an acquaintance from long ago, while others say he simply greeted him and went to the workout. Whatever the case may be, Sheehy-Guiseppi left a lasting impression on members of the Browns‘ scouting team, so much so that he earned himself an official tryout in Northeast Ohio in the coming days. According to Highsmith, Damon ran a 4.38 40-time at the first workout, which was enough to get Highsmith to convince his staff to give him a chance.
During the official tryout in Ohio, Damon continued to shock trainers and scouts. The organization realized that they had found a diamond in the rough and decided to lock him up. On April 5th, 2019, Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi finally completed his goal: He had made it. The Cleveland Browns inked the Phoenix College standout to a three-year deal, officially making him an NFL player.
Damon Makes His Mark
During OTAs, Damon competed with wide receivers like Antonio Callaway for the lead returner role on special teams. Going into the first preseason game, the Browns had yet to announce who their lead returner was, so Sheehy-Guiseppi needed to make his impact felt early.
Sporting new teammate Odell Beckham Jr.‘s cleats, Damon took the field for the first time as a professional football player and shocked the world. The 24-year-old caught a punt against the Redskins and took it all the way to the house. The crowd erupted and the entire Browns’ team surrounded Damon in the end zone, excitedly celebrating beside their new teammate.
Later that night, while all the lights and cameras surrounded him and his locker in the Browns‘ locker room, Damon took some time to think just about how far he had come. From sleeping on a patch of grass with his bag of clothes to now returning a punt 86 yards for a touchdown on national TV, Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi is the perfect example of why nobody should ever give up on a dream. He stands as living proof that through belief, hard work and perseverance, anything is possible.
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