It was only a flag football game, but Ryan Anderson didn't care.
The Washington Redskins' second-round draft pick was then a rising senior at Daphne High School in Daphne, Ala., preparing for his final shot to impress scouts before eventually signing with the University of Alabama. Prior to the season, a 7-on-7 flag football tournament was in order with some local teams in the area and Daphne had lost a couple of its first games.
Anderson's team was in line for another loss against Hueytown, which boasted quarterback Jameis Winston, the eventual 2015 first-round draft pick, when a a near scuffle broke out.
On a previous possession, according to an AL.com feature, Winston beat Anderson for a two-point conversion, completing a pass to a receiver Anderson had been covering. On Hueytown's next offensive snap, Winston looked at Anderson and gave him a wink, as though he were coming for him again.
Incensed, Anderson slammed down his Hueytown receiver, which prompted some verbal firings and some pushing and shoving. It was a small window into the type of player Anderson would become.
A similar instance describes his passion.
During a touch practice in high school, in which plays are ruled dead once an offensive player makes contact with a defender, a freshman running back finished a rush play for an extra 10 yards after the whistle had blown.
Anderson didn't like that very much, picked up the freshman and slammed him to the ground – proving quite the loud point.
"The little freshman didn't run 10 yards after being tagged off anymore after that," his assistant high school coach Glenn Vickery said. "But Ryan's always been that way, and he brought other players to that level for us. Ryan's intensity lifted other players up and his work habits. And I'm telling you, when Ryan said 'Let's go,' they got in line. He was that kind of guy."
