Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Sammie Coates went from a star player at Auburn to a promising NFL wide receiver in the 2010s, but it never worked out for him.
Coates, who is now the head football coach at Columbia High School in Huntsville, He last played in the NFL in 2019 and played in the Canadian Football League through 2023.
Those moments of potential, though, still shone through. In 2016, he had 435 yards on 21 receptions and two touchdowns. He seemed he had turned the corner, but injuries derailed Coates’ career.
“It didn’t go how I wanted it to, because I went into the NFL hurt,” Coates said to AL.com this week. “… I tell a lot of guys now, ‘when your body talks to you, you listen.’ I didn’t listen. I kept trying to play through injuries, and I think that was one of my biggest problems. It started to add up, but it was a great experience. I’m very grateful for that experience I had in the NFL.”
During his time in the NFL, Coates suffered a bad concussion that ended his rookie season. During his breakout 2016 campaign, Coates suffered a broken finger in Week 5, but played through it. And throughout that year, he accumulated tendon damage and ended up with multiple broken fingers on his left hand. He did not get surgery after that offseason, either.
Coates had an injury-riddled 2017, too. He dealt with a lingering sports hernia and a knee injury, both of which required surgery. From there on, his NFL career largely fizzled out.
The Steelers selected Coates in the third round of the 2015 NFL Draft. He spent two seasons with the Steelers before they traded him in the division to the Cleveland Browns. Over his career, Coates also played for the Houston Texans and Kansas City Chiefs.