Stephen F. Long @stephenflong1 - Twitter Profile

Last fall, Montorie Foster Jr. was standing in front of a freshman Latin class at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio. He didn't know any Latin. "So I was like, man, do y'all's homework and I will just be here watching you all," Foster said. "And it was all good from there." Today, he made the Seattle Seahawks 53 man roster. Here's how a substitute teacher gets there. Foster went undrafted out of Michigan State in 2025 and signed with Seattle as a free agent. Weeks into his first training camp, he got hurt and was waived with an injury designation. He went home to Cleveland with no contract and no clear path back. Sixteen weeks passed with nothing. He got his real estate license and started working open houses. He took the substitute teaching job at his own alma mater, walking back into the same classrooms he'd sat in as a student, working alongside teachers who'd once taught him. He kept training the whole time anyway. "It was tough, man," Foster said. "There were times where I wanted to give up and just get a regular job." On December 30, the Seahawks signed him to the practice squad. He was there for the postseason run, and Seattle went on to win Super Bowl LX. So a guy who made $13,000 in football earnings that year finished it with a championship ring. He then did what any rational person with a Super Bowl ring and a real estate license would do. He started bringing the ring to open houses. By his own admission, it has produced exactly zero home sales so far. Seattle brought him back on a futures contract in February, and he spent this summer in one of the most crowded receiver rooms in football. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, Rashid Shaheed, Tory Horton, Jake Bobo. All locks. Foster was fighting for what might have been one spot, against a half dozen other candidates. He led the team with five catches in the preseason opener against Dallas and caught Seattle's only touchdown that night. Cameras from Hard Knocks caught the whole run. "Happy for Montorie," head coach Mike Macdonald said. "All the things he felt in camp, he felt during the game." One more detail worth knowing. Foster played exactly one year of high school football before all of this. A year ago he was watching kids do homework in a class he couldn't teach, wondering if football was over. Today he's on the roster of the defending Super Bowl champions.

thesportsontap's tweet photo. Last fall, Montorie Foster Jr. was standing in front of a freshman Latin class at St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio.

He didn't know any Latin.

"So I was like, man, do y'all's homework and I will just be here watching you all," Foster said. "And it was all good from there."

Today, he made the Seattle Seahawks 53 man roster.

Here's how a substitute teacher gets there.

Foster went undrafted out of Michigan State in 2025 and signed with Seattle as a free agent. Weeks into his first training camp, he got hurt and was waived with an injury designation. He went home to Cleveland with no contract and no clear path back.

Sixteen weeks passed with nothing. He got his real estate license and started working open houses. He took the substitute teaching job at his own alma mater, walking back into the same classrooms he'd sat in as a student, working alongside teachers who'd once taught him.

He kept training the whole time anyway.

"It was tough, man," Foster said. "There were times where I wanted to give up and just get a regular job."

On December 30, the Seahawks signed him to the practice squad. He was there for the postseason run, and Seattle went on to win Super Bowl LX.

So a guy who made $13,000 in football earnings that year finished it with a championship ring.

He then did what any rational person with a Super Bowl ring and a real estate license would do. He started bringing the ring to open houses.

By his own admission, it has produced exactly zero home sales so far.

Seattle brought him back on a futures contract in February, and he spent this summer in one of the most crowded receiver rooms in football. Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, Rashid Shaheed, Tory Horton, Jake Bobo. All locks. Foster was fighting for what might have been one spot, against a half dozen other candidates.

He led the team with five catches in the preseason opener against Dallas and caught Seattle's only touchdown that night. Cameras from Hard Knocks caught the whole run.

"Happy for Montorie," head coach Mike Macdonald said. "All the things he felt in camp, he felt during the game."

One more detail worth knowing. Foster played exactly one year of high school football before all of this.

A year ago he was watching kids do homework in a class he couldn't teach, wondering if football was over.

Today he's on the roster of the defending Super Bowl champions.

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Michael Coats Jr. was good at football as a kid. Everyone around Louisville, Mississippi, knew the little running back tearing up Pop Warner games. Then in ninth grade, he quit. Football, and every other sport. "I just didn't have a drive for it," Coats said. "I can't tell you why. I just honestly didn't have a drive for it." He never played a single down of high school football. Instead of practice, he worked the 5 PM to 1 AM shift at an arcade, selling tokens. He graduated high school and kept doing exactly that. At some point, standing behind that counter, something clicked. "I realized that that wasn't something I wanted to do with my life." Here's the part that sounds made up. Coats was scrolling Facebook when he saw an advertisement for open tryouts at East Central Community College, a JUCO program in Mississippi. His friends who played college ball would come home in the summer and run 7-on-7 with him, and he'd kept up with all of them. So he went to the tryout. Off a Facebook flyer. Having not played organized football since he was 14. He made the team. Three years at JUCO. Then two seasons at Nevada. Then a transfer to West Virginia for his final year, where he started all 12 games and became one of the top cover corners in the Big 12, giving up just 17 catches and one touchdown all season. At his Pro Day, the 5-foot-9 corner ran a 4.39 forty, faster than everybody else there. He was never invited to the NFL Combine. That time would have finished third among all cornerbacks who were. He went undrafted in April. The Browns signed him as a free agent anyway. Today, Cleveland put him on their 53 man roster. Coats has thought about the years he stepped away, and he doesn't regret them. "I'm a big believer in God, and it was a journey, and maybe it wasn't meant for me to play then. Maybe that time that I worked hard and stepped away gave me an advantage because I'm still fresh right now, not banged up knees and bruises. Everything happened for a reason." A kid who quit the game at 14, spent his nights in an arcade, and found his way back through a Facebook ad is now in the NFL.