Behind the doors of the cavernous school hallway begins a procession of perfectly aligned photos on both walls — maybe 10 to 12 feet high off the floor.
The first one, on the left wall, shows high schooler Terrell Suggs, a two-time Super Bowl champion, former NFL Defensive Player of the Year, two-time All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowler who likely will wind up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. On down a way there's high schooler Cody Bellinger, a World Series champion and former National League MVP who's a two-time All-Star, National League Comeback Player of the Year and Gold Glove winner.
But unless the parameters change, Tyler Shough's photo won't be joining Suggs', Bellinger's and others — track athletes, swimmers, volleyball players — on those walls at Hamilton High School. Those athletes earned all-state honors, and though Shough led Chandler to the 6A quarterfinals, was named first-team 6A Premier League and selected as a Semper Fidelis All-American by the U.S. Marine Corps, he wasn't one of two quarterbacks named to Arizona's Big Schools all-state team in 2017.
But Shough has been nothing if not big-picture oriented, so that kind of thing will push even further into the rear view once he takes his first snaps as starting quarterback of the New Orleans Saints (1-7) at SoFi Stadium on Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams (5-2).
Shough currently is eight years, three colleges, 32 college starts (in 42 games), two broken bones (collarbone and fibula), a marriage, a dog and an athletic lifetime past 2017. And the goal, as always, is to hang wins on the wall — now, for the Saints, who drafted him in the second round (No. 40 overall) of the 2025 NFL Draft, the highest the organization has taken a quarterback since it selected Archie Manning with the second overall pick in 1971.
After an off-season battle this summer, second-year quarterback Spencer Rattler earned the position over Shough to open the season for the Saints. But after eight weeks and seven losses, Coach Kellen Moore announced Shough as the team's new starter. Now, he has the chance to prove himself to New Orleans.
"I think the Saints made a great pick," said an admittedly biased Dick (Coach Bano) Baniszewski, Shough's high school coach. "Time will tell, but I think it's a great opportunity. When you go to college, every guy on that team was the best guy on his high school team. When you go to the NFL, every guy on that team is one of the best guys in the world.
"So it's a whole different level. (But) I don't think that is going to phase him, I think he's going to stay focused and take care of the job at hand. But the opportunity is there."
OLD SOUL
The third of Glenn and Dana Shough's four children is an advanced age (26) for an NFL rookie. The Saints didn't mind; Tyler's maturity appealed to the franchise, and was considered a positive factor for his position. But the likelihood is that regardless of his age on draft day, the maturity would have been there. "He's been an old soul his whole life," Glenn Shough said.
Possibly, Tyler's maturity accelerated due to the fact that in January 2006, Dana was diagnosed with Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer and given nine months to live when Tyler was a 6-year-old in kindergarten.
"We went through a couple sets of doctors," Glenn said. "First set said, 'Sorry, she's terminal, we really can't save her. You should probably plan on living your life well the next nine months.' They didn't really want to fight, so we ended up finding a set of doctors who were (doing treatment) on a trial basis."
"Got a second opinion and it saved our life," Dana said. She underwent chemotherapy, radiation and a double mastectomy. She was hospitalized a couple of times and admits that, in fact, she did almost die. She still has maintenance chemo every six weeks. "When we got diagnosed it rocked our world, because we had little kids and I'm like, I want to be around," Dana said. "So, Glenn was my rock. Glenn was my researcher and he was my motivator and he was like, 'We're going to get through this, we're fighters.'"
The sons, Tyler and younger brother Brady, bore witness.
"I'll never forget this: I was losing my hair, it was coming out in clumps. So we went and I had my head shaved because it was just too traumatic. The next day, I had to take Tyler to kindergarten (Dana was a teacher in the school), because you walked the kids up to their classroom.
"I hadn't gotten a wig yet, and in the parking lot I'm getting out of the car and I close the door and I'm walking and I said, 'Oh, wait a minute, Tyler, I've got to get my hat.' And Tyler looked and he goes, 'Mommy, you don't need your hat, you look beautiful without it.' Fighting back the tears, I said, OK, what I do now and how I react now — I've got to show my son that I'm OK with this.
"So I threw my hat in the car, I closed it and walked him in. All his little friends were like, Mrs. Shough! And I go, 'Here, (come) feel it.' I said it's just the medicine, I'm still Mrs. Shough, and Tyler had this huge smile on his face."
At that point, Dana and Glenn knew the best way to handle the topic with their children: "That we're OK with it — that they're going to be OK with it. Kids are resilient, and we got them involved. We read books about moms with cancer, we did Susan G. Komen walks, we did the Relay for Life. And then, they knew to stay away from me when I was radioactive, because I couldn't be around kids that were under the age of 12.
"They didn't know any different. They grew up with me fighting cancer, but we never let it stop us."
If there were conversations being had between adults at the table, young Tyler routinely would walk up, take a seat and join in. Those qualities never faded.
"I think Tyler is a unifier and a leader," Baniszewski said. "I think he's really good at unifying people and he's good at leading."
During Shough's senior year, hazing allegations at Hamilton (Shough wasn't implicated) led to three player convictions and the head coach being permanently reassigned. That left new coach Baniszewski and his quarterback to navigate the choppy waters. "If it wasn't for Tyler… everybody was excited — they thought Hamilton was down, thought we were going to get worked — and we made it deep into the playoffs. And really, a big part of that was because Tyler was such a great leader for us and brought the team together."
"He's an old soul," Baniszewski said. "He just gets it. You know how some people have an EQ (emotional intelligence), and EQ is more important than IQ. His EQ is very high, he knows how to relate to people. He's very aware of his surroundings. I think Tyler understands that there are eyes on him and there are people listening and those kinds of things. I don't think it's phony; he's just aware of how to be appropriate in specific situations."
The genuine awareness partly manifested thusly: Dana's successful cancer fight and Hamilton's hazing incident contributed to Shough being named a Semper Fidelis All-American, an honor awarded to two high school athletes from each state (male and female) for overcoming adversity while playing a sport.
"His dad taught here after his career as a policeman and his dad is a no-nonsense guy," Baniszewski said. "He helped coach for a while, there was no coddling.
"His mom is, I think, Tyler's inspiration. She beat cancer, she's a survivor, she's a great lady. He won that (Semper Fidelis award) because he wrote an essay about his mother and the battles that she has won and what she has been through and how she is his inspiration."
SHIPPING DAY
With no children living at home, Glenn and Dana downsized from a two-story to a one-story a while ago. Tyler doesn't have a designated room, per se, but he'll always have a room when he visits.
But in order to make a little space, some of his memorabilia will have to be shipped to his place in New Orleans — jerseys and college gear dating to his first days playing ball at Oregon.
What stays are the things on the wall in a common room, where television collectively can be watched. There are framed jerseys, some collaged with game action photos, for Tyler, Brady (played at Northern Arizona) and Glenn (Cal-Lutheran).
And there's an accumulation of memories, including draft night, when Shough wanted to be in Arizona so that the moment could be experienced and enjoyed with his 93-year-old grandfather and 87-year-old grandmother, who were heavily involved in caretaking during Dana's cancer diagnosis and treatment.
"There was not a dry eye in the house," Dana said. "My parents were there and that was the reason he wanted to come back to Arizona. Very close relationship, so he wanted to be here so they could be a part of the special day."
Don't be surprised if that picture finds its way onto Tyler's wall.
