Top NFL Draft prospect KC Concepcion opened up about growing up with a stuttering issue in a letter to general managers.
Concepcion, a former Texas A&M Aggies wide receiver, opened his letter acknowledging his stuttering issues. The 21-year-old talked about being made fun of at school because of his stutter.
"The other kids at school, they'd notice how I'd get stuck on certain words. Or that it would take me a second to respond to the teacher, or to tell them my name," Concepcion wrote in The Players Tribune.
"And look - kids are mean sometimes. Simple as that. They'd point at me, or make faces, or raise their eyebrows, and then it'd be like, 'What's wrong with you?!??!'"
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"Or, 'Why can't you talk normal? Are you dumb or something????' Dead in my face. While cracking up laughing. Not with me, or even about me…. At me. Man … it was tough.
"But that's how it went for me as a little kid. Every day. Monday through Friday at school. There were so many afternoons where I'd come home from school just totally beat down. I'd be crying my eyes out to my mom, for real."
Concepcion wrote that his mom would do everything she could to boost his confidence. The Rochester, New York, native said he looked forward to weekends because it meant he could be himself and would get to play football.
However, as the quarterback of the team, he said he would have trouble getting the words out when trying to call plays. Concepcion said that, during elementary school, he was in speech classes to try to help, but nothing seemed to work.
Concepcion said, one summer after the school year ended, his stutter was gone, but when he returned to school, the stutter returned and hasn't gone away since. He said there wasn't anyone at the school who was looking out for him when he was being made fun of for his stutter.
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"I'd love to tell you I had a bunch of teachers looking out for me, or other grownups at school who would help me deal with all the teasing, but that wasn't really the case. There also wasn't anyone I knew or could look up to who was dealing with anything similar. So I basically just kind of figured things out on my own," Concepcion said.
"And back then, how I would deal with my situation is, a lot of times … I'd basically just not talk. Especially around people I didn't know. And when I did have to speak up, I learned how to clap back. I had those comebacks ready, man! Sometimes that worked, and sometimes it didn't. But it was like…. At least I'm doing something!"
The criticism Concepcion faced for his stutter continued at the NFL Scouting Combine in March, and he took to social media to fire back at critics. More than 80 million people around the world, including about 3 million Americans, deal with stuttering, according to The Stuttering Foundation.
Concepcion had a message for kids dealing with stuttering issues.
"So, to any kid out there who is carrying something heavy right now - a stutter, something that makes you feel different, anything that's ever made someone look at you sideways … just know this: My success … it is your success, too," Concepcion wrote.
"I want you to come along on this journey with me. Because you and me? We're not weird. There is nothing wrong with us. Whatever makes you different - that's not the thing holding you back. That's your thing. Own it. Be you, fully. Without apology."
With the Aggies last season, Concepcion caught 61 passes for 919 yards and nine touchdowns, leading the SEC in touchdowns. He was named to the All-American team for the first time in his collegiate career last season.
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