Before staring in college at Oregon State, Falcons running back Jacquizz Rodgers was a star at Lamar Consolidated High in Rosenburg, Texas.

He’s from Richmond, Texas, which is 31 miles southwest of Houston and was elated to have the joint practice with the Houston Texans on Wednesday.

“It’s good for my family,” Rodgers said. “I had like 12 people here today. It’s practice for me, but for them it’s a good thing.”

Rodgers is a fan of the joint practice sessions against other NFL teams.

“It’s always good because it helps me get a feel for the game,” Rodgers said. “It helps me build my confidence up so that I can be ready when that time comes. It helps everybody because you get more repetitions.”

Most of the locals wanted to know how Rodgers felt about the Falcons being featured on Hard Knocks.

“At first it was kind of bad trying to get used to it, but they are like normal guys now,” Rodgers said. “We are used to having them around so it’s not that bad. You have to watch what you say, but you can pretty just be yourself.”

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