A decade after nearly getting cut from the Stagg High School football team, Stockton’s Jeremiah Pharms Jr. is part of a Super Bowl roster.
Pharms, a defensive lineman on the New England Patriots’ practice squad, will be with the team Sunday in Santa Clara as it prepares to face the Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl LX. While his role requires patience and readiness without guaranteed playing time, the moment marks the latest chapter in a journey defined by setbacks, grinding work and belief when few others had it.
“It just shows perseverance,” Pharms said. “Taking every loss on the chin and turning it into a lesson. It shows it’s possible, even if the path isn’t traditional.”
Nearly cut before it began
Pharms’ football path was anything but smooth in Stockton.
After moving from Sacramento to Stockton as a child, he bounced between schools and positions, often overlooked and undersized. At Stagg High School, he nearly lost his spot on the team entirely.
“My coach told me, ‘I’ll give you one more chance,’” Pharms recalled. “If I messed up again, I was off the team.”
That moment forced him to lock in.
“Most people — 90% of them — would have quit along the way,” longtime Staggs football coach Don Norton said. “He didn’t.”
By his senior year, Pharms had transformed into a team MVP, a shift his mother, Franquell Moppins, said reflected years of quiet discipline rather than sudden talent.
“No one really recognized his potential,” she said. “But I knew he could play. He never gave up, even when he wasn’t picked first or got cut.”
A detour through junior college
Despite his senior-year turnaround, Pharms’ recruiting options were limited. He began at Sacramento City College before returning home to attend San Joaquin Delta College, choosing proximity to family while recalibrating both football and academics.
“He needed the right fit,” his mother said. “Not just football, but support.”
Pharms spent two years at Delta College, a stop that helped stabilize both his football path and his focus.
“Jeremiah’s story is a story of hope and persistence,” said Delta College head football coach Gary Barlow. “And you can’t tell those messages enough.”
That decision proved pivotal. From Delta, Pharms earned an opportunity at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas — far from home and far from the spotlight.
Grinding without guarantees
At Friends, Pharms’ career took shape under defensive line coach James Tabor, who first recruited him and later became his trainer.
Tabor remembers picking Pharms up from the airport expecting a lean linebacker — and instead meeting a 280-pound lineman with raw ability.
“I thought I picked up the wrong kid,” Tabor said, laughing. “But then I saw him move.”
Pharms transitioned to the defensive line and eventually broke school records, becoming a First Team All-American and one of the nation’s sack leaders at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics level. Still, exposure was limited.
Then COVID-19 hit.
Pro days vanished. Candian Football League opportunities evaporated. NFL scouts stopped traveling.
What followed were years of uncertainty — training in public parks, commercial gyms and high school fields. Pharms worked overnight shifts at Walmart, jobs at laundromats and construction side work, sometimes making as little as $150 a week while continuing to chase his dreams in arena football.
“At one point, I almost gave up,” Pharms admitted. “That arena league check almost broke me.”
His mother framed it differently.
“I told him to think of it like an internship,” she said. “The money’s not for today. You’re working for the future.”
From UFL to the NFL
The breakthrough finally came through the United Football League, then the United States Football League, where Pharms earned steady film and exposure. In 2022, after a private workout, the Patriots signed him.
Thirty minutes.
That’s all the time he had to prove himself.
He made it count.
Pharms earned preseason snaps, recorded his first NFL sack and secured a place on the practice squad. He was elevated during the regular season and has remained with the organization through multiple coaching changes — a testament to consistency.
“Preparation is everything,” Pharms said. “You prepare like a starter, even when opportunities aren’t guaranteed.”
Bigger than football
For Pharms’ family, the Super Bowl moment is about more than football.
“I’m proud of the man he is,” his mother said. “The way he takes care of his wife, his kids, his siblings. That matters more than anything.”
Pharms echoed that perspective, saying his focus now includes building a future beyond football while continuing to earn his place.
“I’m still in the NFL,” he said. “That’s something I once dreamed about. I’m grateful — but hungry.”
Carrying Stockton with him
Pharms says representing Stockton remains central to his motivation.
“It’s a misunderstood city,” he said. “But there’s so much talent there. I want to be the help I wanted growing up.”
His message to young athletes back home is simple: stay locked in, value education and don’t let a nontraditional path discourage you.
“Where you start doesn’t define where you finish,” he said. “If you keep working, somebody will see you.”
On Sunday, one of football’s biggest stages will include a player whose journey began on Stockton fields, nearly ended at Stagg, detoured through junior college and NAIA football and survived years of unseen work.
For Jeremiah Pharms, being part of the Super Bowl is proof the grind mattered — and it isn’t the end of the story.
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