• Former Vigor, Crimson Tide star fulfills NFL dream

MOBILE, Ala.—The NFL Draft annually fulfills the lifelong dream of playing professional football for some 250-odd collegiate athletes. This year those dreams were fulfilled for a player from right in lower Alabama's backyard. Jalston Fowler, formerly of Vigor High School and the University of Alabama, had his name called by the Tennessee Titans with the ninth pick of the draft's fourth round Sunday.  

Fowler was the fourth player from the University of Alabama selected in the draft, and one of seven total. He finished his career at Alabama with 738 career rushing yards and 5 touchdowns, while he also caught 19 passes for 150 yards and 7 touchdowns. 

His abilities as a blocker matched with his soft hands and reckless abandon when carrying the football will likely make the 6'1, 248-pound Fowler a favorite chess piece for second-year offensive coordinator Jason Michael and newly drafted quarterback Marcus Mariota. 

Fowler surely hopes to bring his winning mentality to the pros as he's already been a champion at his two prior stops, winning the Alabama 5A State Championship with Vigor in 2008 and BCS National Championships with Alabama in 2011 and 2012. 

Most draft pundits had Fowler going in the fifth or sixth rounds, so the Titans selecting him early in the fourth speaks to what they saw in the young man in meetings, at the Senior Bowl and at the NFL Scouting Combine, where he ran a 4.83-second forty-yard dash.

No matter what Fowler accomplishes in the NFL, he has already made the Vigor community very proud.