DT Eric Crosby ready to leave his legacy at Tennessee

As a sixth-grader, Eric Crosby, oldest of three boys to a single parent, promised his mom, Amy, that she wouldn’t have to pay for college.

Crosby will officially fulfill that pledge Sunday, when the Virginia Beach defensive tackle product reports to Tennessee to start his freshman year. The Oceans Lakes (Va.) standout shares a super close relationship with his mom, saying, “She’s had the biggest impact on my life.”

Growing up, Crosby watched as his mom forewent meals to provide for him and his two younger brothers. She struggled to makes ends meet, but she never gave up, leaving a lasting legacy on Crosby.

Before he even shows up to Tennessee, the 6-foot-1, 325-pound mauler — nicknamed ‘Yeti’ like the Abominable Snowman since the 9th grade — is already building his brand to give back.

Earlier this year, Crosby started a T-shirt business titled, ‘Leave Your Legacy,’ selling two different types of shirts. One T-shirt has a Yeti logo on the front, with Y-E-T-I spelled out on the back.

Young

Established

Talented

Individual

The other shirt is a monthly awareness shirt, with shirts already printed to support breast cancer, autism and lupus in the last three months. Crosby worked shifts at the local rec center after football practice to pay for the merchandise, selling the shirts for $20 a pop.

Each month, he donates the leftovers and some of the revenue to Maison des Enfants de Dieu, an orphanage in Haiti where one of his mom’s friends actually adopted a child and later moved back to the island to work at the site.

Inspired by his mom’s influence, Crosby’s entire business idea came together over hamburgers and a shake at Sonic one afternoon.

“It was about three or four months ago,” he explained, chuckling. “I was with my friends and just said, ‘Man, I’m trying to impact people’s lives. I’m going to make some shirts and start a company called Leave Your Legacy. I always thought that when you’re doing something in life, I always say do it as if you were to die tomorrow. Make sure everyone remembers what you did. Don’t have people remember you for what you could have done, or what you could have been. My mom always motivated me to give back and make sure that I’m respectful to everybody.”

Like all of his future teammates, Crosby reports to Tennessee with NFL aspirations. He hails from a talent-rich area that’s produced NFL stars like Michael Vick, Percy Harvin and Cam Chancellor, and Crobsy wants to continue that legacy. Still, his true dreams are to become a physical education teacher, reaching the same “young knuckleheads like me” and making a positive impact on someone else’s life.

While his mother Amy has long been Crosby’s motivation, Yogi Boothe, his PE teacher at Ocean Lakes, truly tapped into ‘Yeti’s’ mammoth potential. Crosby was a cutup and rarely did his school work before Boothe completely changed his attitude on life during his freshman year.

“I was kind of a knucklehead, so my head coach, right before practice introduced me to Yogi Boothe right in the student parking lot. She tells me, ‘I’m going to make sure you’re not a knucklehead anymore. I’m going to keep you on the straight and narrow.’

“I said, ‘Aight,’ and shrugged it off because this is stuff I would hear all the time. But then in class she sat me right next to her. … She stayed on me all the time, 24/7. She wouldn’t sugarcoat anything, didn’t play no games. Every time I needed something, I would go to her. She’s the person I want to be like. She changed my life. She made it known in my head I needed to change. She let me know that I had all this potential and I couldn’t just mess it up fooling around in school, getting bad grades and stuff like that.

"She changed my life by just staying on me. If I could touch one kid’s life by doing the same, then I’m good.”

Crosby comes to Tennessee “on a mission.” He’s worked hard to prepare physically for the SEC, and with his size and agility (he can surf and dunk a basketball at 330 pounds) he presents a future unique option on Tennessee’s defensive line. He’s 'country strong' (benching more than 400 pounds and squatting north of 525) and hopes to find himself in the Vols’ rotation next season. It remains to be seen if he can fulfill that goal, but he already knows how he’ll ultimately “leave his legacy” with the Vols.

“I really want to become a better young man than I already am now,” he said.

“I want to create great relationships. I want to be someone at Tennessee who is always remembered. Not just football, but other stuff. Giving back to the community. Going to read to little kids. Doing the field days at elementary schools.”

CATCHING UP WITH ERIC CROSBY…

What will miss most about home?

“Probably the beach. I love the beach. Growing up around water, anytime there’s water I can swim in, I’m the first one in it. I love to surf. I love to skim board. I love to go swimming. The good thing about the beach, if it starts raining, it don’t matter because you’re already wet.”

In the end, what sold you on UT?

“Just the true family aspect of all the coaches, fans and everybody around the organization. Every other college I went to, they were pretty much all about, ‘football this, or football that. Eric, you’re going to be an All-Star.’ That’s all recruiting talk. They tell all the kids that. I could be one DT and the other DT they’ll tell them the same thing. But Tennessee, they were all about family, making connections with the players. Making connections with their families.”

Favorite TV show right now?

“Cops or Chrisley Knows Best.”

What’s on your playlist?

“I like all the old (2000’s) music. T-Pain, old Chris Brown.”