Arkansas man shares story of going from Stuttgart to NFL
A small-town Arkansas man is sharing how his hard work and community support have helped him tackle his way into the NFL alongside the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
STUTTGART, Ark. — A young boy who began his life and career in Stuttgart, Arkansas, is now going to Tampa Bay, Florida, to play in the NFL.
“This doesn’t happen to a town like this, with somebody making big all the time,” said Vincent White, the childhood coach and mentor for David Walker. “So this isn’t normal to us.”
In a town as small as Stuttgart (population of 7,788), it has certainly been a rarity for someone who grew up there to make it to the highest level in football –but that’s exactly what former Ricebird David Walker has done.
“If I look back five years ago, I would never expect something like this to happen,” Walker said. “Just seeing that the community’s got my back and that I got a lot of people rooting for me is everything.”
The community that Walker spoke of came out in full force to Ricebird Arena on Monday, where they celebrated Walker and sent him off in style.
This included students 4th-12th grades from the Stuttgart School District in attendance as well as the high school’s band and speeches from his youth pastor, childhood coach, high school football coach, and the district’s superintendent.
Maybe the most notable was the appearance and announcement from Stuttgart Mayor Norma King Strabala.
Strabala announced that April 26th (the day Walker was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) would now be known as “David Walker Day” in Stuttgart.
“Yeah, that’s crazy,” Walker said of the honor. “I would never have expected that for sure, it’s still mind-blowing. I still haven’t comprehended everything that happened today. But, man, I’m thankful.”
Walker had an unconventional path to the NFL, one that included college stops in the Division II ranks at SAU and in the FCS ranks at UCA.
“Just taking that D2 route, I feel like it molded me for this moment,” Walker said. “All the things that I’ve encountered, all the people I’ve met, I feel like it just shaped me to embrace it.”
The linebacker will now head to Tampa Bay to play for the Buccaneers, but while he’ll be a thousand miles away, there’s one thing that will never change.
“I got a community full of people just having my back and just being there when I need it,” Walker said.
“We are a small mid-town, so when somebody like him from where he is, he’s gonna have all our support. This whole town will probably be Buccaneer fans now,” added white.
A small town in Arkansas, soon to be full of Buccaneer fans, all because of one guy named David Walker.