To become the fourth-round pick of the Carolina Panthers in 2020, Troy Pride Jr. first had to survive a wreck that could have killed him 11 months ago.
Then, after a fine senior season as a cornerback at Notre Dame, he had to watch himself slide down the NFL draft board past the second and third rounds — where he felt he belonged — all the way to Day 3.
“I’ll just let that be the fuel to a forest fire,” Pride said in a phone interview. “I want to show 31 other teams what they missed out on.”
Pride, whose confidence and South Carolina roots are reminiscent of former Panther star corner Josh Norman, is the favorite to eventually take the place of James Bradberry in Carolina’s starting lineup this season.
Bradberry left for huge money with the New York Giants. Pride — who grew up in Greer, S.C., 90 miles from Charlotte, and once made it onto the Bank of America Stadium video boards as a 9-year old — wants to be the next man up. That means a steady diet of Tom Brady, Matt Ryan and Drew Brees, three veteran quarterbacks in the NFC South who have happily targeted rookie cornerbacks for years.
Pride, whose No. 1 attribute is his elite speed, said he’ll be prepared. “I know the Panthers have someone who is way better than a lot of people think,” he said. “So, whenever I can show that, I’m ready to do it.”
I talked with Pride by phone Wednesday night in South Bend, Ind., where he was packing up his college apartment before driving back home to Greer. He had performed the mirror image of that drive — from South Carolina to South Bend — on June 2, 2019.
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On that day, Pride was headed to Notre Dame with his parents, Troy Sr. and Angela Pride.
Troy Pride Jr. was driving the car, with his dad beside him in the passenger seat. His mother was in the backseat, trying to fall asleep.
On a Kentucky highway, Pride came up behind an RV while driving a Toyota Corolla the family had rented for the 650-mile drive.
The RV was in the right lane, and Pride elected to pass it on the left. But as he pulled alongside, the RV began moving over into the left lane, according to Troy Pride Sr.
“The RV clipped the back of our car just as we were passing,” Troy Sr. said. Quickly, the Corolla spun out of control.
“We hit the guard rail,” he added. “The car flipped. We ended up in a ditch, upside down. I couldn’t see anyone else in our car because the air bags had deployed all around us.”
“Son?” Troy Sr. said. “You OK?”
“Yes,” Pride said. Somehow, he had barely gotten a scratch.
His mother was OK, too.
“Climb out and see if the car is on fire!” Troy Sr. said to his son.
Pride did, releasing his seat belt, falling down into the hood of the car and getting out. There was no fire.
Passersby and emergency personnel were able to extricate his parents. Everyone was badly shaken up. But only Troy Sr., who required surgery on an injured shoulder, was badly hurt.
“It was life-altering,” Pride now says of the wreck. “It made me know that God is in control. I mean, the fact that I’m still here at all? That’s a blessing. And now I know that I have a purpose on this Earth.”
Troy pride wrecked car 2019
Troy Pride Jr., the Carolina Panthers’ fourth-round draft choice in 2020, was driving this car in June 2019 when he was involved in a wreck on a Kentucky highway. Although the car ended up upside down in a ditch, neither Pride nor his parents — who were also in the car — were seriously hurt. Courtesy of the Pride family
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Pride’s senior year at Notre Dame was relatively quiet from a statistical perspective. Often, opponents didn’t throw a lot to his side of the field. He had one interception and six passes defensed. The Fighting Irish won 11 games and finished the season at No. 12 in the final AP poll.
Brian Kelly, Notre Dame’s head coach, said in a recent video press conference that Pride’s athleticism was “incredible” but that Pride (who had four career interceptions in four seasons) hadn’t made as many plays on the ball as some of the other top Notre Dame corners did during their careers.
Pride — Troy Headshot.jpg
Notre Dame cornerback Troy Pride Jr. was the Carolina Panthers’ fourth-round draft selection in 2020. Courtesy of Notre Dame Athletics
“With Troy Pride, a lot of his evaluation is based on his speed and his athletic ability,” Kelly said. “I think Troy is just starting to scratch his potential and where he could be as a player … He can be an emotional guy sometimes … Early in his career, he’d let a play affect him. Then this past year, he got really good at moving on to the next play.”
That will be important for a cornerback playing in the NFC South, where wide receivers Julio Jones (Atlanta), Michael Thomas (New Orleans) and Chris Godwin and Mike Evans (Tampa Bay) all made the Pro Bowl last season.
When I asked Pride what he does when he gives up a 50-yard pass, he chuckled.
“First of all, I’m going to try hard not to give up any 50-yarders,” he said. “But if I do, there’s no time to sulk.”
Pride ran in the 4.4-second range at the NFL combine in February, a time that slightly disappointed him. On draft night, he told reporters that 90% of the time he would run a 40-yard dash in the 4.3 range, and that he once ran one in 4.28.
“The day I walked onto Notre Dame’s campus, I was the fastest guy,” Pride said. With the Panthers, teammates like cornerback Donte Jackson and wide receiver Curtis Samuel would also contend for that spot. But Pride said he would like his chances in a 40-yard dash against any of his new teammates.
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Pride was a youth football star in Greer. One of his highlights as a 9-year-old running back caught the attention of then-Panther running back DeAngelo Williams, Troy Sr. said. Williams reached out by letter and left the family two tickets to the Carolina-Seattle game in Charlotte on Dec. 16, 2007.
The Panthers won that game, 13-10. Williams scored a 35-yard touchdown not too long after Pride’s own youth football TD run was shown on the big video board in the third quarter, as part of a Panthers community relations program called “Highlight Heroes.”
DeAngelo Williams letter to Troy Pride in 2007
Courtesy of Pride family
It was the only Panthers game that the Prides ever saw in person. They still have the ticket stubs. Now Pride will get to play in that stadium himself this season, with his own family watching. “Surreal,” Pride Jr. termed it.
Pride ran track in both high school and college. He originally committed to Virginia Tech before Frank Beamer’s retirement as head coach caused him to reconsider. Clemson, only 45 miles away, offered a scholarship late but didn’t recruit him very hard (Pride said he never met Dabo Swinney in his recruitment process).
Part of what made Pride attractive to Carolina head coach Matt Rhule was his dual-sport background.
“When you’re a track athlete you’re a little bit of a perfectionist technique-wise,” Rhule said. “You’re into training. I had a great video conference with him one day and my wife was actually cooking on the other side where I was doing the video conference and afterwards she said, ‘Who was that? That’s a professional.’ He’s just a really, really mature guy and he’s played a lot of football. So in a year where there is no off-season program … I think he has the maturity to come in and help us.”
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Pride’s fall into the fourth round allowed him to be selected by the team that was geographically closest to him.
“I didn’t drop,” Pride said on draft night. “I fell into the right place.”
Soon after the Panthers drafted Pride, about 40 cars drove by his house in Greer (the small town of 32,000 lies between Greenville and Spartanburg).
They made for an impromptu parade, waving and honking as the Prides stood in their front yard. His mother, Angela, had organized the show. Many of those folks would have been invited to the Prides’ draft party but for the social-distancing restrictions due to the coronavirus.
“It was wonderful to see how much support I truly have,” said Pride, who is the second of his family’s five children.
Pride plans to wear No. 25 with the Panthers, which was once his father’s old football number (Troy Sr. is now a manager at a Mitsubishi warehouse). He graduated from Notre Dame in December with a degree in film, television and theater. A big Netflix fan, he particularly likes “The Office” and the character Dwight Schrute.
He’s also a fan of enthusiastic play-by-play TV broadcaster Gus Johnson and would eventually like to become a sports broadcaster. His degree is a good start. But national TV shows rarely hire anyone other than well-known NFL players to become analysts these days. I pointed out that he might have to become an NFL star to make that broadcasting dream happen.
“That,” Pride said, “is the plan.”
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