ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Last week Michael Strahan announced on Twitter the fourth overall pick in the 2022 USFL draft, the New Jersey Generals have selected quarterback Ben Holmes.
Ask any athlete and they’ll tell you, the journey to pro football isn’t an easy road. For Orchard Park native Ben Holmes, that certainly has been the case.
“Now is my opportunity to be back on top and feel good again,” Holmes said.
After what Holmes has experienced in his life, feel good may be an understatement. What he has overcome and where he is now must bring feelings of complete euphoria.
Holmes has dealt with his fair share of adversity on his unique path to the spotlight.
Ever since childhood, Holmes would talk to his mother about his pro football dream, with a clear direction and a self-motivating mentality, Holmes went on to be a star high school football player for Orchard Park. He helped the team win the state title in 2011, while making his presence known through graduating in 2014.
While Holmes pursued football at the next level, he was dealt with a tough decision to turn down a Division I offer to Stony Brook. Holmes decided to put his football dream on pause when he realized his mother needed him more than the game of football.
Holmes' mom, Susan, was diagnosed with a rare disease called scleroderma, also known as systemic sclerosis, which is a group of rare diseases that involve the hardening and tightening of the skin.
Riddled with sadness and pain, he decided to walk away from the sport that he loved the most.
“In 2016 it turned for the worst, and I stopped playing football. I came home and took care of her,” Holmes said.
But shortly after he was without the person that he loved the most.
“And then in May of 2017, she passed away. At that point I wanted no part of football, and football didn’t want any part of me. I was sitting at home in Orchard Park, looking for jobs, maybe thinking I should go back to school. Then I got the Twitter DM ding thing, and it was a coach from Tarleton,” Holmes said.
But being a man of faith and prayer, a Twitter direct message changed his life. You can call it a miracle or a prayer answered. It was an opportunity to play quarterback at Tarleton State in Texas.
A DM helped put Holmes's dream back in business.
“It took me two seconds, I said, 'Coach, I don’t know where you are, or even how good you guys are, but I am coming," Holmes told the coach at Tarleton State.
Holmes took the next two years and completely dominated Division II football, going 23-2 as a starter, throwing just under 6,000 yards, and throwing 62 touchdown passes in two seasons.
He looked like a big dog in a small cage; he just needed a bigger challenge. But maybe it wasn’t the outside that needed work, or as Holmes put it, God was doing something on the inside of him.
I told Holmes that it didn't sound like a coincidence. His response: “Yeah, it’s all the man upstairs. It’s really crazy. I questioned him with the passing of my mom, I really didn’t understand what He was doing then.
"I think now he knew I was ready for an opportunity, because he saw how hard I was fighting and what not, the way he lined it all up, you are exactly right it was faith and the man upstairs.”
That faith and hard work lead to another answered prayer or miracle this past week.
Not knowing he was even on a list to advance his career once again, the USFL, a brand-new league that will be played on national TV this year both on FOX and NBC, came calling. Holmes was drafted fourth overall as the starting quarterback of the New Jersey Generals.
The love and support has been overwhelming for obvious reasons. It even caught the attention of two Buffalo Bills quarterback legends.
“Doug Flutie made a message for me and sent it to me. Jim Kelly reached out. It was so cool to have those guys that played in the old league now support me in the new league, being a Buffalo 716 kid,” Holmes said.
The road to purposeful success is rarely straight, but Holmes is proving with faith, prayer, and hard work that all dreams are attainable.