The dead body on the doorstop outside his childhood apartment in Memphis signaled it was time to move. Jay Liggins was 11 years old. His mother had already considered uprooting their family, which then included 10 children, away from the growing violence in the area. He awoke one morning and saw the corpse.
Advertisement
Liggins was too young to understand life and death, but he was becoming too close to learning the difference. He now acknowledges the sight was shocking. In the same breath, he called it “just another day.”
“But weeks coming, we moved away after seeing all that,” Liggins said.
His family settled in Bismarck, N.D. There was no particular reason for North Dakota. It was safe. It was “near” Mount Rushmore. But mostly, it was different. And that’s what Liggins and his family needed — a family that swelled to 11 children.
Three years later, his mother and most of the family returned to Memphis. Liggins wanted to stay in Bismarck. His three older brothers were already rooted in the North Dakota capital. He was comfortable with the lifestyle. He liked the community. He became interested in football. And friends of the family, the Bertschs, offered to welcome him into their home as his foster parents. It’s a decision most 14-year-olds never face, and it’s one that nearly a decade later Liggins discusses with a rare pragmatism.
“Leaving Memphis, I knew what I left behind,” Liggins said. “It was something I didn’t want to go back to. And just starting football for my high school at that point, I was really invested. … I wanted to stick around.”
So he remained in Bismarck. He lived with the Bertschs and enrolled in Bismarck High School. But Liggins wasn’t much of a football player. He didn’t even start for the varsity team until his senior year. Nobody could have imagined he’d have a shot at the NFL, as he watched from the sideline when Bismarck played crosstown rival Century High School.
The quarterback for Century would go on to the NFL. His name was Carson Wentz.
There are two players in the NFL from Bismarck. They’re both in the Eagles locker room, yet the difference in their standings on the team could stretch all the way from Philadelphia to North Dakota.
One is Wentz. The other is Liggins.
Wentz is the franchise player. He signed a $134 million contract. His No. 11 Eagles jersey is sold throughout the country. He has a corner stall in the locker room, the same one once occupied by Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick.
Advertisement
Liggins is at the bottom of the Eagles’ roster. Even the most devoted fan would need a game program to identify him. He wears a number, 46, that had adorned a long snapper. He dresses in a temporary locker stall that will be removed in a few weeks after cutdowns.
But Wentz has taken an interest in Liggins. One of Wentz’s best friends, Meyer Bohn, who was a groomsmen in his wedding, played with Liggins at Dickinson State. He had told Wentz about the promising, small-school cornerback.
“Knew he had a shot, but had no idea he was going to end up here,” Wentz said of Liggins, who signed with the Eagles as an unrestricted free agent in May. “Once he did come here, had a chance to talk to him. We sat down and had lunch together. Great guy. Excited for him.”
Wentz said he wanted to check on Liggins because he knew “it’s a different world out here” than Bismarck and Dickinson, N.D., which are about 100 miles apart.
“Obviously, it’s not every day that someone from North Dakota makes it to the NFL, let alone from Bismarck,” Wentz said. “Seeing the crosstown rival from back in the day is pretty cool.”
It’s a big story back home, where high school sports are often front-page news. A television reporter from Bismarck has already visited Eagles training camp to do a feature on Liggins and Wentz. There were only two other players in the past decade from the city of 61,272 who even reached NFL camps. When Wentz was drafted in 2016, fans filled the local stadium where Liggins played high school games for a viewing party. Wentz’s No. 11 can be spotted around the city. Now, there’s another NFL player from the area, and they share the same uniform.
“You’re not going to find two better people to carry the banner for the Bismarck community,” said Mark Gibson, the head coach at Bismarck High. “It’s something I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.”
Michelle Bertsch did not see anything extraordinary about her willingness to take in Liggins all those years ago. His brother was already staying there, and she reasoned it was good for their schedules.
“It just kind of happened,” Bertsch said. “It just was normal. Our kids’ friends lived across the street, so everybody hung out together. It was just kind of normal to always have somebody here. We just said, ‘Yeah, he could stay, too.’”
Advertisement
Liggins, who now considers his foster parents as part of his family, did not talk much about Memphis as a teenager. It was understood he wanted to stay in Bismarck, but there was little unpacking of why he didn’t want to return. Even a decade later, Liggins explains his decision to stay with the practicality of someone considering health insurance options. He wanted the safety and security.
“It was such a good community,” Liggins said. “Everyone was behind each other. They had such a strong sense of sports. And I really like how when it was done with high school, it was normal to go to college. … I thought it was real cool and different. I thought it would be something I wanted to make a part of my life, compared to going back to Memphis and who knows what I’d end up doing.”
But Liggins never appeared ticketed to play college football. He played basketball in high school and ran track, too, and there wasn’t early interest from colleges. He wasn’t the most motivated teenager. By his own admission, he didn’t have good ACT test scores. And his football coaches weren’t compelled to start him until his senior year, well after high school players ordinarily get on recruiters’ radar. His coaches first thought he would play wide receiver, but he didn’t display the hands for the position, so they put him at cornerback, where he had the physical tools to develop.
“Recruiting-wise, he didn’t know if he was going to play college football,” Gibson said. “Diamond in the rough. He was amazing.”
Liggins’ impulse was to join the military. He thought it was “a good way to set up my family.” But college coaches recognized the potential his high school coaches started to see — even if playing at the next level was not initially Liggins’ plan. When an opportunity arose to play football and run track at Dickinson State, an NAIA school, he reconsidered.
“Talking to my coaches, my foster parents, my actual parents, my siblings and stuff, it just would have just meant a lot to my mom (for me) to go to school and then to pursue football as well, football and track. I just thought it would be nice to do,” Liggins said. “I wasn’t done yet with football. My passion was still there. I was like, ‘This is something I can’t pass up.’”
The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Liggins became the best defensive player at Dickinson State, where he was a four-time all-conference performer and two-time All-American. He totaled 13 career interceptions, including four in a postseason game last winter. His top highlight with the Blue Hawks was a one-handed interception while running backward that displayed next-level athleticism. (And it showed, despite his high school career, he could catch.)
Dickinson State hasn’t produced an NFL player since 1944, so it’s not a frequent stop on the scouting circuit. But Liggins was invited to North Dakota State’s pro day, in Wentz’s college stadium, to perform for NFL evaluators. The size-speed combination fit what they seek, and he drew interest as an undrafted free agent. He had multiple offers after the draft, with other teams considering him at safety. He was attracted to the Eagles’ offer to remain at cornerback.
Advertisement
“I didn’t want to spend time learning a new position and getting adjusted to the NFL,” Liggins said. “And I liked how they were developing their young guys.”
Liggins faces long odds of making the Eagles, who have six returning cornerbacks likely to make the roster if healthy. But he’s getting a long look this summer while the depth chart is beset by injuries, even taking some snaps with the second-team defense. Liggins could be a sensible option for the practice squad if he continues to show promise this summer, and the team’s injury report could look different come Aug. 31, when rosters are pared from 90 to 53.
Liggins is learning in a room full of big personalities. He fetches post-practice water ice as part of his rookie duties for a group of cornerbacks that includes four players with Super Bowl rings, with former top recruits who played in major conferences and were drafted early enough to receive signing bonuses worth more than the average house in Bismarck.
Liggins didn’t know if he would start in high school, didn’t initially plan on playing in college and never could have imagined reaching the NFL.
He offers a matter-of-fact answer to every milestone along the way. The violence in Memphis, including the dead body outside his apartment? He moved away. The serenity he found in Bismarck, with a family willing to foster him? He decided to stay. The college football career that spawned late in high school, the NFL interest that emerged late in college? They were good opportunities. The decision to sign with the Eagles? It was the best option.
That’s how the kid who stepped into a U-Haul at 11 and didn’t want to step into one at 14 now has a locker in the same room as Wentz.
“Things worked out how they did,” Liggins said. “I’m in good position to support (my mother) and care for my siblings.”
(Top photo: Andy Lewis / Getty Images)