Meet Sammis Reyes, and hear the best Minnesota Vikings tale you’ve probably never heard

We interrupt the Vikings’ parade toward perfection with this bye-week tale about a man named Sammis Reyes and his imperfect journey from Talcahuano, Chile, to NFL history.

“It’s one crazy story, man,” says Reyes, “but here I am.”

So, without further ado …

Who the heck is Sammis Reyes?

He’s the guy at the very bottom of the Vikings’ practice squad. A roster exemption from the NFL’s International Player Pathway (IPP) program. He’s a tight end who’s never played a regular-season down for the Vikings and likely never will.

He also has the best story you’ve probably never heard.

Born Oct. 19, 1995, into a basketball-loving family in Chile’s central port city, Reyes’ earliest memories involve wanting to be the next LeBron James.

“Since I was 2, my dream was the NBA,” he said.

He made the Chilean under-15 national basketball team at 13. Left home at 14, all alone, not knowing a word of English, to play for a boarding school in Florida. Played for several colleges but wasn’t nearly good enough for the NBA.

“The NFL,” says friend Alex Rifkind, “became his fallback dream.”

Reyes is a 6-foot-7, 275-pound human version of a brick shed who runs 40 yards in 4.65 seconds, leaps 40 inches vertically and bench presses 225 pounds 31 times.

“He’s a freak of nature,” Vikings tight end Nick Muse said. “When he got here, I don’t think any of us really understood what he was. He’s got 3 percent body fat. He’s … let’s put it this way: When guys on an NFL team are looking at your body and going, ‘Wow,’ you got some physical attributes.”

All his life, people had been telling Reyes he should play football. Coaches pleaded with him, actually.

“Growing up in Chile, ‘football’ is soccer, so I had no idea what people were talking about,” Reyes said. “I had seen maybe one Super Bowl on TV for two minutes. I knew who Tom Brady was, but that’s it. I didn’t understand football. Didn’t care for it either.”

Five years ago, at age 23, that changed. Three years ago, thanks to the NFL’s IPP program, Reyes made Washington’s 53-man roster. He logged 11 games with one start, playing 39 offensive snaps and 145 special teams snaps as the first and only native Chilean to appear in a regular-season game in NFL history.

Reyes says he’s proud to have opened a door for future Chileans and isn’t too shy to add, “You got to have some” … um, guts … “to do what I’ve done.” Only he didn’t say guts.

“My first live, organized game of football — ever — was against the New England Patriots in the ‘21 preseason,” Reyes said. “I caught two passes and had some great blocks. Against all these guys who have been doing this since they were little kids.”

Reyes moved on to the Bears in 2022. Coach Matt Eberflus took one look at him in a punt block drill and moved him to defensive end.

“I had spent a year and a half in Washington learning what a tight end does, working with [then-tight ends coach] Pete Hoener, some days getting there at 5 a.m. and leaving at 11 p.m.,” Reyes said. “A week in at Chicago, I’m a defensive end. I said, ‘Coach, whatever helps the team.’ I spent the year on the practice squad as a defensive end. No matter where I am, the only thing I can guarantee is I will work my butt off. That’s who I am. Latinos are like that.”

Reyes was with the Jaguars in 2023. He was having a good offseason when he suffered a concussion. He also had personal matters to take care of back home in Chile. So he retired.

That lasted until this spring. The Vikings needed extra bodies at tight end with T.J. Hockenson coming back from knee surgery. They invited Reyes to rookie minicamp on a tryout basis. Two days later, they signed him.

“Aside from his size and build, he may be the best notetaker on our entire team,” offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said. “One day, [tight ends coach] Brian Angelichio says to me, ‘You got to look at this guy’s notes.’

“It’s all on his iPad. Every single play he’s run, every coaching point that anyone has ever said to him, it’s all there. Color-coded, search words, everything. It’s kind of like his personality. How committed he is to everything he does.”

Reyes and his family moved 300 miles north to the capital city of Santiago when Reyes was little. His mother, Rossana Martel, was a school teacher. His father, Daniel Reyes, worked odd jobs.

“There wasn’t a lot of money, so the neighborhood was rough,” Reyes said. “I don’t know if they have this in the U.S., but we had fences outside of our home with spikes on top for when people tried to get into your house. Hopefully, one of the spikes gets them first.

“Basketball is what saved me from some of the stuff my classmates were doing. Lot of crime. Lot of drugs.”

Reyes was 13 when the Chilean national team went to Texas for an AAU tournament. Reyes averaged 28 points and 14 rebounds while turning influential heads in American youth basketball.

He accepted a scholarship to Westlake Prep in south Florida. He was 14, teaching himself English by studying the subtitles on movies like “The Matrix” and listening to his favorite music from Wu-Tang Clan.

“I felt like a fish out of water,” Reyes said. “My teammates were 19. They came from wealthy families. And the school was kind of a mess.”

Reyes’ parents would send him $50 a month to live on. They didn’t know how little $50 a month in the U.S. is, and Reyes never told them. “Things are great,” he’d always say.

He bought protein powder for about $25 a month. He’d use the rest on beans or ramen noodles.

“And there was a donut shop that I’d go to about 8 o’clock at night,” Reyes said. “I’d talk them into giving me the donuts they were going to throw away. Or I’d buy a dozen for $1 and spread that out over days.

“To this day, I hate donuts. I’ll never eat another donut.”

Westlake shut down. Reyes ended up at St. Andrew’s School in Boca Raton, where he befriended Rifkind and his father, Steve Rifkind, famous founder of Loud Records and the guy who had signed Wu-Tang to his label.

“We were driving to nationals for AAU and Sammis wasn’t speaking much English yet,” Alex said. “Most of the time, he just nodded and had no idea what we were saying.

“He requested a song in the car, and it was a Wu-Tang song, and he sang it word for word in perfect English. Slowly, he became like a brother to me and a son to my mom and dad.”

Reyes moved in with the Rifkinds. He and Alex transferred to North Broward as juniors. Steve told Reyes he should try football. The school’s football coach practically begged Reyes to at least give it a try.

“So I tried it for one week during spring ball,” Reyes said. “I had no idea what I was doing. They lined me up at defensive end, so there wasn’t a lot of thinking involved. They told me who the quarterback was and to go get him. I think I had like 12 sacks that week.”

Scouts took notice, and offers and calls poured in. West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Kansas. Alabama showed interest, too. But Reyes quit football after that week. He had told his parents he was there to play basketball, not some sport none of them understood.

Reyes had fewer offers to play basketball than football. He went to Hawaii but left shortly after when the school fired its coach. He transferred to Palm Beach State Junior College in Florida. Then Tulane, where he got a degree in business management; and then Loyola, an NAIA school in New Orleans, where he went to grad school for business administration.

Reyes’ college career was unremarkable. His basketball dream died when he decided not to play professionally overseas. That’s when his football dreams began.

Living in Virginia with his girlfriend, Nicole Kotler, at the time, he hired a trainer, Justin Kavanaugh, to get him ready.

“COVID happened and we had to wait a year for the IPP program,” Reyes said. “For months, I was training and making money driving for DoorDash. I took that job serious. I had a five-star rating, man. I’m a hustler. I work.”

When the NFL’s IPP program was back up and running, Reyes participated in Florida’s pro day. He was second in line for the tight end drills behind Kyle Pitts, who would be drafted fourth overall in 2021.

“I’m running 4.65, jumping 40 inches and doing 31 reps in the bench press,” Reyes said. “I still have a picture of me and my agent [Tabetha Plummer], who’s freaking out, with probably half the NFL teams around me wanting to talk to us.”

Three years later, Reyes is trying to get back onto an active roster. He’s 35 pounds heavier than he was when Washington listed him at 240. But not any slower.

“I’m 3 percent body fat, which is not healthy,” he said. “I’ve actually been working with a nutritionist to get my body fat percentage up. I want to be at 5-plus.”

And, no, he’s not willing to eat day-old donuts at a dollar a dozen to get there.

“Ha, never,” Reyes said. “You know, I look back on all I’ve been through, like that, and it was tough. But you know what? It made me the man I am today.”