By William Tauro
Born in Cambridge Massachusetts in June of 1989, now 22 year old Paul Shaughnessy has a lot to look forward to.
As a child growing up he played pop warner football for Malden beginning at age 8. During his high School Years Paul Played for Northeast Metro Tech High School in Wakefield. Though he was not heavily recruited coming out of a low divisional high school.
During his college years at Mount Ida College: D3 (started as a freshman), Paul became an impactful role player as a versatile athlete who could be put anywhere on the field.
As he entered his senior season, he knew that he had to do something special in order to follow his dreams in becoming a professional football player, so he was willing to do whatever it took.
That summer approaching his senior season, Shaughnessy was working a full time job which he was accumulating up to 50 hours per week and was training twice a day accumulating anywhere from 15-20 hours per week. That left me him with about 3-5 hours of sleep per night, but he was willing to put himself through that because he knew what it took to become a pro player and that’s what he wanted to do with his career.
Hard work paid off: Senior Stats: 857 rush yards (6 rushing TDS), 663 receiving yards (7 receiving TDS).
He became the first player in Mount Ida College history who had at least 1,000 yards receiving and 1,000 yards rushing in their career
Though he had an exceptional senior season, he knew this wouldn’t be enough. In order to be seen from a small Division 3 school, he needed to gain more exposure. His father and he traveled to a number of events in order to get Paul’s name out there. Here are the big invites:
*Invited to D2/D3 All American Bowl game in Minnesota
*Was awarded the Offensive MVP (First player in Mount Ida history)
- *Invited to NFL Super Regional combine at Ford Field in Detroit (First
Player to be invited to attend any NFL sanctioned event)
*Invited to attend a Pro Day
Additionally, while balancing football and school, he managed to graduate with a 3.76 (Magna Cum Laude) and a BA in Business Administration. He was also awarded the Business Administration Outstanding Achievement Award, which is awarded to the top student in their major.
*In multiple honor societies: Alpha Chi and Sigma Beta Delta
PROFESSIONAL
- After the NFL combine, the NFL lockout took place and with it ending in time for just three weeks of camp, it was hard to say that he was going to get picked up for this coming season. This was hard to take in, but Paul’s agent came up with a plan. Two weeks into August Paul signed his first professional contract with the Reading Express of the IFL.
- He was now working out at Boyles in Woburn preparing for the upcoming season.
- Also, here are some combine times (Boyles):
- 40 yard dash: 4.5-4.6 range
- L drill: 6.28
- Shuttle: 3.8-3.9 range
- Excited to jumpstart his career and also excited for the upcoming scheduled workouts. His goal was to play in the NFL and with hard work and dedication he could reach this goal. His advice to anyone who feels that they are an underdog is to keep telling you “Anything is possible.”
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