Before Eagles’ Boston Scott was a ‘Giant killer,’ he was a broke college kid clinging to a dream

Boston Scott washed cars at the dealership near campus, moved them around the lot, and studied how the mechanics did their repairs as he earned money however he could to pay for tuition.

He played football at Louisiana Tech, but his place on the team — as a seldom-used, walk-on running back — came without a scholarship. So Scott, clinging to an NFL dream despite graduating high school without a Division I offer, paid his own way.

He took out student loans, received an academic scholarship, and used whatever money he earned from the Ford dealership. Eventually — after three years and 35 carries — it became too much.

“It was getting pretty rough,” Scott said.

He told the school’s athletic director that he was going to have to drop out. Scott didn’t have money to pay for the next semester. His football dream — which continues Saturday night when the Eagles host the New York Giants in the NFC divisional round — was dimming.

Scott, at 5-foot-6 the shortest running back in the NFL, has carved a career as a change-of-pace weapon who isn’t afraid of contact. Ten of his 18 career touchdowns have come against New York, helping the David-like rusher become known as a “Giant killer.”

» READ MORE: The Eagles’ little men came up big against the Giants

He is a key contributor for the NFC’s top seed and is two wins away from reaching the Super Bowl. But eight years ago, Scott was just a broke college kid with a dream.

“Glory to the man above because I know without him, I definitely wouldn’t be here,” Scott said. “Without everyone who supported me, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Scott did not have a place on Louisiana Tech’s training camp roster, so he spent a summer day before his freshman year in 2013 selecting his courses as part of student orientation. He planned to take classes in the fall and wait until rosters expanded before he could join the team.

Then his phone rang. A running back was injured during practice and the coaches wanted to know where Scott was.

“I was like, ‘I’m here on campus’,” Scott said. “They were like ‘Nah, for real? We want you to come to fall camp.’ It was pretty crazy the way it worked out.”

Neil Weiner, Scott’s high school coach in Baton Rouge, La., couldn’t blame college coaches for overlooking Scott — even he first dismissed the diminutive runner. Years earlier, the freshman coaches told Weiner that Scott — not the other freshman, who was “built like you would want a running back to be built” — was their top back.

“I would go out and look at him and be like, ‘Come on, man. Are you kidding me?’” Weiner said. “But he kept doing it.”

Scott didn’t start at Zachary High until his senior year and even then he shared duties. He returned kicks, caught passes out of the backfield, and used his speed to run around the edge of the defensive line. But it was strength that set him apart. Scott won a state championship in weightlifting and used that power to run full-steam between the tackles.

“It’s almost like a bowling ball,” said Jason Davis, who coached the weightlifting team and assisted the football team. “He’s just so dense. It’s not very easy to get a great shot on him, and then when you do, it better be a solid shot because he’s so densely built.”

When college coaches visited Zachary, they told the coaches that they liked Scott, but he was too small for their programs. Scott still believed he could play. His coaches agreed. Scott just needed a shot. It came when his phone rang.

“The type of kid he was, you knew that he was never going to give up,” Davis said. “He never doubted himself. You just knew that something great was going to happen for that guy. All he needed was an opportunity.”

Scott was overlooked in high school, wasn’t recruited by colleges, and had to find an opening just to walk on the team. But finally, he had his chance. And then he couldn’t get out of bed.

Scott started suffering debilitating cramps during his freshman year of college, forcing him to leave school and making his NFL dream seem to be even more of a fantasy. Doctors struggled to determine what was causing Scott’s body to shut down and the school’s training staff didn’t have answers. He had trouble walking because the lower part of his body felt numb.

“He would come out and I could see him cramping up,” said Jabbar Juluke, then Tech’s running backs coach. “I’d say ‘Not today, Beantown. We’re not doing that today.’ He’d be like ‘Coach, I’m pushing through. I’m working.’ I’m talking about full-body cramps. I knew he was on the brink of being put on scholarship and I didn’t want him to lose that opportunity.”

It was a mystery, and Scott feared it was ALS or multiple sclerosis. Scott’s mother took him all over the country to get treated.

“We didn’t know what the heck was going on,” Scott said. “We went from specialist to specialist. God bless my mom.”

Shelly Jackson worked multiple jobs as she raised Scott, instilling in her son the same drive as when he had to find ways to fund his football dream. Scott eventually received a diagnosis of cramp-fasciculation syndrome, a peripheral nerve disorder, and returned the next season to Louisiana Tech. Another hurdle was cleared with the help of his mother.

“Here’s a mom who has these two boys who are going a million miles an hour. Somehow, someway she always found a way to get them where they needed to be and be great kids and great students,” Weiner said. “I think when you see that modeled on a daily basis, that’s probably extra motivation, like ‘I have people who are doubting me and that’s fuel and motivation, but I also have people who believe in me and I want to come through for them just as much.’”

Scott, determined to make the most of his roster spot, was one of the first players each day on the practice field. He told Louisiana Tech coach Skip Holtz that he could field punts — he was willing to do whatever was needed to find playing time.

“I said, ‘You can’t catch punts, Boston. You’re too short.’ Just joking with him,” Holtz said. “He said, ‘No, watch this.’ I think the first one hit him in the head. But to his credit, this is who he is. He showed up every day before practice, out there early to catch punts for the rest of his career. It got to the point that he was really good.

“I say he’s a journeyman and I don’t mean that as a negative. There’s no job too small for him.”

Juluke, in his first year as the school’s running backs coach, was the one who found Scott in line for classes that summer day and brought him to the football field.

Scott planned to head home after he finalized his schedule. He was now staying, Juluke told him.

“He was ready to go without a hiccup,” said Juluke, now the associate head coach at Florida. “It was my first year in college football and I was surprised he didn’t have offers because his high-school tape was really good. You could see the shiftiness. But when you’re small in stature, not everyone wants to take a chance on you.”

Scott’s work ethic — “It was always, ‘Coach, I can do this. I can do that,’” Holtz said — was finally rewarded when the team gave him a scholarship in December 2015 just as he was thinking about dropping out. Two weeks later, Scott rushed for 90 yards in the second half of a bowl game victory over Arkansas State. The journeyman proved worthy of a scholarship.

“Boston is the farthest thing from entitled on the planet,” said Holtz, now the head coach and general manager of the USFL champion Birmingham Stallions. “I love the guy and it was one of the more rewarding things to give him a scholarship. The team went crazy because he was such a positive influence in the locker room. The guy is as positive as anybody. I don’t think you’ll ever hear him say anything negative.”

No longer worrying about tuition, Scott scored 15 TDs in his final two seasons while averaging more than 6 yards per carry. He started college in line for orientation and finished it preparing for the NFL draft.

“Still, there was that part of me that said, ‘Man, I hope he doesn’t get his hopes up. Golly, I believe he can, but I’m not the one making decisions,’” Weiner said.

Weiner was at his daughter’s dance recital on draft day in 2018 with one eye on the stage and one eye on his phone. As the selections rolled in without Scott’s name being called, his old high school coach turned off the draft and watched the recital.

“I just kind of gave up. I guess it’s not meant to be,” Weiner said. “All of a sudden, my phone started blowing up. I started tearing up.”

Scott was drafted in the sixth round by the Saints, the team he grew up rooting for. He had a terrific training camp and made the hometown squad. Scott just needed a chance. But he was waived four days after making the team when the Saints needed an offensive lineman for the season opener.

“I was crushed,” Weiner said. “I was telling my team about dealing with adversity and having these dreams and thinking you have it and then all of a sudden I started crying. I had to compose myself.”

Scott’s dream wasn’t over yet. He just had to clear yet another hurdle. Scott joined the Saints practice squad and was signed in December 2018 by the Eagles. He kept pushing, believing in himself when it seemed like no one else was. A season later, Scott helped the Eagles clinch the division title by scoring three touchdowns in the 2019 season finale against the Giants.

Scott, who once washed cars to fund his dream, received his NFL chance and became a Giant killer. On Saturday night, the league’s shortest running back will keep his unlikely dream alive.

“Believe in yourself, believe in your abilities, and you can accomplish anything that you want to accomplish,” Juluke said. “Whether that’s the NFL or that’s becoming a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Anything is possible if you put your mind, your heart, and your desire into it. That’s all the things that embody Boston Scott. He’s the Little Engine That Could.”

» READ MORE: ‘The vision is big’: Boston Scott sees a future for himself with both the Eagles and esports