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How a small Colorado town produced 3 NFL players

Welcome to Eaton, Colorado: Home to a population of 5,224 and hometown to NFL players Mitch Unrein, Austin Ekeler and Trent Sieg.
Credit: Kelly Lyell/The Coloradoan

EATON — Harvested fields of corn surround the town.

Downtown is a stretch of two blocks just west of the former Western Sugar factory whose giant towers now hold fine silica sand used in the region’s rapidly growing hydraulic fracking industry.

Children ride bicycles after school down the middle of the wide, tree-lined streets with wood and brick houses in the older parts of town surrounded by new subdivisions cropping up between cornfields.

Welcome to Eaton, Colorado, home to a population of 5,224 and one operational stoplight.

The town 20 miles east of Fort Collins is known for its baseball, with the high school claiming 11 state titles. That only adds to the surprise that the town is home to three current NFL players — Mitch Unrein, a defensive tackle with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers; Austin Ekeler, a running back for the Los Angeles Chargers; and Trent Sieg, the long-snapper for the Oakland Raiders.

Read more from Fort Collins Coloradoan: https://bit.ly/2JAARIP

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