Denzelle Good: From unloading shoes to Division II to the Colts

• Colts at Steelers, 8:25 p.m. Sunday, NBC

The Indianapolis Colts’ new right tackle last started a football game for a Division II school originally known as the French Broad Baptist Institute.

Before that, Denzelle Good sold clothes and unloaded trucks carrying shoes.

He’s a self-described Cartoon Network junkie who, at 340 pounds, apparently can still dunk like some of the best ballers.

So again, who is this guy?

Good was the Colts’ seventh-round draft pick in May who has been designated as inactive for the season’s first 11 weeks. He started Sunday's game only because the offensive line required reshuffling due to the sprained knee ligament suffered by left tackle Anthony Castonzo last week.

If Good’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he was penalized four times in the Colts’ 25-12 victory against Tampa Bay. But the fact remains, he was as much a standout as some of the veterans he shared the field with.

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Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck was sacked only twice, both the result of tremendous downfield coverage by the Buccaneers. Despite the line's patchwork — Joe Reitz to left tackle, Good inserted for the first time in his NFL career — the protection was solid.

As for Good, well, he was more than good enough. Oh, there was his holding penalty just before halftime and a couple of fourth-quarter false starts, but he offered no apologizes for wrestling Tampa Bay linebacker Jacquies Smith to the ground with an illegal horse collar tackle following an interception.

“I had to make the tackle — I couldn’t let him get a touchdown,” Good said. “I would have gotten any penalty just to stop him from scoring.”

That explanation drew a country-big smile, something Good offers a lot of. He knows how fortunate he is to being playing football at this level at this time — and getting paid for it.

Recruited originally to North Carolina State, Good never played for the Wolfpack due to academic ineligibility. He left Raleigh in the fall of 2010, returning to his hometown of Gaffney, S.C., with no football prospects.

It was in Gaffney where he unloaded shoe trucks and sold clothing at Citi Trends. That might have been his future had a coach from the French Broad Baptist Institute – now known as Mars Hill University — not come knocking on his door.

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Good found his football way at the North Carolina school north of Asheville, never allowing a quarterback sack in three years as a starter. Of course, those 31 games were against the likes of Catawba, Newberry and Tusculum, but it was a sign of good things to come.

Good was expecting to go undrafted when the Colts floored him with the selection.

“Coach (Chuck) Pagano has been telling us since Week 1 to prepare as if we’re the starter,” Good said of his game inactivity. “I knew I was (eventually) going to get my moment, because the game has a 100 percent injury rate; guys get hurt every game.

“I knew sooner or later I was going to get my chance. Sadly it had to be at the expense of Anthony Castonzo going down.”

The man to Good’s left — third-year vet Hugh Thornton, the Colts' right guard — said his broad-shouldered teammate performed admirably given the circumstances.

“Him and I both have some things we can work on communication-wise, but moving forward we found somebody who can play right tackle,” Thornton said. “We need him to, and I’m excited about that.”

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Apparently, so is Pagano, who gave Good a shout-out in his opening remarks after the game, including him in the Colts’ “gritty group of guys.”

Said Hasselbeck: “He’s a guy, like myself, no one probably was expecting to play this year. He stepped up and answered the bell.”

Good acknowledged having the first-game jitters that all players experience, but he settled down and might have gone unnoticed without the late-game penalties.

“I was just as excited as I was nervous, (although) nervousness probably edged out excited just a little bit,” he said. “But after I made contact that first play, it was just game-on from there. It felt natural.

“It felt amazing. It felt like a dream come true.”

From where he came from, maybe it is.

Follow Curt Cavin on Facebook and Twitter: @curtcavin

Colts at Steelers, 8:25 p.m. Sunday, NBC