GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Just over five years ago, football was the furthest thing from Demetri Goodson's mind. Though he's now a Green Bay Packers rookie cornerback, Goodson was making a name for himself as a basketball player back in March 2009.
Goodson was at the forefront of memorable March Madness moments that year. As a backup for the Gonzaga Bulldogs, Goodson had the ball in his hands with 7.2 seconds to go in a tie game against Western Kentucky, with the winner advancing to the Sweet 16.
Receiving the inbounds pass, Goodson -- who had only two points in the game at that point -- raced the length of the court and banked in a runner from just outside the paint. With less than one second left on the clock, Western Kentucky's full-court heave wasn't close to going in, and Goodson celebrated the victory with his teammates.
Goodson never averaged more than 6.4 points or 2.6 assists per game over the following two seasons, but the 5-foot-11, 194-pound guard believes he would've been a professional basketball player at some level if he hadn't decided to make the switch to football.
"I feel like I have the talent to play in the league (NBA), but my size, so I would probably say somewhere overseas," Goodson said.
Basketball is a common topic in the Packers locker room every year, so it's no surprise that Goodson's new teammates in Green Bay led with that in conversation when first meeting him.
"Literally everybody here, every time they see me, they say something about basketball," Goodson said. "I feel like everyone here thinks they're a basketball player."
Naturally, that meant challenges were immediately issued to Goodson for a game of H-O-R-S-E.
"I actually lost a couple games," Goodson said. "I think it was a couple safeties (that beat me). I don't know their names. They haven't been talking any trash, so it's cool."
Goodson hadn't played football at all in five years when he decided to end his college basketball career and transfer to Baylor. His decision to do so was met with some confusion by Gonzaga head coach Mark Few.
"He basically told me, he was like, 'What? You're going to play football?,'" Goodson said of Few's comments at the time. "I just felt like he didn't really know me, he never saw me play (football), so that's why he was kinda like 'What, you want to go play football?'"
It's not a transition that many players are able to make smoothly. But in Goodson's final college football game, he intercepted Blake Bortles -- who was the No. 3 overall pick in this year's draft -- in the Fiesta Bowl.
"I'm definitely blessed, for sure, with the talent," Goodson said. "I have great, great feet and hips. I've always been good, but it had been about five or six years since I played football. To actually do it and get here, it's definitely been a blessing for me."
It wasn't an easy journey for Goodson to become good enough to be a sixth-round pick in the NFL draft. He missed the majority of the 2011 season with torn ligaments in his right ankle and missed most of the 2012 season with a fractured right forearm.
"I broke my arm and then I was like, 'Oh, my gosh, I can't believe this happened again,'" Goodson said. "I've never been a guy to quit or think bad thoughts about anything. I just rolled with the punches."
Though he rolled with the punches well and persevered, the six years he spent between college basketball and football put Goodson in an unenviable, rare position for a rookie: He's already about to turn 25 years old. More than half of the Packers roster is younger than Goodson.
Being that age definitely had an adverse effect on Goodson's draft stock, too.
"I feel like if I was 21 or something, I would've probably went second or third round," Goodson said.
Goodson certainly isn't lacking in self-confidence.
"I'm cool with sixth round, but me just being me, just seeing all those guys get picked before me, and me feeling like I'm better than them," he said. "I understand why teams wouldn't really want to take that risk to take me that high, so I'm not too mad about that at all."
Goodson lost out on many developmental football years when he pursued basketball, but the drawbacks of his age and relatively raw skill set could become a great benefit to the Packers in getting value for him with the No. 197 overall pick.
"I tell the coaches that all the time: I'm like 'Watch, Coach. Watch. I'm telling you,'" Goodson said. "Basically, once I learn the plays and get out there and play against Aaron (Rodgers), watch, I'm going to be a steal."
Playing basketball did help Goodson as a cornerback in some ways.
"The lateral movement, the quick-twitch movements, playing man-to-man defense helps me out playing cornerback," he said. "I think that definitely helped me out."
In Goodson's first rookie orientation practice in Green Bay, he showed off his cover skills when he broke up a pass deep downfield in single coverage against rookie wide receiver Jeff Janis.
"I've always played with some type of chip on my shoulder, just because I feel like I'm definitely one of the best corners throughout the draft," Goodson said. "I think it was the Combine where I really saw really everybody and I felt like I was one of the smoothest guys out there. It just comes easy for me to do that type of stuff."
Aside from his brother and his closest friends, most people in Goodson's life responded in a similar way to how Few reacted when the decision was announced to switch from basketball to football. But to those people who doubted him, Goodson has one message.
"Look at me now," he said.
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