The headline is obvious: Jeff Demps considered not playing football for Florida in 2011, reports the Palm Beach Post's Jason Lieser, cribbing some quotes from Florida's Media Day on Friday. But the subtext might be a bit harder to suss out.
"I definitely gave it thought," Demps said Friday. "When I got back in the football atmosphere and talked with my parents and my coaches — both sides; track and football — and prayed about it, I came out with the decision I wanted to keep playing football.
"I felt like I could run faster if I maybe gave track a full year: the whole fall and spring. Maybe I could run faster. But I wanted to be on the football team."
Does that sound to you like someone whose first passion is track? Because it doesn't to me, and that's why I was never once worried about Demps running track full-time inside of being a dual-sport athlete for the Gators.
Demps' future is brighter in track spikes than football cleats; even he, in his most honest moments, would probably admit that. That's no knock on him as a football player: He would just have to be a Heisman Trophy candidate to be as promising a running back as he is a sprinter.
But Demps' dream has, is, and will be playing football. Check out this other really important quote from Media Day:
What are you going to do after your senior year?
Hopefully I can play at the next level.
That's play, as in football, not run, as in track. Jeff Demps may have considered it, but he isn't giving up on this particular dream just yet.