Shavon Revel Jr. knows adversity. His latest challenge is seen as ‘opportunity’
When Shavon Revel Jr. (pronounced suh-vone rev-uhl) got the phone call from the Dallas Cowboys last Friday, it was the fulfillment of a manifestation from those around him.
His family, originally from Winston-Salem, N.C., are all lifelong fans of the Cowboys. When he first entered the process, it was his dad that continued to tell him that he was going to be drafted by Dallas.
Upon his arrival to Frisco while the rest of the rookies took the field for the first time, he had to stay to the sideline. After tearing his ACL in September, Revel has been working toward returning to the field which is expected to happen during training camp in August.
“It’s been very exciting,” Revel said. “Very overwhelming, but at the end of the day I know what I was signing myself up into...I can run in a straight line, cut. I haven’t gotten too much into that, just taking it day-by-day, taking it slow.”
Revel had his surgery performed by Dr. Dan Cooper, the Cowboys’ team physician, back in October. It coincidentally happened to be the same doctor that would continue looking over his rehab process now that he’s officially a part of the Cowboys.
“He did an extraordinary job on my knee,” Revel said. “For me to be walking on my knee a week after my surgery should tell it all. The connections he had helped me connect with other people when I was in Dallas for about four months.”
While Revel’s rehab from an injured knee is a point of adversity that he will immediately face to start his NFL career, the East Carolina alum is no stranger to overcoming obstacles.
A scar above his right eye serves as a reminder of the car accident that he was in as a sophomore in high school that resulted in a fractured skull, broken nose and a bruised jaw. He needed 28 stitches to close his wounds. Less than a year later, Revel broke his collarbone in the eighth game of his junior season, sidelining him for even more time.
“It definitely made me a tough individual,” he said about his adversity. “I’m self-motivated, self-driven. I like to set goals for myself. I’m very hard on myself. Everything happens for a reason. You learn and you grow. You learn from your mistakes.”
Not much recruiting attention came Revel’s way out of high school, as he was forced to take the junior college route. While working at an Amazon warehouse with his father and two brothers, Revel was able to impress coaches enough at just one program to earn a scholarship offer: East Carolina.
“I don’t care what level you play on,” he said. “I feel like if you got that heart, believe in yourself and not try to work through what other people think about you, you’ll get to the level you’ve been dreaming of.”
After a standout 2023 season for the Pirates, Revel was courted by some of the top programs in college football with large NIL packages. Instead of jumping on the opportunity, Revel decided to remain loyal to the only program that gave him a chance out of junior college.
“NIL, stuff like that, of course it’s going to help you,” he said. “But I like to work for my stuff. I like to work up to it so I know I did something. Money being handed to me, it sounds good, it can help your family, this and that. But my family knows how I work. I know how they work. I want to work for it. ECU gave me my first opportunity and I stayed loyal to them.”
Now, as he takes the next step into the NFL, he will have to work through one more point of adversity before hitting the field. For him, he’s learned how to deal with these things.
“Everybody’s road ain’t going to be perfect,” Revel said. “I have an opportunity. A door opened for me and I got to take it. I got to take it serious.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2025 at 2:44 PM.
