The first night of the 2015 NFL draft lacked for drama and high-profile trades, so it fell to a Duke medical student to provide one of the night's better moments.
Laken Tomlinson, an offensive lineman from Duke, is now a member of the Lions after Detroit traded down from the 23rd to the 28th pick. A first-team All-American this past year, Tomlinson is expected to help shore up an offensive line that desperately needs to protect quarterback Matt Stafford.
But Tomlinson's position isn't the best part of his story; how he got to this point is. He arrived in America from Jamaica at age 10, and grew 7 inches and 80 pounds in his first year here. He would take multiple buses and trains in Chicago to get to high school, traveling the same roads he followed on Thursday to arrive at the NFL's draft central. Once at Duke, he dove into the medical field, shadowing neurosurgeons at Duke University Hospital even as he practiced football.
"Obviously, with concussions and concussion research, there's a lot going on right now," Tomlinson told The Associated Press. "Having the knowledge I have right now, I'm still in love with the game."
Tomlinson earned what he has, but he's driven to do more. He lost his grandfather, an inspiration, when he was in 10th grade, and Tomlinson never got over the fact that his grandfather might not have died had he had more access to better medical care. So while football is going to be a profitable, if not necessarily pleasant, distraction for Tomlinson, his real work still lies ahead.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at [email protected] or find him on Twitter.
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