NFL

Bears' Draft Pick Went Viral in College for His Insane Backflip Stunts

The Bears made made quite a splash at this year’s NFL Draft – and people are “flipping” out over one of the team’s newest members.

In the fourth round, the Bears opted to take Tarik Cohen, a running back from North Carolina A&T who’s earned himself the nickname “The Human Joystick” for his moves on the field.

Standing at just 5’6”, Cohen is small but certainly fast, clocking a 4.42 second 40-yard dash at the NFL Combine to land him third among running backs in this year’s draft class. But aside from running speedy routes, Cohen has another talent that is just downright ridiculous.

Back in 2015, Cohen posted a video of himself catching a football in each hand – in the middle of a backflip. [[420916703, C]]

Rub your eyes and watch him do it again, this time preceded by a cartwheel. [[420916753, C]]

"It started because I had seen someone else do it first, so we were bored in the summer after conditioning and we just decided to go out and try it," Cohen told ESPN of his first attempt at the trick. "The first two times I think I fell, and the third time I pulled it off pretty naturally, and that's when I got the hang of it because I stopped being scared."

After he got the hang of it, naturally he took it up a notch.

"I was competing against somebody at a different school and he did it too," Cohen said, according to ESPN. "So I had to one-up him. That's when I did the one-handed catch. The internet got ahold of that and it went crazy. Then I had to one-up myself. Everyone was like, 'What's next?' That's when I did two balls at the same time."

As the MEAC's all-time leading rusher with 5,619 yards, Cohen was an All-American in 2016 and set a school record with 1,588 yards and 19 touchdowns on 212 carries. And in looking at a few of his highlights, it seems like those moves certainly transfer over. [[420916913, C]]

Here’s to hoping that Cohen brings that talent to Soldier Field.

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