Before football, Colts wide receiver snagged accolades in a different uniform

Collie Indianapolis Colts wide receiver Austin Collie already has
one impressive title: Eagle Scout. On Sunday, he’s looking to add “Super Bowl
champion” to his résumé.

The 24-year-old NFL rookie caught seven touchdowns this
season for the AFC champion Colts and was a favorite target of this season’s
MVP, Peyton Manning. But before Collie wore blue and white, he wore khaki and
green on his way to earning the Eagle Scout Award in 2004.

As with most Eagle Scouts, earning the award was only the
beginning of an impressive life of dedication and service. For his Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)
mission, Collie served in a poor neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He
built houses, cut lawns, washed clothes, and dug sewage lines. That’s a
daunting assignment, for sure, but it’s even tougher when you don’t speak a
word of Spanish. After his two years of service, Collie came out a changed
man—and fluent in Spanish. His ease at picking up a foreign language shouldn’t
be a surprise, though. He graduated from BYU with a 4.0 GPA.

So even if you’re the world’s biggest Saints fan, we won’t
tell your friends if you secretly root for this remarkable Eagle Scout.


About Bryan Wendell 3282 Articles
Bryan Wendell, an Eagle Scout, is the founder of Bryan on Scouting and a contributing writer.