"Not one Division I college football program in the country offered Will Demps a scholarship. He walked on and made a place for himself anyway.

Not one team in the NFL drafted Demps out of San Diego State. He found work in the NFL anyway, becoming a starter as a rookie.

Demps has lasted in the NFL six seasons and counting. He is the Texans’ starting free safety more because of brain than brawn, but he’s unfailingly slow on the uptake in one way.

He still hasn’t learned how to take no for an answer.

“I love to prove people wrong,” Demps said. “People say, 'You’re too fat, you’re too slow, you can’t hit, you’re not smart enough for this game.’ I turn away and use that as motivation.”

The New York Giants put Demps on injured reserve, which normally means missing the season, on the first day of last September. Demps negotiated a quick injury settlement and found work with the Texans 10 days later. Dislocated right elbow and all, he emerged as a starter at midseason and stabilized an injury-riddled secondary.

“We were fortunate to get him,” Texans coach Gary Kubiak said. “What a very solid guy for us as a player from the standpoint of leadership on the back end. I think he’s taken another step forward. Our guys really look up to him.”

Cornerback Dunta Robinson was the presiding look-up-to guy in the Texans’ secondary when he blew out a knee and a hamstring in the ninth game. The more Robinson watched from the sideline, the more he came to appreciate what Demps does for a team.

One day in March, Robinson went to Kubiak’s office and left a note: “Sign Will Demps.” Robinson likes to point out that the next day, the Texans took Demps off the free-agent market by signing him to a two-year deal.

One smart safety

“I saw a smart safety,” Robinson said. “He wasn’t just making plays on athletic ability. He was making mental plays.

“He was everywhere. He was the kind of guy I wanted to play with. I knew we had a gem, and we couldn’t let him slip away.”

Thirty-two teams failed to see Demps as such at the 2002 draft, unswayed by his making first-team All-Mountain West his final two seasons at San Diego State. As an undrafted free agent, Demps could have gone to any team willing to give him a tryout. He signed on with the Baltimore Ravens, who had allowed the fewest points and yards in the NFL over the previous three seasons.

The 2000 Ravens defense was so beastly, it made a Super Bowl-winning quarterback out of Trent Dilfer. Demps defied the odds by making the team. He demolished the odds by starting 10 games on a defense laden with Pro Bowl talent. Ray Lewis. Peter Boulware. Ed Reed. Chris McAlister. Adalius Thomas.

“I was blessed to see how it really was supposed to be done,” said Demps, who started 46 games in four seasons in Baltimore. “It’s like going to the right college and getting an education and understanding what it’s going to take in the real world.”

Demps tore an anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee late in the 2005 season and signed with the Giants as a free agent. Though he started every game in 2006 at less than full strength, he fell out of favor with Giants coach Tom Coughlin.

The parting proved to be win-win for everybody involved: The Giants became unlikely Super Bowl champions, and Demps found a team that appreciates him. Though Demps’ elbow required reconstructive surgery, he didn’t miss a game once he signed with the Texans after the first week of last season."