Ex-Slippery Rock WR Kyle Sheets ready to ‘give this one more try’ with UFL’s Showboats
Kyle Sheets was ready to lead a normal life.
After spending this football season helping coach at Western Michigan University with tight ends coach Drew Moulton, Sheets was looking forward to a slower pace. No more studying hours upon hours of film or evaluating transfer portal players. Instead, some time to unwind back home.
“At that point, I was sure the football stuff was done,” said Sheets, a former consensus All-American wide receiver at Slippery Rock University, where he finished third in program history in touchdown grabs (29). “I was alright with it.”
Then his iPhone pinged.
The text message was from his agent, letting him know the United Football League’s Memphis Showboats liked what they saw. Sheets talked it over with his parents and girlfriend before agreeing to sign a contract with the spring league football team for the upcoming season.
“They kind of pushed me over and said, ‘Give this one more try, and if it doesn’t work, then it’s time to figure it out,’” Sheets said.
Sheets is a native of Springboro, Pa., roughly 16 miles north of Conneaut Lake. It’s a more laid back locale.
“I’m from a smaller area, and, you know, I think I was getting ready to just start life,” Sheets said. “Get ready, get a house, obviously family down the road. (I was) just ready to go home and do the things that I grew up around. Having the ability to just go hang out with a friend after work or, on the weekends, go watch a Steeler game. Or just go archery hunting and stuff like that.
“I think I was ready to get to that point and just settle down and kind of stop hopping around.”
Prior to coaching at Western Michigan, Sheets was signed by the New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent after the 2024 NFL draft. Sports Illustrated wrote he could follow in the footsteps of late-round draftees and post-draft pickups such as Marques Colston, Lance Moore and Marquez Callaway who had found success with the Saints.
Sheets was cut before two months had passed in the Big Easy but latched on for training camp with the defending Super Bowl-champion Kansas City Chiefs. He was targeted twice in the team’s preseason finale, then waived three days later.
“I’m thankful that the NFL did pan out how it did,” Sheets said. “You can either learn from something or just count it as a failure — and I’m going to take that as a learning point and see how I can prepare better for this opportunity.”
One of those lessons learned: professional football is still football, even if he was catching passes from Patrick Mahomes.
“They act like players did in (the) Slippery Rock locker room and just have fun with the game,” Sheets said. “You kind of put them on a higher pedestal, but, at the end of the day, they’re just people, too, that are working a job and supporting their family.”
Sheets admitted he’d put a lot of pressure on himself, overthinking things and not trusting himself.
“I wasn’t the player that I was at Slippery Rock,” Sheets said.
Now, Sheets will get one more chance, at peace with his path no matter the end result. That alleviates any pressure, allowing him to simply play.
“I’ll know kind of both sides of what it’s like playing and what it’s like not,” Sheets said. “I’m excited to see where I’m at now. (I’m) excited to see if I can produce the way I had at Slippery Rock and see if what I’ve learned so far can go out on the field and show.”
