Robert Drummond was a flash on Baltimore's CFL horizon when he rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns last Saturday.
But the 27-year-old running back was no overnight success story.
By the time Drummond lined up for the second start of his pro career, he already had passed through three NFL cities. The travel log showed he had been cut by two teams and turned loose as a Plan B free agent by another.
That wasn't pressure he felt in Baltimore's Eastern semifinal playoff game, though; it was opportunity.
"My philosophy was, as much as I've been through, nothing else worse could happen to me," Drummond said yesterday.
"I'd either fall on my face and it wouldn't matter because no one expected much. Or I'd go out and shine."
Replays will show that Drummond did not fall -- even on the touchdown play an official took away from him because his right knee supposedly touched turf.
What Drummond did was refuel Baltimore's Grey Cup drive, giving injured Mike Pringle a week of rest.
Sunday, he returns to a backup role for the CFLs' Eastern final.
"My mother always tells me to be patient, my time will come," he said. "She says nothing in this world comes free. As long as I put in the hard work, eventually, I'll get there."
He started out in the Syracuse housing projects as the oldest of two children in a single-parent family. He lived in a rough neighborhood until his mother, Vernita Drummond, moved to the white suburbs. What he found there was success.
"It was culture shock," he said. "I'd be in playground games when I was 11 and 12, playing against guys 18 and 19 -- and I'd still dominate."
By the time he was a freshman at Jamesville-DeWitt High, he was being wooed by college recruiters. And when he wasn't running wild in football, he was a one-man track team.
He ran in the 100 meters and the high hurdles, and competed in the discus, javelin and pole vault.
Versatility would become his trademark at Syracuse University, too, where he moved from running back to wide receiver back to runner.
Drummond hit the NFL in 1989 as a third-round draft choice of the Philadelphia Eagles. That's where the fast lane turned to a slow crawl.
The Eagles knew Drummond was a gifted athlete, but they didn't know quite how to use him. Running back or receiver? Even when he rushed for 75 yards and had 79 yards in receptions in a start against San Diego his rookie year, they weren't sure. "It was a midseason game, and I got only 15 carries the rest of the year," he said.
He lasted three years with the Eagles, who did not protect him in the Plan B free agency era. Drummond signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1992, but lost out to Barry Foster, Merril Hoge, Larry Thompson and Warren Williams.
In 1993, he signed with the Denver Broncos. They went shopping for running backs that year and paid $4 million for Rod Bernstein, $1 million for Robert Delpino, and drafted Glyn Milburn in the second round. So much for opportunity in Denver.
"I can't sit around and cry about spilled milk," Drummond said. "Things happen for a reason. That's the way life is.
"I have a good friend, offensive lineman Cecil Gray, with the Eagles who told me I might have to sit out a year or two before I got a chance to show my ability, and then I'd take off."
It was as close to prophesy as you can come. Drummond sat out the 1992 and 1993 seasons waiting for a shot. When no NFL team offered even a tryout this summer, he opted for Baltimore and the CFL.
"It wasn't difficult at all," Drummond said. "It seemed the NFL was snubbing me, so I came here to play."
He said he didn't consider Saturday's game a reward for his perseverance. Rather, it was confirmation of what he has believed all along.
"I see it as something I could have been doing my entire career," he said. "It's like saying [to the NFL], 'See, I told you so.' "
Now, he will wait his turn once again. Pringle, he knows, is the starter in Baltimore.
"All I want to do is beat Winnipeg, go to the Grey Cup and then I'll worry about the rest of that stuff later," he said.