April 27, 2008

By Chuck Klonke, DetroitLions.com

ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Jerome Felton decided in the fifth grade that soccer wasn't his sport.

Although he spent the early part of his life in soccer-hungry West Germany, he wasn't fond of the sport.

"There was too much running. I didn't like it," said the fullback from Furman, who was the second of the Lions' fifth-round draft picks. "It was too much running without scoring. It was almost like I was running without a reason. So I switched to football."

And he found a reason to run and made the most of it -- to the tune of 67 touchdowns in his college career.

Felton wasn't surprised when he got the call from the Lions, but he knew that if they didn't pick him with the 146th pick, he'd go to either Buffalo or Arizona, who had two of the next three selections.

"I talked to coach (Sam) Gash a lot during the process," Felton said. "He was at my pro day and was at my personal meetings. They didn't tell me they were going to draft me, but they showed a lot of interest.

"I'm ecstatic. Coach Gash was a great fullback and there's no better person to learn under than him."

During his career at Furman, Felton was used in a variety of ways. No matter how he was used, however, he produced. During his last three seasons, he had rushing totals of 940, 707 and 705 yards, but more impressive are the 67 touchdowns -- 63 rushing -- that he scored in four seasons with the Paladins.

"At Furman I ran one-back and I ran fullback," Felton said. "I had success there. However I fit in at Detroit, I'll be willing to do that. I can't wait to get up there and help Detroit to win.

"I had a lot of short-yardage and goal-line carries, but there was a lot of middle-of-the-field running, too. In our offense, I was pretty diverse and got a chance to do a lot of different things. Hopefully, that's one of the reasons the Lions liked me."

When asked if he got tired scoring all of those touchdowns, Felton had a quick comeback.

"Today rejuvenated me," he said. "I'm brand new."

You'd think Felton would have had plenty of opportunties to develop a touchdown celebration that might rival those of Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens, but that was hardly the case.

"They're pretty strict at Furman, so I kept my celebrations to a minimum," Felton said with a laugh.

Felton's background is one of the most interesting of this year's draft class.

He was born in Duren, West Germany, where his mother, Sabrina Felton-Curtis, was a professional gymnast. When he was in the seventh grade, Jerome took the ACT as part of Duke's Talent Search program. His score was high enough to enroll in summer and night courses at Hiwassee College in Madisonville, Tenn., and between the seventh and 11th grades, he completed 19 hours of college credits.

Jerome isn't the only member of his family who is academically inclined. His mother teaches science at Hiwassee College and his 17-year-old brother, Eamon, is entering medical school in the fall.

"Academics has always been a big part of my life, and fortunately, my family has some good athletic genes and I've tried to steal a few of them away from my mom and dad," Felton said.