PHILADELPHIA, PA - NOVEMBER 05: Philadelphia Eagles running back Corey Clement (30) runs for a touchdown during a NFL football game between the Denver Broncos and the Philadelphia Eagles on November 5,2017 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA. Eagles won 51-23.(Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
If the name Corey Clement sounds familiar, that’s because it should.
Clement played college football for the Wisconsin Badgers, and he even managed to rack up 1,375 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns in his final season. The running back also helped lead Wisconsin to a record of 11-3, which included a victory in the Cotton Bowl.
Now, Clement is a member of the Philadelphia Eagles.
As a result of making the NFL, Clement’s guidance counselor gave him her BMW.
According to nj.com, “When the Eagles running back Corey Clement was at Glassboro High School, a guidance counselor told him that if he ever made it to the NFL, she’d give him her BMW he seemed to want to badly.”
Mary Beth Ragozzino, who was Clement’s guidance counselor in 4th, 5th and 6th grades, met up with the Eagles rookie to hand him the keys and take pictures with her family. She was not his guidance counselor in high school, but moved up to be a counselor there and would see him often around school.
The car was her husband’s, and Clement would see it parked outside.
“He’d say, ‘I want that car,’ and I’d say, ‘alright, work hard,” Ragozzino told NJ Advance Media.
I won't be covering the Eagles and I'm not even in Philly yet, but just heard a cool story about Eagles RB Corey Clement. When he was at Glassboro HS (in NJ), his guidance counselor told him that if he ever made the NFL, she'd give him her BMW. So she did. (CC @EliotShorrParks) pic.twitter.com/cRjuqDyGaW
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) November 28, 2017
Two things: (1) Major props to Ragozzino for keeping her promise. (2) Big ups to Clement for staying focused on the task at hand, which was following his dreams of playing in the NFL.
While Clement had an impressive year with the Badgers in 2016, he went undrafted in the 2017 NFL Draft.
That, of course, did not stop him from chasing his dream.
Corey Clement signed a 3 year, $1,675,000 contract with the Philadelphia Eagles, including a $10,000 signing bonus, $35,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $558,333. In 2017, Clement will earn a base salary of $465,000 and a signing bonus of $10,000, while carrying a cap hit of $468,333 and a dead cap value of $35,000.
More from the nj.com article mentioned above:
And though Clement could someday make a salary that could buy him a new German sports sedan, giving him the car ultimately wasn’t about the fact that he made the NFL, Ragozzino said. It was to reward him for a lot of hard work, staying on task, and to cap off a Glassboro success story to tell current students.
“Students who worked hard and do great things, we use them as examples” to teach other students, she said. “He’s the hot one right now. Stayed out of trouble, worked hard, did well in school.”
During the 2017 NFL season, Clement has managed to rack up 259 rushing yards and four rushing touchdowns. To go along with those numbers, he has recorded 58 receiving yards and two receiving touchdowns. His rushing yards are the second-highest total on the team while his rushing touchdowns rank him at No. 1 on the Eagles.
Meanwhile, Philadelphia has the best record in the NFL at 10-1.
Clement and the rest of the Eagles will take on the Seattle Seahawks next. After that, only four games will remain for Philadelphia in the 2017 regular season.
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