Football is king in Longview, Texas, where the biggest cultural highlights besides Lobos games on Friday night are the Great Texas Balloon Race and the Turnip Green Festival.

Longview High School turns out several Division I players each year, so when lanky freshman receiver Malcolm Kelly showed up for spring tryouts wearing a knee brace, sophomore linebacker Robert Henson and his buddies snickered.

"We was like, 'Who's this dude?' " Henson said. "He didn't look the part, but when he got out there and started catching passes - the rest is history."

Kelly soon became the Lobos' star and went on to a standout career at Oklahoma. Henson didn't start at either Longview or TCU until his senior seasons.

Today, they're teammates again, dressing just seven stalls apart in the Washington Redskins' locker room.

"It's kind of a wild deal that they're on the same team," Lobos coach John King said. "Robert always had a motor. He played so hard. When he was on JV, I was watching the game with a coach I knew, and Robert was making tackle after tackle. The other coach said, 'If that's your JV linebacker, I don't want to see your varsity linebacker.'

"Malcolm made an impression right away. He was 6-3 and had those great ball skills. He made a lot of big plays and won a lot of games for us."

Kelly was drafted by the Redskins in the second round last year. Henson, a linebacker, was chosen in the sixth round this year.

"The chance of somebody making it to the league from any high school team is pretty low. And then to have two of us on the same team, it's crazy," Kelly said. "It's just like being back in the locker room at Longview again."