During the 2018 NFL Draft the Seattle Seahawks surprised by choosing in the fifth round to Shaquem Alfonso Griffin, the first professional player who does not have one of the upper extremities; However, while that story began to be written in the United States, in Mexico a year before David villarreal made his way into the American Football League (LFA) with the Monterrey smelters.
Since its inception in 2017, Fundidores has looked to its players for talent and intelligence, qualities that he found in David and that stood out more than the phocomelia that he suffers in the right hand, a malformation that prevented the growth of that tip.
Although the case of David Villarreal became famous in Mexico when he debuted as a professional, the battle of breaking boundaries and stigmas in a sport As the football He started from a very young age, precisely at the age of five, when in his first training sessions he showed that, although he was different, he had all the skills to play alongside his teammates.
“My dad and my uncles played football since high school, plus my dad is a doctor and that helped my parents say: ‘try to play, he will decide whether he likes it or not.’ To my first training my brother led me by the hand and the most complicated thing that day was to do a push-up, I turned to see all the children and they all did them normal and I with one arm, I didn’t even know how to do it, until a coach sat down with me and he explained to me how I could do it, I’m not going to lie, at first I couldn’t, but I kept trying until I succeeded.
“In addition, the most common is that when I play football I would have to do things the same as my teammates, and I learned that yes, that, yes I have to do what they do, but in my own way, because the conditions were not or are not the same, so as I played I was looking for a way to catch, tackle to do it with intensity, but also to avoid hurting myself and show that I can do that and more ”, says the player in interview with Indigo Report.
In addition to his love of football through family influence, David’s philosophy that his condition does not limit him led him to venture into crossfit internationally
Demonstrating that training and the way in which American football is played was not an impediment for him, it was only the first obstacle he had to overcome, since as he progressed in this sport until he reached professional level, had to silence criticism about his physical condition with different coaches that “they didn’t see a future for me in the American”
“When I started to play there were coaches on both sides who supported me and coaches who didn’t, to the point of saying that: ‘this guy is not going to play anything’ and for me that was a challenge, I am a person what do you like challengesBut you know, I always preferred to prove on the field that they were wrong than whining about what they said about me.
Here the key to adapting was living American football day by day and understanding that, although I am not the same as everyone else, I can do the same things, simply in a slightly different way, because I have the skills to do what I want and what I propose
Enough power of David Villarreal
Besides the love for football by family influence, David’s philosophy that his condition does not limit him led him to venture into the crossfit internationally, since it has had various opportunities to represent the country in different competitions.
“In the end, all this is about not being afraid, you have to fight and work, because not only because they ask for it, they are going to give it to them, you have to fight for what we want and you have to make people change their mentality of not going to be able, I will not make it, I will not go far because we are all here to be a winner, to break our goals and to be the one that swells us, ”he says.
Villarreal gives talks motivational, to make it clear that everyone has limits in mind and it is up to everyone to face life despite any circumstance that, in theory, would be a brake.
- Don’t miss the interview with David at 5:00 p.m. on the Indigo Report Facebook FACEBOOK @ R.Indigo
You can also read: Josué López, the teaching of mistakes
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