Norwood’s perseverance pays off with Super Bowl dividend

Gabe and Jordan Norwood were born in Honolulu, a little more than a year apart. But Jordan’s time on the national sports stage comes 10 years after his brother’s.

“That’s a testament to who he is as a man,” said Gabe, who played for George Mason’s upstart basketball team that made the Final Four in 2006. “Jordan was always ultra-competitive. Growing up with him, this is not really a surprise.”

“This” is the Super Bowl, and Jordan, 29, a wide receiver and punt returner, suits up for the Denver Broncos today. Scouting reports when he came out of Penn State in 2009 projected none of the confidence in Jordan that his brother does.

“May need to bide his time to prove himself at the next level.”

That’s exactly how it went. For the next five years, the 5-foot-10 undrafted free agent with a 40 time barely under 4.6 went from Cleveland to Philadelphia to Cleveland to Tampa Bay. When he wasn’t being cut, Norwood was usually on a practice squad.

The Broncos picked him up in 2014 and his leaping ability, great hands and disciplined route-running made him a keeper. But he tore an ACL in camp and was out for the season before it even started.

In 2015, he stuck. Norwood started five of the 11 games he played in, catching 22 passes for 207 yards. It’s been seven years since everyone passed on him in the draft, and now he’s in the Super Bowl.

“Perseverance really is the word for it,” said his father, Brian, the former Radford and University of Hawaii standout who is now associate head football coach at Tulsa. “His faith has always been strong and still is very huge in regards to how he views situations. I don’t think he ever thought about quitting, I think maybe he was frustrated at times.”

The Golden Game is another golden moment in recent months for Jordan.

“My emotions are all over the place,” he said in a phone interview this week. “Excitement and a little bit of anxiety here and there. Overall I just feel this unbelievable blessing when I look back on the past year with marriage (to Aleah), first child (3-month-old Franni) and the Super Bowl.”

It spawned a reunion, as 22 family members and friends converged on Santa Clara, Calif.

A cousin, BYU athlete Alohi Robins-Hardy, is among them; fortunately, the former Kamehameha star had a basketball game at Saint Mary’s on Saturday. Alohi’s dad is former Pearl City and UH volleyball player Damien Hardy; he is also the brother of Brian’s wife, Tiffiney. Gabe and his young family came from the Philippines, where he plays pro basketball. Brian and Tiffiney have three younger children: Levi (who recently signed a futures deal with the Steelers), Brianna and Zaccariah.

The gathering brings back childhood memories of Hawaii for Jordan.

“I remember a birthday I had where my Filipino great-grandfather, Apu, was holding me while they got a pig ready for the roast,” he said. “He dipped his finger in the fresh pig’s blood and fed it to me.”

Today, a quarter of a century later, Jordan Norwood is an NFL survivor with a chance at the game’s most coveted team achievement — with one of the sport’s all-time greats as a teammate, in perhaps his final game.

“Playing alongside Peyton Manning takes the cake,” he said. “It’s any wide receiver’s dream. And to be able to do it on the Super Bowl stage is an incredible blessing.”

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. His blog is at Hawaiiwarriorworld.com/quick-reads.