Daron Roberts’ journey to his current career in the National Football League is anything but ordinary. During his time as Student Body President of the University of Texas, an institution serving roughly 50,000 students, Daron thought he might one day run for Governor of Texas. After graduating with honors from UT, Daron relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts to attend Harvard. Daron graduated with two degrees from Harvard; first he completed his M.A. in public policy at the Harvard’s Kennedy F. Kennedy School of Governoment and went on to earn a J.D. from Harvard Law.
During the summer following his second year of law school, Daron was invited by an old friend to tag along to a three-day long football camp where his friend was coaching. While there, Daron had the serendipitous opportunity to step into a coaching position at the camp after another coach failed to show up. Daron grew up playing football through his high school years but coaching was a new experience for him. After those three days Daron knew without a shadow of a doubt that he wanted to be a football coach, no matter what it took. Daron turned down four job offers from law firms during his last year in law school and proceeded to send letters to every NFL team and Division-I football program seeking an internship to gain valuable and necessary coaching experience.
Herm Edwards, then coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, was intrigued by Roberts’ resume and decided to take a chance on the neophyte coach by inviting him to intern at the Chief’s camp during the summer of 2007. At the conclusion of the camp, Roberts convinced Coach Edwards to let him stay on with the Chiefs as a volunteer under the stipulation that he would not be paid and would coach for a nearby high school team, in addition to his responsibilities with the Chiefs. Daron’s unwavering commitment to his position and his drive to make his presence and hard work known, helped secure him a paid position with the Chiefs the following year. Since then, Daron’s coaching career has landed him at the University of West Virginia, the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns.
