Jeff Heuerman had to convince security guards he was a member of the Broncos

When a 6-foot-5, 255-pound chiseled dude walks up to the team entrance at Sports Authority Field, you’d think the security guard would know he’s part of the team. Apparently not, though, when you’re a rookie who got injured on the very first day of rookie minicamp before many people had a chance to learn who you were.

This was the case for Broncos tight end Jeff Heuerman who, on Monday, shared some of the funnier struggles of never getting to see the field during his rookie year due to an ACL tear.

“I remember sometimes going to the games they’d make me walk through security,” he said with a laugh. “I’d have to put my keys [through the detector] and stuff. He’d be like, ‘ You have to show me something that shows you’re on the team,’ so I had to show them like my key card to get in the facility and  he’d be like, ‘Alright, alright, alright, you can go.'”

And it wasn’t just security guards, the mountain of a man—who was just coming off of a National Championship at Ohio State in Columbus where he surely didn’t have to tell anybody who he was—was catching suspicion from anybody he tried to tell he was an NFL player.

“[I had] a good amount and people asking me, ‘Are you really on the Broncos?'” he admitted. “And I’d be like ‘Yeah! I swear!’ It was a whirlwind.”

If this was a kicker or something you might understand but just take one look at Jeff Heuerman and you can be pretty sure he’s a high-level athlete. Maybe the problem is that every 6-foot-5 guy around town has been trying to convince everybody that they’re on the Broncos?

Anyways, if the high praise he has received from Peyton Manning, Gary Kubiak and John Elway has any bearing, people are going to know who Jeff Heuerman is this year.