Derting’s NFL career appears to be over before it begins

Will Derting’s football career blossomed at Washington State University and it appears that it ended at WSU as well.

Hampered by chronic knee problems – including a third reconstruction after the 2005 football season – Derting hasn’t healed to the point at which he can play and the linebacker is almost certainly calling it quits.

“He flunked his physicals,” WSU head coach Bill Doba confirmed.

Doba said Derting had taken out an insurance policy before his senior season, so the Okanogan, Wash., native won’t be without some form of remittance for his playing career. Derting wasn’t picked in seven rounds of the NFL draft last weekend.

At WSU, Derting was an immediate hit by intercepting three passes in his first collegiate game and developing into a nationally recognized star by the end of his sophomore season. Both of his final two years were scarred by injuries – a wrist fracture kept one hand in a cast for much of his junior season and the most recent knee injury cost him five games last fall.