Carl Crawford--part of Tampa Bay's foundation of talent: young outfielder is a vital piece to the Devil Rays' hopes of turning club into a contender for post-season play.

YOU GROW UP IN HOUSTON, Texas, and football is king. You score a touchdown every game of your senior year in high school and have every college football coach in the country salivating.

You are offered a scholarship to play at the University of Nebraska with an NFL future four years down the road. You are Tampa Bay Devil Rays left fielder Carl Crawford and you turn it down to be the cornerstone of one of the worst teams in baseball.

The year was 1999 and Carl Crawford turned it all down, the scholarship, the NFL career, all for a chance to play for Tampa Bay, a team that never finished out of last place until 2004. He said no to Nebraska and yes to the Devil Rays and five years later, he was playing before his hometown fans, the ones who expected to see him on College Gameday, as a major league All-Star.

Crawford started playing football and baseball around the time of his 10th birthday.

"I saw almost immediately once I started playing that I had a gift the other kids didn't have," Crawford said. "I knew I had the talent to do something with it, and when I went to high school, things just kept getting better for me."

Crawford is humble; he is reluctant to talk about the things he's accomplished, such as leading the American League last season in stolen bases (59) and triples (19), but he has some good memories of his football days back at Jefferson Davis High School in Houston.

"Every game I would break one for over 50 yards," Crawford said. "For me, football was easier than baseball. I know if I went to Nebraska I could have made an impact right away, but the Devil Rays gave me the opportunity to make money for my family and that was the most important thing to me at the time."