The Real King Crab

 
 

November 26, 2014

Former Texas Tech star has blossomed in the NFL, but his real growth has come in the way he is giving back…

BY NICK KOSMIDER
Special to TexasTech.com

Rodney Baker has always known one thing to be very true about Michael Crabtree.

“If there’s something that he wants to do, and he has the vision and the foresight for it, he’s going to do it,” Baker said.

At Dallas Carter High School, the powerhouse Metroplex school featured prominently in the film “Friday Night Lights,” Crabtree was a quarterback who burned defenses in nearly every playmaking way the position would allow.

But Crabtree knew he would change positions when he went to college, and he knew exactly which one he wanted to play.

“His senior year he told me there were a lot of schools that wanted to recruit him to play defensive back,” said Baker, a high school teammate and close friend of Crabtree, who now works as the director of the Crab 5 Foundation. “When Texas came up to Carter to recruit him (to play defensive back), he said, `Nah, man, I catch touchdowns.”

Texas Tech was just fine with allowing Crabtree to pursue his vision, and it’s safe to say the move paid off pretty well for both parties.

Crabtree took home two Biletnikoff Awards during his two seasons playing for the Red Raiders. He caught 231 passes for 3,127 yards and 41 touchdowns. Of course, the biggest of those was game-winning scoring catch as time expired against the No. 1 Longhorns in 2008.

Crabtree has continued catching touchdowns in the NFL. He has grabbed 26 of them for the perennial Super Bowl contender 49ers, including four this season heading into a Thanksgiving Day matchup against the rival Seattle Seahawks.

But for all that he has accomplished since leaving Texas to pursue his pro football dreams, the biggest strides Crabtree has made have come in the form of helping others chase their own goals.

(read full article here on the Texas Tech official website)

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