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DeVries joins ANF Wall of Honor

Posted on 25. Oct, 2013 by in Iowa Football

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Jared DeVries became the second former Iowa football player to have his name etched onto Kinnick Stadium's ANF Wall of Honor on Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. DeVries was a defensive lineman for the Hawkeyes during the final seasons of the Hayden Fry era and went on to play 12 seasons in the NFL, all with the Detroit Lions.

Jared DeVries became the second former Iowa football player to have his name etched onto Kinnick Stadium’s ANF Wall of Honor on Friday, Oct. 25, 2013. DeVries was a defensive lineman for the Hawkeyes during the final seasons of the Hayden Fry era and went on to play 12 seasons in the NFL, all with the Detroit Lions.

By Brendan Stiles

HawkeyeDrive.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa — One year after watching his “big brother” and current business partner Casey Wiegmann see his name become the first etched on Kinnick Stadium’s ANF Wall of Honor, Jared DeVries became the second former Hawkeye to be honored Friday.

Like Wiegmann, DeVries played for the late Ed Thomas at Aplington-Parkersburg High School before committing to Hayden Fry and Iowa. Once he became a Hawkeye, he was a force along Iowa’s defensive line, starting all four seasons he played. DeVries was named MVP of both bowl games he won as a Hawkeye — the 1995 Sun Bowl against Washington and the 1996 Alamo Bowl against Texas Tech. He also was first-team all-Big Ten on three occasions and was a consensus all-American during his senior season in 1998.

During that 1995 season at Iowa, DeVries and Wiegmann were teammates. The bond between the two former Hawkeyes and Aplington-Parkersburg Falcons is something DeVries said he appreciates to this day, as the two share a business endeavor in Iowa’s farming industry.

“It’s a big honor,” DeVries said. “Obviously, Casey and what he stands for, you couldn’t pick a better first recipient. He was my big brother here at Iowa and what better thing to follow him up in?

“I followed him to Iowa and I follow him in this fantastic award. That does mean a lot. He and I are great friends and that relationship that we built at Iowa continues to grow.”

DeVries was drafted in the third round of the 1999 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions, whom he spent his entire career with. During this time-frame spanning more than a decade, there were many obstacles DeVries had to face. On the field, there was season after season of losing and DeVries ended up playing for six different head coaches in Detroit — Bobby Ross, Marty Mornhinweg, Steve Mariucci, Dick Jauron (on an interim basis), Rod Marinelli and Jim Schwartz — all while being one of the only constants inside the Lions organization.

He also dealt with numerous injuries, saying he had 13 surgeries over his career. But DeVries never let the losses or injuries deter him, which he attributes to the farming background he grew up with in the state of Iowa.

“The work ethic my parents instilled and that Coach Thomas reinforced, I just kept my nose to the grindstone,” DeVries said. “And what is that? That’s the Iowa farmer, right? That’s what Iowa people stand for. You just keep working, keep working, keep working.

“I just took it off the farm and put it in a football setting. You get off the surgery table and just go back to work. Whatever the outcome was, I was going to be O.K. with it because I know I worked the hardest and best that I could.”

Below is video of DeVries from Friday’s ceremony:

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