Sam Franklin Jr. flies around at practice. His voice booms across the field. It’s early in Franklin’s career with the Buffalo Bills, but he’s making an impression on special teams.
Franklin, 29, spent the first five seasons of his NFL career with the Carolina Panthers defense. He joined the Bills in late August, catching on first with the practice squad before he was promoted to the active roster three days before the season opener. When he takes the field these days, he likens it to a different sport.
“I give everything I got, and I’m a bull out there,” Franklin said. “But after the play, I’m the matador. Now I gotta calm down.”
Harnessing emotions
The story gets told time and time again. Franklin’s mom, Tammy Futch, loves repeating it. As it goes, his grandfather wanted to take baby Sam to football games at Florida State. But there was one major condition, Franklin said.
“Before he took me to them, he told me that I had to learn how to walk,” Franklin told The Buffalo News.
Growing up in Inverness, Fla., Franklin was around 10 or 11 months and still crawling. But apparently, grandfather’s deal worked.
“I climbed out of my seat and just started walking,” Franklin said.
At Florida State games, Franklin learned the rules of football. From an early age, he fell in love with the sport and knew he wanted to play.
“I’ve been passionate about this game since I was little, and I wear it on my sleeves when I’m out there,” Franklin said.
For a time, the emotions would boil over. Yes, Franklin wanted to win, but more than that, he so desperately hated to lose. He saw football as a path forward. That added pressure to each game.
Matt Rhule saw that impact at different stages. Now the head coach at Nebraska, Rhule coached Franklin in college at Temple and later during the beginning of Franklin’s five years with the Carolina Panthers.
Franklin entered the NFL with the Panthers as a rookie undrafted free agent in 2020, Rhule’s first season there. Rhule knew the kind of player he was getting in Franklin.
Because Rhule remembered when Franklin was a freshman at Temple.
“He was on the scout team. He would almost, like, lose his emotional composure at times competing so hard, and he just always wanted to win, and always wanted to be great at what he did,” Rhule told The Buffalo News.
“And he’s learned how to harness that, obviously, and it’s led to his success.”
One time, though, Rhule pulled Franklin aside. Rhule didn’t want to stop Franklin from playing with emotion, but the coach said he was looking for “a controlled rage.” Franklin took it to heart, knowing he didn’t want to cost his team in penalties, much less jeopardize his job.
But the intensity was always there.
“It’s intrinsic. It’s who he is,” Rhule said. “He’s been through a lot in his life. And some people, they go through a lot in their lives; it can weigh them down. And some people, (it) can spur them forward.
“And so, I think for him, he’s learned how to harness all the people in his life and count on them, all the people, all the things he’s been through, good and bad. And I think he uses that as fuel and motivation.”
Different, but great
At the beginning of high school, Franklin moved in with his godmother, Marlow Mike. Franklin stayed close with his immediate family, but he needed a different environment.
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“It was a great learning experience,” Franklin said. “I feel like it gave me a lot more structure.”
Franklin is a year to the day older than Mike’s son, Desmond. The two call each other twins, and they shared a room while Franklin was staying there.
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Around the same time, Franklin was moving, he was starting to accept advice from Mike.
Franklin has dyslexia, a learning disorder, as well as ADHD. When he had trouble focusing or processing what he was learning, Mike was always there to encourage Franklin.
“God made you different. You were born to be great,” she told him.
“I would make him look at my face when I said it to him, so he believed what I put in,” Mike said. “ ‘You were born to be great.’ … Because he felt like he was less than nothing because he was different.”
It started to click for Franklin, but he still needed tutoring to stay on top of his work. And he also needed to expend some of his boundless energy.
“Once I started learning, I’ll be up dancing and start moving and grooving, because I had a lot of energy,” Franklin said. “And then my tutors just be like, ‘All right, five-minute break,’ and I just go outside, walk around.”
In college, Franklin was constantly in study hall to stay on top of his course work. But sometimes he would get distracted. He’d head up the stairs, in part because that’s where the bathroom was.
“But really, I would go upstairs because our basketball gym was in there and go shoot,” Franklin said. “And then they had to come up there, like, ‘Sam, what are you doing? It’s been 25 minutes.’ Oh, my fault. I got lost in the bathroom.”
Studying football is different for Franklin. It’s partly because he considers himself a visual learner, and watching film helps him stay focused. He has also adapted his studying style.
He finds it helps to watch with other people, so he can talk through what he’s seeing. He’ll bounce ideas off the players and coaches he’s watching with. He’ll write down notes and draw plays.
Reuniting with some faces from Carolina has helped, too. Franklin has leaned on veteran linebacker Shaq Thompson, who played 10 years in Carolina before joining the Bills this offseason.
“Sam’s my guy,” Thompson said. “I kind of took him under my wing when we were in Carolina, working out together in the offseason. He’s one of those guys – we call him ‘The Black Force.’ Because he’s always going to bring that energy, the trash talking, and he’s always going to back it up with his play.”
Coming full-circle
A few years ago, Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White was headed to Walt Disney World, as he does every year with college teammate, Donté Jackson, and their families. Jackson, who played six seasons for the Panthers, brought another friend: Franklin.
“It was good chance to fellowship,” White said of Franklin. “We got to know each other a little bit. But then it came full-circle when he came here. … He’s brought a lot of juice to our team.”
In Buffalo, Franklin has rekindled all sorts of relationships.
Bills special-teams coordinator Chris Tabor knew Franklin would fit in with the culture in Buffalo. The two overlapped in Carolina from 2022-23, when Tabor was first the special-teams coordinator and then interim head coach there. If Tabor ever needs a pick-me-up himself, Franklin is there for the coach.
“He has great energy,” Tabor said. “He’s physical; he’s tough. The part people don’t see is behind the scenes, the guy studies film and knows – he will already tell you stuff about the game plan before the meeting even starts. That’s always who he’s been.
“He’s a true pro and has worked hard at his craft, and (I’ve) been really proud of him, how he’s developed through the years.”
Like Rhule, Tabor was able to see Franklin channel his gameday emotions into a move productive style of play. Teams used to goad Franklin into making rage-fueled mistakes, and he would respond. These days, he doesn’t.
“He gets doubled a lot,” Tabor said. “And when he beats it, he gets excited. And that’s where he’s really matured. He really has, of playing within his emotions, yet using his emotions to be who he is.”
When he was on the free-agent market, Franklin had options besides Buffalo, including going back to Carolina after an offseason stint with the Denver Broncos, but the Bills’ potential spoke to him. He understood what his job would be; through three weeks, he has played 63% of special-teams snaps.
“Everybody wants to play on defense, but it was just growing into my role,” Franklin said. “That was the biggest thing that I was proud of and becoming more of a leader. Taking more control out there when I’m on special teams, letting guys know what I see, what I think should go down.”
There’s a balance to it. Franklin doesn’t want to overstep, especially on a new team. But he knows he can help, and he is thinking big-picture.
“I just hope I can just keep doing a good job for them,” Franklin said. “And you know me personally, only thing I think about every day is getting a Super Bowl.”
The Panthers were 22-52 during Franklin’s time there. He says winning in Buffalo, where the Bills are 3-0, still feel like “new territory,” and even “awkward” at times. As soon as the team wins, he’s just thinking about going back to work,
“I’m not too comfortable when we win,” Franklin said. “I’m happy, but I don’t overdo it. Like, OK, it’s not the Super Bowl. So, the job’s not done.”
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Katherine Fitzgerald
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