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A personalized autographed photo of Larry Fitzgerald, Kurt Warner and Anquan Boldin hung for years in Isaiah Hodgins’ bedroom.
It was one of the best gifts that Hodgins’ father, James, got from asking his NFL teammates every Christmas to sign items for his son, a Madden video-game enthusiast who was “by far one of the worst players on his team” of 7 year olds. When James Hodgins left the Cardinals for the Jets in 2006, Leon Washington sometimes joined the family for Chinese food at their rental home in Point Lookout, and Jericho Cotchery and Brad Smith welcomed Isaiah at bible study.
If Isaiah, now 24, was pinching himself back then, imagine the surreal feeling now that he is the unlikely No. 1 receiver leading the Giants into their NFC divisional playoff game against the Eagles on Saturday night.
“I never look past it,” Isaiah said. “I knew that I could do this, but just a couple months ago I was getting cut from one team and now I’m in the second round of the playoffs. Sometimes I get that overwhelming feeling of just like, ‘Man, I’m so blessed to be here and I’m so thankful.’ I just try to remind myself of that every day.”
Isaiah worked to become the best player on his youth team by the time he turned 8 and never stopped improving.
“Isaiah has an ability to receive coaching well,” James told The Post. “When he sets his mind to something, he’s unstoppable at it. It was amazing to see how fast he could flip that switch and the competitor in him started coming out.”
But James, who won a Super Bowl ring with the Rams during his seven-season career, knows the cruel reality of the pros.
“I knew that Isaiah had this potential this whole time, but a lot of guys never got their shot to show what they can do,” James said.
