4-Foot-2 WR Walks Onto NCAA Football Team
As a general rule, “three inches shorter than Peter Dinklage” and “college-level wide receiver” don’t go together.
But his small stature ins’t stopping Ricardo Benitez Jr. from pursuing his NCAA dreams.
Benitez was born without femurs; just imagine having your legs amputated below the waist and above the knees and then trying to walk, never mind run and play football.
Indeed, when doctors discovered the defect — called femur hypoplasia bilateral — during JoAnne Benitez’s pregnancy 18 years ago, they told that her unborn child would probably never take his first steps, the Waco (Texas) Herald-Tribune reported in June.
Doctors then did the unthinkable and suggested that she terminate the pregnancy. But JoAnne Benitez chose life.
“I remember falling to pieces, and I would be in the car pleading with God to let me keep this baby,” she told the Herald-Tribune. “Abortion was not an option for me. It took a lot of faith and a lot of prayer to get through that.”
Four months later, young Ricardo was born, healthy except for the missing leg bones. And when you look down and consider your own legs, it should come as no surprise that Benitez only grew to 4 feet 2 and 100 pounds.
Now, however, he is a walk-on at Baylor, CBS News reported Tuesday.
It had been a dream for Benitez to join the Bears, but earlier this month he thought he wouldn’t be able to afford to go.
“I thought by now things would come together but it just didn’t,” he told the Herald-Tribune. “I was calling the financial aid advisers this past week and it was just way too much for one year.”
But Camryn Moortgat, a friend of his in Plano, Texas, started a GoFundMe page to raise money for Benitez to go to Baylor. “Ricardo’s story has already been able to inspire, but imagine the power of his presence on a Division-I football field,” Moortgat, wrote. “Imagine how inspired a kid with a disability will be by seeing Ricardo on that field.”
So far the effort has taken in more than $16,000 toward its goal of $20,000, which is enough to get him on campus.
It brings me so much joy that people came together to make this possible. I started my first day at Baylor University this morning, and I love it so much already. I promise to make everyone who made this happen PROUD. I will not let y'all down🐻! #ThankYou
— no femur kid (@nofemurkid) August 20, 2018
Benitez played football at Plano West High School and got into the game twice as a senior.
Of course, he was a fan favorite, and his teammates went wild whenever Benitez was on the field.
“The sideline just erupted when he went into games,” said Plano West coach Scott Smith. “He was always hooting and hollering and encouraging them from the sidelines. So when you flipped it and he got into games, they went crazy. He’s just such an inspirational person, and I can’t say enough for what he did for our football team.”
While Benitez is at Baylor first and foremost to get an education, his presence on the team is an inspirational lesson for all of us never to let the hand we’re dealt get in the way of how we play the poker game of life.
Indeed, he used exactly that analogy when describing his own situation.
“People say I was dealt a bad hand, but I felt I was dealt the best hand in the world even though I’m playing with half my legs,” Benitez said. “I wouldn’t be doing this just for me. I know every time I’m playing, somebody wants to be in my position. Kids who can’t walk, I know they’d like to be out there.”
You can’t help but like a guy who plays 7-2 unsuited like he’s got pocket aces.
“Growing up in Texas I saw all the boys wanting to play football and I didn’t want to be different,” Benitez said. “I’m playing football and people think it’s crazy. But it’s a blessing. I understand that what I’m doing has such a great impact on people.”
His mother tells stories with great pride about her son overcoming his disability.
“He didn’t start walking until he was 2 or 3,” JoAnne Benitez told the Herald-Tribune. “Before then he was getting around by rolling or pulling himself up with his arms. His brother is 18 months younger. When Ricardo saw Edward standing up, he wanted to do what he was doing. Ricardo stood up and balanced himself and that was special.”
He also was fortunate to have parents who fought for him to be treated like other students.
“In kindergarten they enrolled him as a special needs student,” JoAnne Benitez said. “They assisted him with his eating and maneuvered him around the classroom, and he wasn’t allowed to sit with other kids at lunch. An assistant was carrying his lunch tray, and I said, ‘Let him carry his own tray.’ Every time they tried to separate him from the other kids, I’d say I wanted Ricardo in the regular PE classes.”
The Benitez family also, upon a doctor declining to give Ricardo medical clearance, decided to simply get a second opinion. And then a third opinion … and a fourth … and a fifth … and a sixth. All the doctors said the same thing: You need femurs to play football.
Finally, a doctor at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas gave Ricardo an “aye, laddie” to his request to play, and it was game on.
“I was in middle school when the seventh doctor signed off on me,” Benitez said. “I knew it wasn’t going to be sunshine and roses, and it would probably get tougher, but that was the first battle.”
Rather than put him in at receiver, his middle school coach made him a defensive lineman, not normally a position that goes to a kid who’s 4 feet 2 and 100 pounds.
But not even that stopped Benitez, who demonstrated that he was missing femurs, not brain lobes.
“Honestly, I’d go through their knees,” Ricardo said. “I played on all fours and had to bear crawl around my freshman year. Some kids didn’t know how to block me. I started a couple of games at defensive tackle and I had fun and just loved it.”
His story also serves as an example of the importance of locker room chemistry, because Ricardo Benitez Jr. does nothing in his life halfway.
“He wanted to be treated like everyone else,” Smith said. “He’d show up and work hard and do all the little things. He went through all the progressions and drills in practice with an eye for always trying to get better. He never complained and always set an example for the rest of the guys. We’d never say you can’t do that because he always found a way.”
On a Baylor team that has faced no shortage of scandals over the years, having a guy on the squad who might never play in a game but who will always serve as an example for his teammates might well be worth using a scholarship on him.
Because even though the chances of Benitez making the NFL are between slim and none, he deserves a chance to be the very best example of what a student athlete can be.
And besides, who wants to ruin the ending to this Hollywood movie playing out in real life?
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