At six feet, three inches and 190 pounds, he looks like he could play just about any sport he desires. He was good enough to score multiple touchdowns on both offense and defense his final year in high school. He also was a fixture on the basketball court.
Tony Threatt has proven over the years that he doesn't just look like a very good athlete, but that he is one. He would earn first-team all-state honors as a defensive back in high school in Leeds, Ala., a city of just over 10,000 residents in the most recent census approximately 20 minutes east of Birmingham. And Threatt wasn't just making a name for himself - though he was able to attract the attention of the University of South Alabama football coaching staff - he was a part of successful programs. The Green Wave would claim the state 3A title in both football and basketball last year, his final one at Leeds High School.
Multiple state titles, all-state recognition, a scholarship to play football and help a school start its first-ever program. It seems like things just come easy to Threatt.
Not bad so far for an individual who was this close to never participating in sports from the eighth grade on.
Football is a physical sport, full of bumps and bruises. Players tear ligaments, tendons and muscles frequently. Battles in the trenches can lead to cuts that leave scars.
Threatt has a scar. It wasn't from an incident in a game. And though it is a result of surgery, the procedure wasn't caused by an injury suffered on the field. As a matter of fact, Threatt needs to remove his jersey and shoulder pads to show anyone the result of a procedure he underwent prior to the start of his freshman year of high school.
It runs approximately five inches on his chest. You see, Threatt underwent open-heart surgery for a pinched valve when he was 13 years old.
Threatt started playing football when he was five years old, and was a mainstay on the field each fall. But, when he went for his physical prior to the start of the season as an eighth grader, the doctor diagnosed a problem.
"The doctor said he thought I had a heart murmur," Threatt recalled. "I had a game the next day, but he said I could play in it and come back the next Friday so he could take me to a heart doctor. They ran tests, but they could never find out what was wrong because they really couldn't see my heart."
That would lead to Threatt undergoing an MRI - magnetic resonance imaging, a noninvasive test that helps physicians diagnose and treat medical conditions - however, the results were the same. Doctors were still unable to diagnose the issue, so that would require a surgical procedure just to see what exactly the problem was. That's when they came to the conclusion that open-heart surgery would be necessary.
Threatt wanted to have the surgery as soon as possible. "That was my decision. My parents said it was up to me," he said. "I love sports, and I knew they kept me out of trouble."
For Threatt, his fears were not in the impending surgery but in how they were going to sedate him for the procedure.
"I was only scared about how they were going to put me to sleep," he commented. "When I was young, the dentist pulled several teeth. I received laughing gas, and I didn't like that."
That's not to say he wasn't taking the surgery seriously. "I realized how serious it was, but I just wanted to get it done so I could get back on the football field and the basketball court."
Most, if not all, of his friends at the time didn't even believe that Threatt was about to undergo such a serious procedure. It took an extended absence from school after that first game of the season for them to realize what was happening.
"I missed a lot of days the week of the surgery, that's when they figured out what was going on and that I wasn't joking around," Threatt observed. "They came by and saw me, but they didn't act different after the surgery. They just knew me as Tony."
The surgery was a success, but it would mean that - because of fear what might result from contact - that Threatt would not return to the football field until his sophomore year at Leeds High. He would turn to his other love to help get through that time.
"I had basketball to fall back on," he said. "It hurt a little bit [not playing football for two years], but it wasn't that bad because I knew I could play another sport."
Threatt would be on the court two months after the procedure. "They were still kind of scared and my chest still felt a little fragile, but basketball really isn't a contact sport."
He didn't totally disengage from football, though, attending practices and going to games as a fan. That would mark the first times that he felt the pain of no longer playing the sport.
"That really hurt me because I knew I wanted to be out there," he stated.
Still, Threatt was resigned to the fact that he was going to be a one-sport athlete. That lasted until Leeds' head coach tracked him down with a question.
"I told myself that I wasn't going to play football any more, but then my high school coach asked if I would be interested in playing again. I explained to him that I would have to ask my mom and dad."
That approval would come - although his mother expressed her reservations - and Threatt would begin playing football again two years after the surgery.
Threatt would first take the field for the Green Wave in August 2006. What most might think of as a monumental moment, Threatt downplayed. "It was just like any other game, I wasn't nervous," he said. "I didn't even think about my heart, I just played. I believe that if I had thought about it that I would've played slow."
His game continued to develop after returning to the sport. His final year at LHS, Threatt would record 76 total tackles and intercept five passes, running back two of those for touchdowns. On offense, he caught 36 balls for 486 yards and seven scores as well. After going 10-0 in the regular season the Green Wave would open the state 3A playoffs with a 51-0 victory. They wouldn't give up more than a touchdown in the next two contests either, while their 24-10 win over Colbert County in the semifinals would be the closest contest they would play in the postseason. Leeds would claim the title a week later with a 38-21 defeat of Cordova High.
Threatt, who caught a 44-yard touchdown pass in the playoff opener, would go on to be named first-team all-state as well as to the Reebok Phenom List.
Still, despite all that success, it wasn't a certainty - at least in his mind - that his athletic career would continue at the collegiate level in football.
"I didn't think I would make it this far as a football player," observed Threatt. "I always thought that I would be playing basketball, but I started playing football again because of my friends and coaches."
The USA coaching staff knew that Threatt had undergone heart surgery, but it was never a factor during the recruiting process.
"We were aware of it from a history standpoint, but it really wasn't a factor," recalled Jag assistant head coach/defensive coordinator Bill Clark. "I had the privilege of recruiting Tony. His coach at Leeds, Keith Etheredge, told us a number of times that he was as fine a young man as he had ever coached - so we were starting with a kid with great character. He has a high grade-point average and works real hard, he truly is a great kid.
"From a pure athletic standpoint, he fits the mold of how you draw up a safety. He's rangy, and he has good feet, so he has the body for the position. He's a very physical guy, and he played both wide receiver and tailback in high school as well so we knew he had a lot of skills."
"It was a little later in the recruiting process when I found out about it," stated head coach Joey Jones. "Knowing what he had been through just made me think more of him and the type of person he is. You could tell he had a look in his eye. Sometimes when kids go through something like that they come out on the other side a little tougher.
"He's a great athlete who works extremely hard. When I watched him play in high school, what I was most impressed with was that when he was at receiver and the play was going away from him he would still run down the field trying to block somebody. You can tell a lot about someone when you see that - usually on the backside, guys will take the play off, especially a receiver. I've done that a few times. I was impressed with how hard he went on each play."
Threatt, along with 30 other individuals, would officially make the commitment to be a part of USA's first-ever recruiting class when he signed his Letter-of-Intent on national signing day Feb. 4.
During preseason camp in August, Threatt was a candidate to start at one of two safety slots in the Jaguar secondary, but he was slowed by a quadriceps injury. "That set me back a little bit, but I just went out there every day and tried to work hard," he said. He would return to the field, though, in time to make his collegiate debut in the fourth quarter of USA's 30-13 win over Hargrave (Va.) Military Academy on Sept. 5.
After what he had gone through in the month leading up to that moment, though, playing in a college football game wasn't cause for much concern.
"My first practice in college with pads, I was nervous during that," Threatt commented. "I was a little nervous before the first game, but once I got on the field all the jitters went away."
Threatt doesn't have to be nervous worrying about playing time in the future though, according to USA assistant coach Duwan Walker. His combination of physical attributes and abilities should ensure that a healthy Threatt will be an integral part of the Jaguar defense.
"Tony has the size that we are recruiting, we like to have vertical guys at safety," said Walker, who coaches the team's defensive backs. "He is long and rangy, and you very seldom see those guys with good feet. He is also physical, and he has speed as well. When you put all that together and you can tackle, you have a special kid.
"By the end of the year, I think that he will be one of the guys that we depend on. He's a kid that, as the season goes on, I expect to get better and better."
"Now that he has come back from the injury, we are starting to see the guy who we recruited," added Clark. "We're excited about seeing him develop."
Of course, with all that Threatt has been through in the last five years, the stress of playing in a college football game isn't that high when you consider that there was a good chance he would never have the opportunity to participate in any sport again. Just getting to this point is beyond what he ever imagined. "I never thought that I would play football at this level," he stated.
Since that's the case, his goals are focused on what he can accomplish off the field as much as what he does on it.
"First, I want to get my degree," stated Threatt. "I also want to have all little kids look up to me, I want them to believe they can accomplish the things that I have."
Once his playing days are over, Threatt is interested in a career in electrical engineering. "I like hooking things up and working with wiring, especially in sound systems," he said.
And if it's in the cards that Threatt makes a return to the basketball court during his time at USA, that's something that Jones won't have an issue with.
"We certainly will share student-athletes around here," he stated. "I don't even know if there's any interest on either side, but we definitely work with our guys if that's what they want to do."
Although injuries are a part of life as a football player, very few go through the circumstances that Tony Threatt has and continue to play the sport.
And while he is more than willing to talk to anyone about his circumstances, Threatt is not one to tell his story to every individual he meets without prompting. As a matter of fact, any of his teammates who know that he underwent open-heart surgery as a teenager usually find out after seeing the scar on his chest in the locker room. Of course, as might be expected, nearly everyone who finds out is surprised to hear what Threatt has been through.
"Sometimes I remind myself that I have come along way, but other than that I try not to think about it a lot," he said. "I'm free out there on the field, I know there aren't any problems."
There aren't now as Threatt continues to play one of the sports he fell in love with growing up. But that doesn't mean it's been an easy path for him as his collegiate career gets underway this fall.
In case you needed proof, follow the path of the scar that remains on his chest.
-USA-
