Browns rookie who bluffed way into workout gets his chance

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When the Browns signed Damon Sheehy-Guiseppi earlier this offseason, the notable thing about his bio was that he went to something called Phoenix College and had never been in a pro camp.

But the way he got into Browns camp is a remarkable story, one of perseverance and determination and a good bluff.

Via Scott Patsko of the Cleveland Plain Dealer comes the story of the wide receiver-return man, who crashed a workout by pretending to know Browns personnel man Alonzo Highsmith and now has one of 90 spots on their roster.

Sheehy-Guiseppi hasn’t played organized football since his junior college stint in 2016, but traveled the country trying to scare up a college scholarship and then pro tryouts. He paid for a chance to try out for the CFL only to find out it was a waste of time. He tried out for the Arena League. Nothing worked. Eventually, he heard about a workout in Florida that Highsmith would be attending.

When he got to the workout, someone asked if he knew the Browns executive.

“Yeah, I know Alonzo,” he said.

Once he got inside, he introduced himself to Highsmith, then ran a 4.38-second 40-yard dash, and looked good in drills as a returner and receiver.

“I just knew I had to make it look like we were friends,” Sheehy-Guiseppi said. “Alonzo was real nice to me.”

After the workout, his new friend called him and offered an actual tryout at the Browns facility, where he impressed.

“Then we got a chance to see him for ourselves and you could see all of the explosive movement stuff that Alonzo was talking about,” Browns General Manager John Dorsey said. “Then when you watch him field kicks and punts, you are going, ‘OK, he can do this kind of stuff.’

“Now, he has not played in a couple of years, but it will not be because of lack of determination because this is a very determined young man.”

As a 24-year-old rookie, he’s still the longest of long shots. But he’s in an NFL camp, which means he has a chance.

“No matter what opportunity I’m given, I want to become the greatest,” he said. “If it’s practice squad, I want to become the greatest practice squad player.”

If nothing else, he can be an object lesson for everyone else in Browns camp, a place where expectations are higher than ever, but where the team ought to still have the underdog mentality.