Raiders defensive tackle Jamie Cumbie didn't give himself enough credit for his potentially bubble-popping performance Saturday night. Cumbie, an undrafted free agent who was on Oakland's practice squad last season, had three pass deflections and a sack against the Lions.
"I'm 6-foot-7," he said, "so my hands are higher than everyone else's already. I got them up and it happened."
He left out the part about getting kicked off the Clemson team two years ago, getting a job landscaping while he worked with a trainer for five months and then coming to Oakland for training camp last year with a one-way ticket, broke.
"Nothing, man" he said. "I had nothing. No clothes, no money, nothing. Lucky I got a chance to stay around last year, and I have gotten better."
Another good outing Thursday in the preseason finale in Seattle and Cumbie has a good shot at getting off the bubble and making the 53-man roster.
"My dad tells me, 'Son, I feel that sometimes it will come in landslides, when it comes.' And I've been waiting, working hard," Cumbie said. "It's about time I got something."
Cumbie's hands started him on his journey to oblivion.
He was kicked off the Clemson team, then kicked out of the university in June 2010 after a fight behind a bar and an arrest for assault and battery. The arrest warrant stated the victim had a broken nose, swelling of the brain and multiple facial fractures, but Cumbie swears it was "just one good punch."
"I was wrong, shouldn't have been in that situation, but basically I hit the wrong kid," Cumbie said. "People - even from my hometown - say I tried to kill him, but I know what I did. It came down to who I hit."
The victim, Philip Prince II, is the grandson of former Clemson President and trustee Philip Prince.
"I regret it," Cumbie said, "but they say everything happens for a reason."
Kicked out of school one class shy of graduation and unable to land at another school, Cumbie "was crushed." He moved to Columbia, S.C., where his new agent, Jay Courie, got him a personal trainer and a job cutting grass.
"I knew if I had worked hard, that I had a chance," Cumbie said. "Maybe not to get drafted but at least to get a tryout with a pro team."
Last summer, the call came. It was from the Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL.
"Man, I was happy," Cumbie said.
Then, the day the NFL lockout ended, a better call came. It was from then-Raiders defensive line coach Mike Waufle, inviting Cumbie to training camp.
Cumbie was cut but signed to the practice squad out of camp, and he hung on every word from players like Richard Seymour and Tommy Kelly.
"Seymour and Kelly and Big John (Henderson) were always giving me advice last year, pointing me here, pointing me there," Cumbie said. "They don't have to do that. They must have seen something in me."
Cumbie put on 15 pounds in the past year and is up to 305.
"I'm more confident, stronger, I know my offensive sets and tendencies, and I'm seeing the game a lot better," he said. Even with all that, Cumbie knew he needed a big performance against the Lions after missing the second preseason game with a foot injury.
And he did, much to the delight of defensive coordinator Jason Tarver.
"Those are the guys you root for because he said, 'Coach, I'm going to be back' after the injury, Tarver said. "And Jamie plays hard every snap, and he comes back and makes a bunch of plays."
