Donald Strickland's Journey

Newsday has an interesting look at the path Donald Strickland took to New York.

Donald Strickland was down on himself and needed to reassess things. His career path had become cluttered with dead ends, mostly because he simply wasn't able to stay on the field consistently.

Strickland wasn't far removed from being one of the Colts' starting cornerbacks in the 2004 AFC Championship Game, no small feat since he was a rookie and wasn't even active for the season's first five games. The 2003 third-round pick started the first four games of his second season and had just begun making a name for himself when he injured his shoulder and needed season-ending surgery.

Strickland's mental psyche was about to get tested. The Colts were growing frustrated with the 5-10, 185-pounder's inability to stay healthy and they cut ties with him early on in the 2005 season.

"I had a couple of injuries and then I started noticing the business side, got cut, which was very hard for me," Strickland, 28, said. "It was the first time in my career that I wasn't able to perform up to their standards and I had to re-evaluate myself."

Strickland has been great this year. It's a nice story of overcoming adversity.