If you think Rodney Heath Jr. is the longest of shots in this draft season, so what?

He grew up learning football in his Cincy basement from maybe even a longer shot.

Remember his dad? Rodney Heath, one of the Bengals' most consistent defenders as a turn-of-the-century cornerback before he tore his hamstring off the bone?

Undrafted out of Minnesota in 1997 despite nine career interceptions?

Signed by an indoor team called something like the Minnesota Monsters that went belly up before he even played a down?

Not getting a tryout until 1999, when his coach at nearby Western Hills High School, former Bengals cornerback Jimmy Turner, saw his two-year lobbying of 1983 draft classmate and Bengals secondary coach Ray Horton pay off?

Leading the 2000 Bengals in passes defensed and winning a well-arned lottery with three-year, $3 million deal with $700,000 to sign before the injury in the fifth game of the next season cut short his career?

No.

Heath told his son he would not be returning to Paycor Stadium Tuesday morning to watch him during his old team's local day.

"You have to go out there and stand on your own two feet," Heath told his youngest. "Let them judge you by your actions."

Heath Jr., who once ran a 9.9-second 100-meter dash to set the school record at Louisiana Tech and become an Honorable Mention All-American before helping the 400-meter U.S. relay team win a bronze medal at the under-23 North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association games in Costa Rica, knows plenty about standing up on those two feet. Not to mention laying them down.

"Football was always my first love, going back to when my dad showed me how to backpedal," Heath Jr. said after his day was over. "He said, 'I've got to do something with this kid."

When his dad heard how the day went, he was even prouder. The 5-9 Rod Jr. didn't say anything about the sprained ankle he's been nursing, and he stoically went through a busy workout for him and another receiver (Liam Clifford of St. Xavier and Penn State) taking throws from two quarterbacks.

"He also caught about ten punts, plus he ran all those routes, so he was getting a lot of work, and that's all he wanted. An opportunity," the dad said.

It's a day of longshots. Maybe about ten of the 32 are going to be in an NFL training camp. Plus, the pundits theorize Miami University linebacker Jackson Kuwatch and Roger Bacon and Illinois defensive tackle James Thompson Jr., may get drafted late on the last day.

The final act of the day was Heath running back into the locker room to change his shoes to run his first 40-yard dash as a pro prospect. The speedster hit only 4.51 seconds after a high school 40 of 4.36. And he knows he's faster now.

Yet on a day for optimists, optimism still abounded.

"When he's got everything going, he's in the 4.3 range," Senior says. "Maybe the next time they'll do the 40 first and get it out of the way. Like at the combine."

Football may have been Rodney Jr.'s first love, but track, the sport of his mother Kimberley, his older sister Kaylyn, and where his dad also dabbled, was more attractive in Division I scholarships.

"A no-brainer," Rodney Jr. said.

Especially when the football offers didn't come rolling in at Lakota East in Cincinnati's northern ring, where he played wide receiver and cornerback.

"They ran the triple option at East," says Senior, who coaches track at East and football at West. "Tough for recruiting."

When Junior went to Kentucky, where he was on a top 20 relay team, and then later to Tech, the thought was that maybe someone in the programs would eventually let him play both. But with money so tight in track and Junior racking up the accolades, track didn't want to risk losing his scholarship if he got hurt in football. Neither did he.

So when Junior came home last summer from training in Colorado after his college career, his father could see the football bug never left.

"He wanted to catch the football," Rodney Sr. says. "I said, 'Hey, we're a DB family.' But we're also a family of athletes. I'm not the kind of father who wants my son to do what I did. So I began working out with him. I'm telling you, he's tough. I stopped trying to cover him. That speed is something I've never seen."

It just so happened that they don't run the triple option at East anymore because Heath Sr.'s old Bengals quarterback is the head coach.

(That day in 2001 Jon Kitna engineered a win over the defending Super Bowl champion Ravens at Paycor, Heath defended two passes and recovered a fumble.)

Kitna's son, Jalen, just home from Alabama-Birmingham, needed people to throw to and to get ready for the UAB pro day. Rod needed just to play. Not only did the sons of Kitna and Heath hook up to practice, they became close and Jalen wanted to take Rod with him to Alabama. Even Jon Kitna was telling Senior that his son should give the game a second chance because of that speed.

"They wouldn't let him run (the 40), but they let him run routes," Senior says. "It was his first time he was in front of scouts. The videos got posted and he was flying down there. Their GM was impressed."

Impressed enough that he reached out to Bengals assistant general manager Trey Brown. Of course, they would invite a guy who ran a 9.9 and 10.1s consistently. It would help that Jalen would be throwing to him, along with the obligatory St. X quarterback, this year Indiana of Pennsylvania's prolific Matthew Rueve.

Things were happening just as fast as young Heath. Andrew Johnson, the Bengals scout who runs the local day, set it up Thursday. By 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Heath was explaining to reporters how it felt after playing football on his dad's old stomping grounds.

Born the spring after what turned out to his dad's career-ending hamstring injury, he turns 24 next month. His dad was always his favorite Bengal, but when brought him down to some games as a kid, he loved A.J. Green.

Weaned on stories of his father playing against Hall of Fame receivers such as Jerry Rice and Marvin Harrison, he knew what an opportunity looked like.

"I showed them I'm coachable. I can catch. Plus I can run," Heath Jr. said. "The receivers coach kept telling me and the other receiver we were doing a good job.

"It's all about an opportunity. God opened the door and I walked through."

Heath Jr. took time to thank Troy Walters, that receivers coach. Heath Sr. thanked the stars for a son that just wanted a chance.

"We'll see what happens next," said Rodney Heath Jr. at the end of a longshot day.