CLEVELAND, Ohio – There’s a scene early in the movie “Major League” where Willie Mays Hayes shows up at Indians spring training, shaking hands and proclaiming that he hits like Mays and runs like Hayes.
One problem, though. He wasn’t invited to spring training. After security escorts his sleeping body – bed and all – out of the facility overnight, Willie wakes up as players are being timed in sprints.
Determined as ever, he jumps out of bed and into a race that has already begun. Despite being in bare feet and pajamas, Willie blows past the other participants. Not long after that, somebody gets him a uniform.
There are a couple lessons here: confidence can lead to opportunity, and speed can get you noticed.
Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi is living proof of this. And it’s why the little-known wide receiver/kick returner is catching passes from Baker Mayfield today.
Back in late March, Sheehy-Guiseppi was in need of a future.
He had been a junior college All-American kick returner for Phoenix College (not to be confused with the University of Phoenix online school). But when his 2016 season didn’t earn him a scholarship at Phoenix, he went in search of bigger opportunities.
Armed with a credit card and determination (and his game film), Sheehy-Guiseppi went on a tour of Division I universities in early 2017, hoping for a chance to show what he could do.
The trip to SEC and Big 12 schools wasn’t very fruitful. Only one school watched his tape. But he did get plenty of bad news. He learned that he had just one year of eligibility remaining (he had attended another juco prior to Phoenix). Also, he was nine credits short of being able to transfer.
And now he didn’t have enough money to return to school.
So Sheehy-Guiseppi hatched a plan to go pro.
“I’m going to go to Florida and start with the Tampa Bay Bucs and I’m going to go to every facility I can, go all the way across the country and see if I can just walk in there and give it a shot,” he said.
Sheehy-Guiseppi remained based in Arizona and trained for more than a year, looking for tryout opportunities while networking.
He drove to Las Vegas for a CFL tryout, paid his $100 to participate, ran a 40, did his workout, and then, nothing. After the tryout he learned that the odds of a player being signed from the event were slim to none.
“We don’t really take anybody off the tryouts,” he was told.
“So you’re telling me that out of the 100 cases here that tried out, you’re not going to take any of them?” he asked.
“Yeah, we already have a full team.”
“So there was no point.”
An Arena Football League tryout for multiple teams in Atlanta didn’t work out, either.
Then, earlier this year, a connection made through a flag football league in Arizona paid off. A friend of a friend knew of an NFL workout in Miami. Sheehy-Guiseppi got the address and headed to Florida.
One problem, though. He wasn’t invited.
The flag football connection was reluctant to give out the address of the workout at first. But Sheehy-Guiseppi was desperate. He didn’t care if it was an invite-only event. This was an opportunity, and he’d make it work.
When he finally got the address, he also got some advice: look for Alonzo Highsmith at the workout.
Who?
Sheehy-Guiseppi typed the name into Google and found out he was the Browns’ vice president of player personnel. Good to know. He also made note of what Highsmith looked like.
Sheehy-Guiseppi made it to Miami and headed to the workout, where he was met with confusion. But he was prepared for that.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi. I’m here for the tryout.”
“Do you know Alonzo?”
“Yeah, I know Alonzo.”
The confidence paid off. Sheehy-Guiseppi had his foot in the door. To make sure his story didn’t fall apart, as soon as he saw Highsmith, he ran to him and introduced himself.
“I just knew I had to make it look like we were friends,” Sheehy-Guiseppi said. “Alonzo was real nice to me.”
The workout began and Sheehy-Guiseppi stood out. He caught punts, he caught passes, and, best of all, his 40 time was 4.38. Only five wide receivers at the 2019 NFL combine ran faster than that.
Speed. It got Highsmith’s attention.
About 30 minutes after the workout ended, Sheehy-Guiseppi’s phone rang. It was Highsmith, with an offer to visit Berea for an official tryout.
That was great news, but the tryout was a week away and he didn't have money to fly back home. He also didn't have money to rent a room for the entire week. So Sheehy-Guiseppi improvised, sleeping outside, sleeping at a 24-hour fitness center, and then outside a training facility he was using to prepare for his workout.
Train. Sleep. Eat very little. That was the schedule leading up to the biggest day of his life.
“Then we got a chance to see him for ourselves and you could see all of the explosive movement stuff that Alonzo was talking about,” said GM John Dorsey. “Then when you watch him field kicks and punts, you are going, ‘OK, he can do this kind of stuff.’
“Now, he has not played in a couple of years, but it will not be because of lack of determination because this is a very determined young man.”
Sheehy-Guiseppi became a member of the Browns on April 5.
He understands that he’s a longshot. Maybe the longest of longshots.
“Yeah, it would be a great story if it happens, but he has to come and show that he deserves to be here,” Dorsey said.
Sheehy-Guiseppi is 24. He hasn’t played competitive football since 2016. And even then, it wasn’t that competitive. Being in Berea for OTAs has highlighted the chasm between junior college and the NFL.
“It’s definitely way different than I thought,” he said. “You’re training and it’s like, ‘Yeah, I think I’m capable of doing this.’ And when you get here it’s eye-opening. It’s all these little details that you don’t think of until you get here. You have to figure out all the details and really work to learn all the things you need to learn on the fly. You get the playbook, and then an hour later you have to go perform it on the field.”
To Sheehy-Guiseppi, returning a kick was always pretty straight-forward. “I thought it was you just catch the ball, and you just run,” he said. That worked at Phoenix, where led the nation in kick-return yards (1,278) and return touchdowns (four) in 2016.
But the NFL is something different.
“Now here there’s techniques that helps you catch the ball and make a move faster,” he said. “It’s like, you’re already fast, but if you catch the ball cleaner, you get going faster. Those little details, I never knew about.”
At OTAs, Sheehy-Guiseppi has run drills with the wide receivers, operating with a third-team group that includes Jaelen Strong, Ishmael Hyman and Dorian Baker. As a returner, he’s competing with Antonio Callaway, Dontrell Hilliard and D’Ernest Johnson.
With the Browns’ wide receiver unit being so deep, Sheehy-Guiseppi is likely looking at a special teams role as his path to the final 53.
“If Damon is going to be the guy, then he has to play on more than just return phases,” said special teams coordinator Mike Priefer. “You have to be a guy that is going to help us in the cover phases, as well.”
Last Wednesday, Priefer praised Sheehy-Guiseppi’s positioning during a faux-tackling drill for special-teamers. Later, in seven-on-seven drills, he caught a pass from Garrett Gilbert with third-round pick Sione Takitaki on his back.
Still, showing what he can do on returns in preseason games will likely be Sheehy-Guiseppi’s best shot at a roster spot. And even then, a lack of experience might have him destined for a practice squad.
“No matter what opportunity I’m given, I want to become the greatest,” he said. “If it’s practice squad, I want to become the greatest practice squad player.”
As Wednesday’s practice ended and players headed for the locker room, Sheehy-Guiseppi stayed after and joined a handful of teammates catching kicks shot from a JUGS machine. After that, he moved to a far practice field with cornerback Robert Jackson, who spent last season on the Texans’ and Browns’ practice squads.
Again and again, Sheehy-Guiseppi lined up for an imaginary play and practiced getting off the line of scrimmage against Jackson. Eventually, they were the only two players left on the field.
Confidence and speed got him here. But Sheehy-Guiseppi knows that if there’s a movie ending out there for him, he’ll have to work for it.