Michael Gallup convinced in his second year in the NFL. In the Dallas Cowboys he put on almost as good a score as star receiver Amari Cooper. His relationship to football is unique, there is hardly anyone who loves the game as much as he does. About a number two playing like a number one.

If there was one positive surprise among the Dallas Cowboys last season, it was certainly Wide Receiver Michael Gallup. The 24-year-old was able to establish himself as a permanent number two in Dallas and even scratched at the status of Amari Cooper. A personal tragedy overshadowed his season.

The numbers do not lie
If you compare the statistics of the two receivers in Dallas, the question could already arise why next season Amari Cooper will receive 20 million US dollars and Michael Gallup only 750,000 US dollars. Especially since the latter performed statistically only 13 catches, 82 yards and two touchdowns less well than the expensive Cooper.

In fact, Michael Gallup was an argument of the critics who criticized Cooper’s expensive contract extension. “He’s not even number one on his team, so how can you pay him like a star receiver,” Rex Ryan scolded on “ESPN”. The statements of the former NFL coach are debatable, but the mere fact that Gallup is being used as a comparison here underlines the impact he had on the Cowboys last season.

In total, Gallup scored 66 receptions, 1107 yards and six captured touchdowns – not bad for a “number two”. Of course, one must differentiate here that he was only covered by the second cornerback of each opponent as a counterpart of Cooper. On a positive note, he can also be credited with having played these numbers in just 14 games and only in twelve as a starter.

Since 2010, WRs with 1100+ yards in their 1st or 2nd season:

______________________________________

OBJ x2
AB
Cooks
Cooper
Cruz
Evans
Gallup
J. Gordon
Green
Hill
Hopkins
Jeffery
Julio
Landry
DJM
ARob
Juju
Sutton
MT x 2
Mike Wallace

This is a Michael Gallup tweet. pic.twitter.com/BTl5XMqfi1

— Burner (@dynstyburnr) April 3, 2020

Outstanding on the field – tragically beside
“I’ve seen him grow with himself every day,” wide-receiver coach Sanjay Lal was quoted by Dallas Morning News after the season: “He’s matured as a football player, he’s starting to see the big picture behind the game.” And so Gallup emerged as one of Dak Prescott’s favourite targets. But he also had to mature off the field, both as a person and as a brother.

Gallup, who grew up in the Atlanta area, struck a heavy blow in his rookie season around the away game at the Atlanta Falcons, of all things. One day before the game, his younger brother committed suicide. One of his sisters told him about the tragedy only after the game and a world collapsed for him. Even his mother, who was travelling for work, did not learn of her adopted son’s suicide until later through the social media.

For the 24-year-old there was only one stop during this time. “It was the football that helped me get through this,” Gallup reported with some distance: “I asked my mother if I should return and play the next game. It was all right with her, as long as it helped me, this should be my path.” After the season, Gallup returned to his family and spent much of the past off-season with them.

It’s a unique way to go.
In high school Gallup still played in the position of quarterback and even then he showed his understanding of football as a team sport. He often passed the ball to receivers that no one else was paying attention to.

“He’s so sensitive in that way,” his mother Jenny told the USA Network during college: “He’s just happy when he can show off his buddies. Especially those who are more in the shadows. That’s more important to him than being in the spotlight himself.”

He learned to share at a very early age. At the age of three he was adopted by the Gallup family, like six other children. In total he has seven siblings after his brother died so tragically.

When he was ten years old, his adoptive parents divorced, he became the “man of the house” and thus learned to take responsibility at an early age. Thus, three of his adoptive siblings came from India, two others from West Africa, while he was born in Atlanta.

“He was very different after our parents separated, but then he also developed into the man he is today,” his sister Lydia remembered. Whether his family or his former coaches, everyone saw in him that mature player that he is today.