Belk's football road winding through Nebraska

Grand Island is located in east-central Nebraska, alongside the Platte River and not much else.

Hollywood legend Henry Fonda was born there. So was former San Francisco 49ers fullback Tom Rathman. So there’s that.

The demographic charts put the African-American population at about 1 percent — you know, give or take. For a “proper” haircut, a guy in that sliver of the population might have to drive over an hour, to Lincoln, to make sure he looks good.

City founders must have been aiming for irony because Grand “Island” appears to be surrounded by corn, not water.

But Grand Island has a football team. A paying football team, part of the six-team Indoor Football League, where the players make between $200-300 per game. The IFL has connections to the Canadian Football League, which on occasion has seen players graduate to the NFL.

Ah, the NFL.

THAT, more or less, is why Davion Belk drove some 75 minutes this past week to a Lincoln barbershop.

“If I pay for it, I have to make sure I get a good haircut,” said the former Stetson defensive lineman.

A month ago, Belk joined Bethune-Cookman’s “pro day” in Daytona Beach. Today, he’s part of the IFL’s Nebraska Danger.

“Saskatchewan liked me a lot,” he said of the CFL’s Roughriders, whose season begins in mid-June. “I worked out for them a couple of times. They came to pro day and then invited me out.”

Problem is, the Chicago native hadn’t played since his senior year at Stetson in 2016. Also, Belk jams his 300-plus pounds over a 6-foot-1 frame, which is a tad short on those all-important football “measurables.” If the Saskatchewan Roughriders are considering adding Belk to their 2018 roster, they’re smart to get a little look-see ahead of time.

“Height is always a big thing,” Belk said. “Saskatchewan, a lot of times with guys they like but have questions about, they’ve sent them to Nebraska. It’s just an opportunity to show what I can do, answer questions about my height. I’m OK with that.”

After this bye week, Belk figures to get his first professional playing time next week when his team makes the four-hour drive east to Des Moines to play the Iowa Barnstormers.

(In case you’re wondering, or even if you’re not, you should know that the Barnstormers are coached by Dixie Wooten, who got his first head-coaching job three years ago with the now-defunct Bemidji Axemen in Minnesota. Let’s move along.)

“This ended up being a good thing for me, a chance to get some game tape. An opportunity,” Belk said.

Playing indoors, on the shorter arena-football field (roughly the size of a hockey rink), may present an initial culture shock to the skill-position players, but apparently not to linemen. Belk is usually good with explanations, and with this he again doesn’t disappoint.

“It’s a ‘Tom and Jerry’ thing,” he began. “Tom and Jerry didn’t care where they were, there was always a fight when they saw each other. Offensive linemen don’t like me no matter where I am, indoors or out.”

A year ago this week, Belk was waiting for the NFL Draft to come and go and, hopefully, receive an invitation to an NFL camp as an undrafted free agent. That’s how former Hatters teammate Donald Payne eventually got his hooks in an NFL job with the Jaguars, but Belk’s call didn’t come.

A year later, he went back to a “pro day,” will now put some live action on game film, and hope again for the call. No offense to Grand Island or the barbers of Lincoln, but Belk said he’d have to leave if he gets that longshot opportunity.

“I’d go with the NFL team,” he said of a potential invite. “I feel like that’s where I belong. That’s an easy one for me. That’s what I’m working toward. I’ve put in a lot of work, a lot of hours to get there.

“There are some players that should be on NFL teams, right now, who are sitting at home on the couch. It’s one thing or another … not tall enough, their hand was a half-inch too small. A lot of guys out there who could play in the league, but never got the opportunity.”

The odds, it seems, are about as tough as Belk getting a good haircut in Grand Island. That’s why he contacted some fraternity brothers at the University of Nebraska and, after his haircut, spent an afternoon touring the campus and its big-league football facilities.

“They welcomed me in, took me on a great tour. Just an awesome experience,” he said.

Then it was back to Grand Island.

“Everybody has been nice, there’s just not a lot to do,” Belk said. “I’m not playing in the middle of a cornfield, but there’s not too much to do. But that makes it easier to focus on football. I’m up here for football.”

Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com