When Jeff Cotton was in high school, he started running with a bad crowd and getting into trouble, in pretty typical teenage fashion.
He didn’t see what was happening, but his Ironwood Ridge High School football coach did and one day, he pulled Cotton aside and told him he was headed down a bad path.
“I could really tell if I kept doing that I was not going to end up in a good place. It clicked in my head and made me start to head towards a different crowd,” said Cotton, 23. “I told myself, “If you really want to do this, you’ve got to get away from it and focus on your ultimate goal.’”
That goal was landing on an NFL roster, and Cotton signed with the Los Angeles Chargers as an undrafted free agent in late April.
“It’s been awesome,” Cotton, a 6-foot-2-inch, 204-pound wide receiver, said. “Knowing that all my hard work and all the doubt I had and all the tough times, it was all worth persevering through and pushing through.”
‘Looking at his career, his growth has been amazing’
Football is such a big part of Cotton’s life and persona, he can’t even remember exactly when he started playing.
He knows he was 9 or 10 when he first threw a ball for American Youth Football, and from there, it felt like things moved quickly.
“Looking at his career, his growth has been amazing,” said Matt Johnson, Cotton’s former high school football coach. Cotton went on to play for Pima College and then the University of Idaho.
Cotton played his first two high school seasons at Ironwood Ridge under coach Matt Johnson — the coach who set him back onto the straight and narrow — before transferring to Mountain View High School early into his junior year.
“I think it takes a special person to be constantly growing. It seems like he accepts the coaching from each of his coaches and maximizes that coaching within himself,” Johnson said. “Looking at his career, his growth has been amazing.”
Last season, Johnson also made the move from Ironwood Ridge to Mountain View, signing on as head coach of the Mountain Lions after a decade with the Nighthawks.
“When most college athletes are taking a break or feeding their ego by coming home, Jeff was paying the price to succeed,” Johnson said, adding that on his summer trips home to Tucson, Cotton stayed dedicated to his training by running, lifting and doing agility drills in the sweltering summer temperatures.
“I believe he will make it in professional football because he has the characteristics professional teams need. He is very intelligent, hard working, competitive, and athletic,” Johnson said.
“Some people have a few of these traits, but few have all. And when he is done playing, he will be a positive leader and member of any community.”
Johnson said he thinks Cotton’s family support has been the key to his success, saying that Cotton’s determination to keep striving is a testament to his mother and father, who believe in him while challenging him to be his best.
Jeff Cotton, right, looks for running room in Mountain View High School’s game against Cienega in 2014. “Always work hard and don’t let anyone tell you no,” said Cotton, who also attended Ironwood Ridge.
Cotton also attributes much of his success to his father, saying his dad was the one to help him with his workouts early in his career, before he had summer weight camps at his high school coaches to guide him.
“I had some stuff at my house and I’d lift on occasion, then I’d go out on the weekend with my dad and do some drills,” Cotton said of his workout regimen in high school. “Towards the end of my senior year, I started working with (Harold) Coleman, who had a 7-on-7 team, and did some stuff on the south side of town.”
During his senior year at Mountain View, Cotton was named first-team All-Region and first-team All-Southern Arizona, catching 47 passes for 851 yards and five touchdowns, while also competing in track and field.
‘Jeff was ready to put his name on the No. 1 spot’
After graduating, Cotton signed with nationally-ranked Pima College, notching 43 catches for 837 yards and six touchdowns during the Aztecs’ 2016 season.
“Coach (Jim) Monaco was always so honest with me and kept it real with me from the day I met him,” Cotton said of his coach. “I thank him to this day for that.”
The respect Cotton has for his former Aztecs coach is mutual, with Monaco saying that Cotton will always hold a special place in his heart.
“Jeff Cotton has the ability to take what most would consider a set back, and Jeff turns it into a motivational tool,” said Monaco, who now serves as Pima’s interim athletic director. “He works harder to take that disappointment and turn it into greatness, and that is a very special quality.”
Monaco called Cotton a grinder, saying he always works to improve his skills and spends even more time on any perceived weakness.
Jeff Cotton, left, takes a short break while working out with former University of Arizona running back Bryce Coleman at JET Sports Training two weeks ago. “I stuck to my goals and didn’t let anything outside distract me from what I wanted,” Cotton said.
“He always started for us but wasn’t what you would call the star receiver. Jeff never complained he always did his job and always practiced very hard,” Monaco said, recalling the 2015 Western States Football League championship game against Snow College during Cotton’s first season with Pima.
The Aztecs had played a great game, but were really beat up, with their top receiver Tim Hernandez having suffered a severe ankle injury.
“We knew it was going to be difficult to get him the ball,” Monaco said. “Jeff Cotton was ready to put his name on the No. 1 spot.”
Cotton had a top-notch game with a spectacular catch to end the first half and put the Aztecs into the lead.
It was his first college touchdown, Monaco said, but certainly not his last.
During his 2016 season with Pima, Cotton was an National Junior College Athletic Association Honorable Mention All-American and was named first-team All-Region. He was also named first-team All-WSFL, leading the league with 93 receiving yards per game.
He transferred to Idaho in 2017, where he ended up being the team’s top pass-catcher with 1,076 yards in his last season.
“Coach (Paul) Petrino believes in toughness all around, that’s something he preaches a lot,” Cotton said. “He was tough on me, and I think it just helped me a lot. Helped me to be coachable. But it took me awhile to realize it, so I started going to other coaches, and they would tell me the same thing, just in a different way.”
During the Vandals’ 2019 season finale against NAU in Flagstaff, Cotton hauled in a career-high 230 yards and two touchdowns — including a 70-yarder — in a wild 60-53 overtime win over the Lumberjacks.
“Coach Petrino gave me an opportunity when no other colleges believed in me,” Cotton said.
“He saw something in me and took a shot on me when no one else did.”
‘I’m on the move wherever I can to prepare to be the best’Now, all these years later, Cotton is back on the south side of town, working out three days a week at JET Sports Training, with 2007 Sunnyside High School graduate Bobby “Jet” Rodriguez, who studied jiujitsu and mixed martial arts in Brazil.
Cotton started working with Rodriguez (who was able to stay open during the pandemic by limiting class sizes and taking workouts outdoors) in mid-April, after he returned to Tucson from his pro day, which almost didn’t happen, thanks to the coronavirus.
After graduating from Idaho in December, Cotton took a break for the holidays, heading out to Texas after New Year’s to start training for his pro day.
“After leaving Texas, I went back to Idaho and that’s when they said school was canceled and I’d have to do a pro day on my own,” Cotton said. “While I was out there, my agent called and said he had another client doing a pro day in Montana and there would be a former scout conducting it.”
He drove to Montana for his pro day and moved back to Idaho for a few days before packing his belongings and heading home to Tucson.
That’s when he found Jet, where he says he’s been working on plyometrics, weight lifting and football movement training.
“You work muscles you didn’t even know you needed,” Cotton said.
But his training hasn’t all been local and his path to the NFL has never been a sure thing. While Cotton wasn’t selected during the 2020 NFL draft on April 23 or 24, he signed with the Chargers the next day.
Mountain View receiver Jeff Cotton (11) hauls in a pass in front of Cienega’s Tre Stewart Ruiz during the fourth quarter of the Cienega vs. Mountain View high school football game on Friday, Sept. 5, 2014, at Cienega High School, 12775 E. Mary Cleveland Way, in Vail, Ariz. Cienega won 27-24. Photo by Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star
From there, Cotton — now more committed than ever — drove to Las Vegas to work out with a top trainer.
“He was a first-round pick in the ’90s and played with Peyton Manning in college, so he knows what it takes to play in the league,” Cotton said.
He’s also been taking trips up to Phoenix to train with a receiving coach.
“I’m on the move wherever I can to prepare myself to be the best I can be whenever I get out there,” Cotton said.
‘He has definitely made Tucson proud’
Cotton said he knows there are no guarantees when it comes to making the team, but none of this has been guaranteed. He’s had to grind through uncertainty time and time again, and time and time again, it’s paid off.
After Cotton’s second season at Pima, he hadn’t heard from a lot of four-year schools and he was starting to feel like a lot of his Aztecs coaches gave up on him.
On top of that, his graduation was postponed from March to May, then again to August due to missing credits, and he was starting to get down.
But for the second time, a football coach came in for the save.
“Coach (Angel) Ortiz was talking to me damn near every day, helping me get into the classes I needed, helping me call schools and asking them to reach out to me,” Cotton said. “I really feel like I wouldn’t be where I’m at today without him.”
Ortiz, who now works as an assistant football coach at Coffeyville College in Kansas said that while Cotton is the fifth receiver he’s coached that’s landed with an NFL team, it feels just like his first.
“It’s a great feeling, especially when he deserves it,” Ortiz said. “You know coaches, it’s all about the players and we have to help them, but I take it very personal because somebody trusted me with him. A parent, a grandparent. Someone trusted me with that player.”
Ortiz said Cotton told him early on he wanted to make it to the NFL, and Ortiz was determined to hold him accountable for that.
“A lot of players are not willing to take the actual sacrifice and discipline to actually go through it. That’s what separated Jeff from a lot of the guys in his class,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz said that he thinks a few schools did give up on Cotton because he wasn’t a May graduate, but that he was determined to help him find a four-year college at which to continue his career.
The late graduation turned out to be a blessing, as a coach from Idaho was planning a visit to Pima to check out another receiver. Ortiz told the coach he had to meet Cotton, as well, and the intro was set.
“Jeff was just thankful to be there. It was his first introduction and he was all smiles. He was happy to be there,” Ortiz said.
The Idaho coach was so impressed with Cotton’s demeanor, they decided to take a chance on him and the one shot he had to finish his summer classes and graduate.
“It just came down to the school saying, ‘We believe in your ability, now where are you academically and let’s see if we can work with you,’” Ortiz said. “Some schools didn’t want to do that, and they lost. They lost out on a big-time player.”
Ortiz chuckles as he recalls how Division II colleges “wouldn’t even sniff,” but that Cotton’s one and only opportunity came from a Division I school.
Cotton is staying in football shape in Tucson as he waits to hear what the NFL’s plans are for the upcoming season.
“It’s good to see a hometown kid that does it the right way, that does it in the way that others can look up to,” Ortiz said.
“I know for sure he has definitely made Tucson proud, let alone Arizona.”
Ortiz says he plans to go see Cotton play when the Chargers play the Chiefs in Kansas City in the regular-season finale on Jan. 3.
“They all talk about the grind, but Jeff shoots for excellence, and anything other than that is unacceptable,” Ortiz said, adding that he believes Cotton has the potential for a lengthy NFL career.
‘That’s what I did the whole time – stuck to my goals’While Cotton is quick to attribute his success to his parents and coaches who helped him along the way, if you ask anyone, Jeff Cotton got to where he is by standing on his own two feet.
And if you ask Cotton, he says it’s all about working hard and staying on the right path.
“Always work hard and don’t let anyone tell you no,” Cotton said. “Anything is possible, I know that’s cliché, but if you work hard anything can happen.”
Cotton said that he’s watched that cliché play out in his own life, after he took Coach Johnson’s advice back in high school. He hopes to share that message with the younger generation of future athletes and professionals.
“Don’t let any outside obstacles and distractions distract you from what you want in life, no matter what that is, whether it’s being a manager at a bank, player in the NFL or a doctor,” Cotton said.
“The parties and girls are always going to be there, but the opportunities you have aren’t always going to be there.”
So Cotton keeps grinding it out in Arizona, waiting to hear from the Chargers, who are waiting to hear from the NFL.
The team “possibly might” open up the facilities in the next couple weeks, Cotton said Wednesday, adding that it’s still up in the air.
But he’s not letting it get him down, as he’s already so close to living his dream.
“I feel like you hear all the time if you work hard enough your dreams will come true, and that’s just what I did the whole time,” Cotton said. “I stuck to my goals and didn’t let anything outside distract me from what I wanted.”