Christian Darrisaw takes his long-awaited place as Vikings left tackle

At a park adjacent to FedEx Field in Landover, Md., Christian Darrisaw got the first glimpse of a future as big as the oversized 4-year-old playing flag football for his church's youth program.

Nearly two decades before Darrisaw impressed in his first start as the Vikings' left tackle two weeks ago in Carolina, he was gazing up at Washington's home field. From an early age, he displayed the quiet confidence he's shown as a two-star recruit at Virginia Tech and a first-round NFL draft pick.

"I'd look at the kids while they were on the field and tell them to look up through the tree line and see the stadium and hold onto that," said pastor and coach Jeff Wooten. "Christian was that kid who says, 'Oh, I'm going to the league.'"

Darrisaw's path to the field was not as direct as crossing the parking lot.

But family and former coaches say the 6-foot-5, 315-pound "lion with a puppy heart" was steeled for the core muscle injury that delayed his Vikings debut after he was chosen 23rd overall, the fourth offensive tackle taken. It was just another obstacle in a journey of many for a tough, quiet kid whose commitment was forged watching his favorite NFL teams, Philadelphia and Washington, on television.

"Watching like Michael Vick and DeSean Jackson and all those guys, like man, I want to do this one day," said Darrisaw, 22. "It hit me as I kept going through my career, like, we can make something out of this. I have a chance, really. As I got older, the chances were getting better and better for me."

Darrisaw, the only child of Kim Cherry and Jerronney Darrisaw, was mostly raised by his mother and grandmother in Maryland. His parents, who never married, lead a dedicated support system and travel to nearly every football game, college and pro.

Darrisaw built his foundation during childhood days volunteering at fundraisers and playing youth sports in the City of Praise Family Church in Landover, about 30 miles south of where he expects his biggest cheering section of the season Nov. 7 in Baltimore.

He was the tallest kid by 9 years old, said Wooten, who figured Darrisaw was about 5-6 when he towered over kids in flag football, and as a first baseman and cleanup hitter in baseball. He would get pain in his knees and back, leading to a doctor's visit where he was told that's essentially the cost of playing sports as a big kid.

"Kind of like growing pains, in a sense," Cherry said.

Darrisaw was a tall target for the Spirit of Faith Youth football team, playing tight end before he made the move to full-time offensive tackle at Riverdale Baptist, a private high school just outside the D.C. beltway. Former Warriors coach Dion Golatt, the father of Darrisaw's best friend D.J. Golatt, said he'd put Darrisaw in the backfield for handoffs, too.

"Early mornings, I was training with the skill guys," Darrisaw said. "That's what kind of got me my good feet."

With his footwork and long arms, he blossomed into a three-year starter and team captain for Caesar Nettles, the former Riverside Baptist coach who recalled Darrisaw impressing against a nearby school's top defender named Chase Young. Before Young was a star at Ohio State and the second overall pick in 2020 to Washington, he was playing Darrisaw in scrimmages for DeMatha Catholic.

"I don't know what more [colleges] needed to see," Nettles said.

Darrisaw was on the radar of top college programs, according to Nettles, but unofficial visits at Michigan State, Maryland, Rutgers and Penn State didn't net official offers. He was ranked a two-star recruit. Questions loomed about his college position and academic standing. But Virginia Tech was sold when then-Hokies receivers coach Holmon Wiggins noticed the lanky tackle while recruiting a different Riverdale Baptist player.

Soon after, the Hokies offered Darrisaw a spot. But lingering academic questions led to a semester at Fork Union, a military school for boys.

"Not necessarily going to college right away, having to go to prep school and work through that situation," Golatt said, "he just continued to put his head down, work hard and listen."

A meteoric rise

The confines of military school tested Darrisaw's love for football. For four months, he shined his shoes and went without his phone. He worked with academic tutors and played football. Students were shut off from the outside world during the first week. There was limited laptop access, only if you could make it through that week.

"You see people leave left and right," Darrisaw said. "Maybe I should just join them and go to a lower division school or something like that, but I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to play at the highest level."

His commitment was tested again. Colleges asked about reopening his recruitment after those four months of growth. His time at Fork Union went so well, his mother sent coach John Shuman a handwritten thank you.

But Darrisaw stuck with Virginia Tech, who promptly rewarded him by starting the true freshman in the 2018 season opener against Florida State. That caught both parents by surprise, even his father, who was in Tallahassee for the game. Mom's excitement might have been heard from Maryland.

"I see 77 run out and I'm screaming at home," Cherry said. "My phone was blowing up, it was crazy."

That's when his NFL dream crept toward reality. Darrisaw ascended in each of his three years as the Hokies left tackle, drawing attention from NFL scouts after a strong sophomore campaign that he affirmed as a first-team All-ACC pick as a junior.

In two of his three years, Darrisaw gutted through injury. Atop the list of most painful was the high ankle sprain suffered in his second game as a freshman. He missed only one game, playing through the sprain that eventually required what's called a "tightrope procedure." The surgery uses sutures instead of screws to heal soft tissue in the ankle.

Darrisaw said he didn't tell his parents the extent of that ankle injury. Nor did he tell them he was playing through abdominal pain last year. After the season, they decided to get it checked out, which led to his first operation in January performed by core specialist Dr. William Meyers.

"Family didn't even know, he just played through it," Jerronney Darrisaw said. "I would've never known he was injured until he said something about it."

Seeking the summit

When he was younger, Darrisaw had a "Mt. Rushmore" of offensive linemen. The longest-standing member of that group is Trent Williams, whom Darrisaw has said he has wanted to emulate since watching the former Washington tackle crush defenders.

"The way he goes out there and dominates every play," said Darrisaw, who shares Williams' No. 71 in the pros. "That's what NFL tackles are supposed to do. You see that, like, aggressiveness in his game style. It's no plays off for him."

Joe Thomas, Jason Peters and David Bakhtiari round out Darrisaw's current mountaintop.

He prides himself on being available, which is why the start of his Vikings tenure was so difficult. Better days with the core injury were erased by frustrating setbacks in summer practices. He was limited to drawing plays on the whiteboard in meetings and walking laps around the practice field, eventually undergoing a second surgery — also performed by Meyers — in Philadelphia on Aug. 12.

The Vikings thought he was healed when they drafted him, and so did Darrisaw, who didn't fully participate in a padded practice until Sept. 29. He's relieved to finally declare "100%" health after grueling days in the training room. His first NFL start against the Panthers proved as much. His attitude through the struggle told coaches more.

"There's been plenty of negative going on, right?" coordinator Klint Kubiak said. "He gets drafted here first round, comes here and he's been hurt the whole time. But all he's done is put the work in."

And he's done so with the same quiet resolve. Quarterback Kirk Cousins said he didn't fully register the franchise left tackle's presence in Carolina until after the winning touchdown in overtime. Amid years of rebuilding efforts on the Vikings offensive line, going unnoticed is desired.

"It's funny, because the first person I saw after we scored was him," Cousins said. "I realized, 'Oh, yeah, he's out here.' Like, I hadn't even noticed him all day, which in a way is a good thing, right? Because he's just doing his job, doing a great job."