A film script! Current Montreal Alouettes quarterback Cody Fajardo has some well-kept secrets: he was just a freshman at the University of Nevada when he helped completely change the life of a poor student. All this while candidly showing him how to throw a football.
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“It’s impossible for me to forget the generosity he showed towards me at that time when I was just a stranger,” testifies Ivon Padilla-Rodriguez, who had won a scholarship studies for $100,000 in a skills competition following the good advice of Fajardo.
Twelve years later, we found the former student who now teaches in the history department at the University of Illinois in Chicago. After her years in Reno, Nevada, she earned a doctorate, in 2021, from Columbus University. Without a doubt, she feels eternal gratitude to the quarter of the Alouettes.
Ivon Padilla-Rodriguez
Photo provided by Ivon Padilla-Rodriguez
In theater class
The story therefore dates back to the fall of 2011. Fajardo was 19 years old, Padilla-Rodriguez was 18. Selected to participate in a competition organized by Dr Pepper Challenge, the less fortunate student had the chance to win a $100,000 scholarship by sending as many footballs as possible into a target representing a giant can of soft drink. The problem? She then had no idea how to throw the oval ball.
Cody Fajardo played for the University of Nevada Wolf Pack from 2011 to 2014.
Harry How/Getty Images/AFP
“I was never much of an athlete and I don’t even know if I had ever held a football before that,” she said. But then I had to take part in a skills competition and sitting next to me in my drama class was the school quarterback. I just asked him if he could help me.”
“It’s a completely crazy story,” notes Fajardo, captivated by the fact that this curious episode is being brought to his memory. I told him that I was going to spend as much time as necessary to show him how to grip a ball and explain to him the movement that the arm must make in order to be precise.
“A fun week”
The contest was scheduled to take place in early December during halftime of the Southeastern Conference championship game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
“It was a fun week because she had no knowledge of football and maybe it was better that way because there was no need to correct bad habits,” Fajardo noted, laughing.
The young Padilla-Rodriguez finally managed to win the competition against a participant from Alabama. Fajardo’s teachings had borne fruit.
“This competition completely changed my life and Cody was one of those who greatly helped me by sharing his expertise,” said Padilla-Rodriguez.
Helping immigrant communities
Following her long studies in history, the woman of Mexican origin taught in Chicago, but she also acted as an activist by carrying out research with the aim of improving the lot of immigrant communities. She seeks to help families similar to those where she grew up.
Born in California to parents who came undocumented from the Guadalajara region in the 1980s, Padilla-Rodriguez briefly found herself homeless, at 16, following the breakup of her family. She was then raised by her mother who worked as a chambermaid in a hotel on the strip in Las Vegas. For years, there was no sign that she would ever earn a doctorate. That was before meeting Fajardo and winning that $100,000 scholarship.
Admit that it would make an excellent film. The script is written. All we would need to do is find a producer…
When The newspaper thinks she is Claire Lamarche
A little before Alouettes practice on Wednesday, quarterback Cody Fajardo was intercepted and handed him a phone. On the other end, Ivon Padilla-Rodriguez, the University of Nevada alum who, 12 years ago, won a $100,000 scholarship after receiving Fajardo’s advice on how to properly launch a soccer ball.
“I was afraid that you would steal my job, at a certain point,” Fajardo joked during the telephone interview, made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Alouettes publicist, Francis Dupont.
On December 3, 2011, in Atlanta, Padilla-Rodriguez hit the target 13 times, over a distance of five yards, in just 30 seconds. These 30 seconds will have changed his life completely. No wonder she never forgot Fajardo.
“I followed your career a little,” said Padilla-Rodriguez, admitting that she is not, however, a great living room athlete.
Fajardo never thought he would one day speak to this student again, but he was happy to do so through the Newspaper. There was a wind Claire Lamarche in the air, a reference to the famous host who, in the 2000s, was at the helm of special shows on the theme of reunions. The idea was to bring together people often separated by the vagaries of life.
“A nice story”
Naturally, the quarterback said he was grateful to have contributed in his own way to changing the young girl’s destiny, without wanting to take too much credit.
“It’s a beautiful story, I had forgotten it a little, to recognize Fajardo. To have been part of his life, even if only for a short period of time, was good, because this scholarship certainly had the power to change part of his life. I vaguely remember that she would not have had the means to continue her studies without this amount of $100,000.”