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But since he arrived in the NFL as a second-round pick of the Denver Broncos, winning is all he’s known.
The Broncos went 12-4 and won the AFC West last year, and they repeated that record this year to earn the No. 1 seed, which they have ridden all the way to Super Bowl 50, where they will face the Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
“He’s on Cloud 9 right now,” said Daniel Parks, Latimer’s high school coach. “His senior year we only missed the playoffs by a couple of points, and I know he didn’t win a lot at Indiana.”
Jefferson was 5-5 during Latimer’s senior season. Indiana was 1-11 his freshman year and never finished better than 5-7 before he declared early for the NFL Draft.
Parks said Latimer was a “four-way” player on West Jefferson’s tiny roster of 15 players. He played wide receiver, linebacker, returned kicks and covered kicks.
But Parks also admitted that as good as Latimer was, he never thought he had NFL potential until he got to Indiana.
“I remember the exact game and the exact play,” said Parks, who attended all of Latimer’s home games at IU and many of the road contests. “They were playing at Northwestern and they just threw the ball up to him. The defensive back had the best possible coverage he could have, and Cody just jumped over the top of him, reached in front of him and made the catch.”
There haven’t been many catches for Latimer in Denver. Eight to be exact. But during his rookie season starting wide receivers Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders both made the Pro Bowl, and the duo combined for 181 catches, 2,439 yards and 12 touchdowns in the regular season this year.
"Obviously we have two starters that don't miss much time, so there's not a lot of space out there for him," Denver head coach Gary Kubiak said in December in advance of the team's game against the Bengals.
“But he’s done a good job adapting to our system,” Kubiak added. “He’s big, strong and can run. I think there’s going to be more opportunities that come his way. He’s a fine young man. And he’s got a very bright future in this league.”
While Latimer only played 17.3 percent of the offensive snaps for Denver this year, he was in for 40.1 percent on special teams, where he learned the nuances of playing gunner from another Dayton native — Miamisburg grad David Bruton Jr.
“David’s really taken Cody under his wing,” David Bruton Sr. said.
Bruton Jr., a Broncos captain for each of the last three years, broke his leg Dec. 20 against Pittsburgh, creating more opportunities for Latimer in the gunner role.
Latimer leads Denver in special teams tackles in the postseason, and he had one of the biggest plays of the regular season when he forced a fumble against New England that completely turned that game around, leading to the Broncos rallying to beat the 10-0 Patriots.
Parks said he hopes to see Latimer make a few more big plays Sunday in the Super Bowl and experience the ultimate winning season.
“I can’t wait to watch the game,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be a proud moment.”
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