ClevelandBrowns.com says Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi earned “a first team NJCAA All-American honor in 2016, leading the nation in kick return yardage (1,278) and kick return touchdowns (four).” Then, the team’s website wrote, “Left with no collegiate options, Sheehy-Guiseppi resorted to training ‘for two years straight.’” In 2019, “Sheehy-Guiseppi arrived at a workout in North Miami after learning of the gathering from a friend of a friend made through a flag football league in Arizona.” To get there, “he’d bought a one-way flight to Miami with the last of his mother’s rewards points.”
“But Sheehy-Guiseppi had yet another problem: He wasn’t invited,” CNN reported. As ClevelandBrowns.com tells it, “he had to convince the man in charge of admission that he was supposed to be there, and that he and Highsmith were familiar. They were not.” Alonzo Highsmith was the Browns’ vice president of player personnel. “Knew nothing about him,” Highsmith said of Sheehy-Guiseppi. Still, the bluff was “enough to earn him a chance to run the 40-yard dash. A 4.38 was good enough to catch Highsmith’s eye.” Then “Sheehy-Guiseppi was on Cloud 9 after receiving an invitation to Berea for a workout one week later.”
While he waited, he stayed in Miami, “just steps away from renowned NFL Combine trainer Pete Bommarito’s facility, where Sheehy-Guiseppi had spent his last $200 on training services.” He slept outside for a few nights: “he chose the patch of grass for two nights, and a 24-hour fitness center for another,” ClevelandBrowns.com wrote, “next to a fence surrounding Bommarito’s.” CNN put it simply: “Sheehy-Guiseppi was sleeping outside a Miami gym after spending his last $200 on training.” Then he “arrived in Berea with the same two bags slung over his shoulder. Soon after, he’d impressed Browns scouts enough to earn a contract,” and on April 5, 2019, the team announced: “The Cleveland Browns have signed WR Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi.”
On August 8, 2019, CNN reported, he “stole the show Thursday in the team’s first preseason game with an 86-yard punt return for a touchdown against the Washington Redskins.” “Sheehy-Guiseppi had misplaced his cleats before the game, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, so he was running in star teammate Odell Beckham Jr.’s cleats.” “After he got into the end zone, his teammates dog-piled on top of him,” Fox News wrote, and “The score was part of the Browns’ blowout 30-10 win against the Redskins.” “I felt all the love,” he told the Cleveland Plain Dealer after the game. “I couldn’t breathe under the pile. I was over there gasping for air, but I felt all the love.”
The Browns didn’t keep him. “After the pre-season he was waived by the team. Since then he has spent time in the XFL, CFL, Spring League, The Fan Controlled Football League, and Major League Football,” American Football International wrote in December 2023, when he signed with Italy’s Legnano Frogs for 2024.
Fact check
The facts and where they come from
- Nobody invited him to the NFL tryout, so he bluffed his way in. CNN: “But Sheehy-Guiseppi had yet another problem: He wasn’t invited”; he “convinced Browns management that he knew the team’s vice president of player personnel, Alonzo Highsmith … talked his way into a spot alongside the invited players.” ClevelandBrowns.com: “He convinced them he was supposed to be there.” 41
- His name is Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi. ClevelandBrowns.com (April 5, 2019): “The Cleveland Browns have signed WR Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi.” 2
- He had been out of football for two years. ClevelandBrowns.com: “Left with no collegiate options, Sheehy-Guiseppi resorted to training ‘for two years straight.’” Before that, it says, he earned “a first team NJCAA All-American honor in 2016.” 12
- In 2019, he heard about a Browns workout in Miami. ClevelandBrowns.com (April 11, 2019): “Sheehy-Guiseppi arrived at a workout in North Miami after learning of the gathering from a friend of a friend made through a flag football league in Arizona.” CNN: “A former teammate from a flag-football league tipped him off to the time and location of the Browns’ spring practice.” 14
- He flew there one way on his mom’s last reward points. ClevelandBrowns.com: “he’d bought a one-way flight to Miami with the last of his mother’s rewards points.” 1
- At the door, he claimed he knew a Browns boss. ClevelandBrowns.com: “he had to convince the man in charge of admission that he was supposed to be there, and that he and Highsmith were familiar. They were not”; “Browns vice president of player personnel Alonzo Highsmith.” 1
- “Knew nothing about him,” Alonzo Highsmith said. ClevelandBrowns.com: “‘Knew nothing about him,’ Highsmith said of Sheehy-Guiseppi.” 1
- Then he ran the 40-yard dash in 4.38 seconds. ClevelandBrowns.com: “enough to earn him a chance to run the 40-yard dash. A 4.38 was good enough to catch Highsmith’s eye.” CNN: “run the 40-yard dash, which he did in an impressive 4.38 seconds.” 14
- The Browns invited him to Ohio for another tryout. ClevelandBrowns.com: “Sheehy-Guiseppi was on Cloud 9 after receiving an invitation to Berea for a workout one week later.” 1
- His last $200 went on training, so he slept on grass outside a gym. ClevelandBrowns.com: “just steps away from renowned NFL Combine trainer Pete Bommarito’s facility, where Sheehy-Guiseppi had spent his last $200 on training services”; “he chose the patch of grass for two nights, and a 24-hour fitness center for another”; “next to a fence surrounding Bommarito’s.” CNN: “Sheehy-Guiseppi was sleeping outside a Miami gym after spending his last $200 on training.” 14
- In Ohio, the Browns signed him. ClevelandBrowns.com: “when he arrived in Berea with the same two bags slung over his shoulder. Soon after, he’d impressed Browns scouts enough to earn a contract.” ClevelandBrowns.com (April 5, 2019): “The Cleveland Browns have signed WR Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi.” 12
- In his first preseason game, he took a punt 86 yards for a touchdown. CNN: “stole the show Thursday in the team’s first preseason game with an 86-yard punt return for a touchdown against the Washington Redskins.” Fox News: “returning the ball to the end zone for an 86-yard touchdown.” 45
- He did it in Odell Beckham Jr.’s cleats. CNN: “Sheehy-Guiseppi had misplaced his cleats before the game, according to NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, so he was running in star teammate Odell Beckham Jr.’s cleats.” Fox News: “he wore his teammate Odell Beckham Jr.’s cleats because he had misplaced the ones he wanted to initially wear during the game.” 45
- His teammates piled on him. Fox News: “After he got into the end zone, his teammates dog-piled on top of him.” 5
- “I was over there gasping for air, but I felt all the love,” he said. Fox News: “‘I felt all the love,’ he told the Cleveland Plain-Dealer after the game. ‘I couldn’t breathe under the pile. I was over there gasping for air, but I felt all the love.’” 5
Sources
- The improbable story of how little known WR Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi landed a tryout and, ultimately, a contract with the Browns (Nick Shook, April 11, 2019) ClevelandBrowns.com
- Browns sign WR Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi (April 5, 2019) ClevelandBrowns.com
- Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi, WR #15, Browns roster page (archived May 29, 2019) ClevelandBrowns.com, via the Internet Archive
- A guy who talked his way into a tryout with the Browns scored an 86-yard touchdown (August 9, 2019) CNN, on WCPO
- Cleveland Browns’ Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi scores touchdown in latest twist to wild NFL journey (August 9, 2019) Fox News
- IFL: Viral Ex-Cleveland Brown Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi Signs With Italy’s Legano Frogs (December 2023) American Football International
Notes
Where he slept: while he waited in Miami for the Berea workout, having spent his last $200 on training, he slept outside for a few nights. ClevelandBrowns.com, from his own account, says “he chose the patch of grass for two nights, and a 24-hour fitness center for another,” “next to a fence surrounding Bommarito’s” gym; CNN says he “was sleeping outside a Miami gym.” A later account that he slept in his car isn’t used. The Short says he “slept on grass outside a gym.”
Before 2019: he had played football. ClevelandBrowns.com says he earned “a first team NJCAA All-American honor in 2016,” leading the nation in kick return yards and touchdowns, and that afterward, with no college options, he trained “for two years straight.” The Short says he “had been out of football for two years.”
Order of events: CNN’s short version reads as if he slept outside before the first workout; ClevelandBrowns.com, from his own account, puts the one-way flight and the North Miami workout first, then the week in Miami before the Berea tryout. The Short follows ClevelandBrowns.com.
At the door: ClevelandBrowns.com says he had to convince “the man in charge of admission”; no source we read mentions security guards, so the Short says “at the door.”
After the touchdown: “after the pre-season he was waived by the team,” American Football International wrote in December 2023, and it listed the leagues he had played in since. Alonzo Highsmith’s other April 2019 words about his future aren’t used, because the Browns waived him after the preseason.
Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi, Alonzo Highsmith and Odell Beckham Jr. are alive. Only football facts, the outlets’ reporting and their published words are used; his mother appears only as the Short has her, in the reward-points line, and nothing else about his private life is used.
Pictures: no free photo shows the North Miami workout, the gym, the grass where he slept, the Berea tryout, the punt return or the pile; every picture of those we found is agency, team or broadcast work, so none is used. Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi is seen in warm-ups before the Browns’ first preseason game, against Washington, at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland on August 8, 2019, the night of his touchdown but not the return itself: catching a ball, catching one overhead and running with one (three photos by Erik Drost). No. 15, his number on the Browns’ 2019 roster (ClevelandBrowns.com, archived), runs with the ball and walks at Browns training camp in Berea, Ohio, on August 10, 2019, months after his spring tryouts (two by Erik Drost), and Browns players, No. 15 among them with his back to the camera, stand by helmets on the grass at the same camp (Erik Drost). The Browns’ offense at the line against Washington, Odell Beckham Jr. (No. 13) on the field before the game and Browns defensive players are from the same game, not the punt return or the pile (three by Erik Drost). The Browns’ stadium is seen in the snow on March 31, 2019; his second tryout was at the team’s facility in Berea, not there (Erik Drost). Downtown Miami is seen at dusk from Watson Island on July 4, 2010, not the gym or the grass (Dori), and a Boeing 737 at Miami International Airport on January 16, 2016, is not his flight (Venkat Mangudi).
Photo credits
The archive photos in this story
The photographs and illustrations in this story are in the public domain or shared under open licenses; each one is credited below with its license. Tap one to enlarge it, or follow the link to its archive page for the full record. The narration, captions and graphics in the Short are our own; its music and sound effects are credited below.
Music and sound effects
Music: Schumann, Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 1 'Of Foreign Lands and Peoples (Musopen, public domain); Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition: IV. Bydlo (piano) (Musopen, public domain); Dvorak, Symphony No. 9 'From the New World': II. Largo (Musopen, public domain).
Sound effects: Freesound, CC0.
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