One of the newest and most unlikely NFL pipelines isn't a college or a trainer. It's a youth football league founded by the rapper formerly known as Snoop Dogg.
Calvin Broadus -- aka Snoop Dogg, aka Snoop Lion -- is the proud proprietor of the Snoop Youth Football League (SYFL), a pee-wee league in Los Angeles that produced three NFL signees this spring.
De'Anthony Thomas, selected by the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth round of the NFL draft, joined 2012 NFL draftee Ronnie Hillman as the first two alums of Snoop's league to be drafted. This year two other SYFL alum -- Kam Jackson (Indianapolis Colts) and Greg Ducre (San Diego Chargers) -- signed on with NFL teams.
“Our kids, they go hard,” Snoop told TMZ. “They know what they want in life. When they get to the position where they can go to the level they try their best. They really put in the work to get to the next level. I expect many more to follow that. In the next 10 years, I see 50 kids from SYFL play in the NFL.”
The SYFL was founded in 2005 and currently has somewhere between 1,500 and 1,700 players. There's a strong focus on academics, and players with good GPAs can get discounts on registration fees. Snoop, who provides the majority of the funding for the league, told TMZ that he's looking to implement a policy where kids with a 3.0 GPA or better can play for free.
Snoop's best hope for an NFL star may come in the form of his son, Cordell Broadus. The 6-foot-3 receiver is one of the nation's best prospects and has offers from USC, Notre Dame, LSU and Florida State.
