Former Alabama Crimson Tide running back Glen Coffee wants to get back into football, and now as an NFL free agent, he's going to be an interesting option for a team looking to sign a running back who can compete from day one.
Coffee, who's 30-years-old, played at Alabama from 2005-2008, racking up 2,107 total rushing yards and 16 total touchdowns for the Crimson Tide. His best season, 2008, saw him rush 233 times for 1,383 yards and 10 touchdowns. It was a good enough campaign that Coffee decided to test the NFL Draft waters despite having a senior season of eligibility left at Alabama.
He was drafted in the third round of the 2009 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers and played one season in the NFL before deciding to join the Army. He went to Army Ranger School and enlisted in 2013, serving in the Army infantry for just under four years.
That old itch to play football has apparently come back for the former Crimson Tide standout, though, because his agent told Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network that Coffee will be making a comeback. He was reinstated by the NFL this past Friday and waived by the 49ers, which means he's now effectively a free agent, ready to rock.
Jeremy Bergman of NFL.com passed on Rapoport's reporting, adding this from Coffee's agent:
Oubre added that Coffee "is in great shape", thanks to his Army Ranger training and conditioning, and is "looking for an opportunity to compete."
In that respect, Coffee's time away from football will simultaneously help and hurt him. He's obviously going to be rusty, from a pure football perspective, as he's eight-ish years removed from his last snap of meaningful football.
With that said, his agent is correct in pointing out that Army Ranger training has likely kept Coffee in very good shape and in terms of character and locker-room presence, you can't go wrong bringing in a player who not only played at a high level at Alabama, but cared enough about his country to dedicate nearly four years of service to it.
That's a win-win from a PR perspective for an NFL team, and who knows, perhaps Coffee still does have something left to give.
He played in 14 games for San Francisco during the 2009 season, starting two. He rushed 83 times for 226 yards and a touchdown while also adding 11 receptions and 76 yards through the air.
