Breaking Down the Dancing With the Stars Cast By the Odds

DANCING WITH THE STARS – RASHAD JENNINGS WITH EMMA SLATER – The celebrity cast of “Dancing with the Stars” are donning their glitzy wardrobe and slipping on their dancing shoes as they ready themselves for their first dance on the ballroom floor, as the season kicks off on MONDAY, MARCH 20 (8:00-10:01 p.m. EST), on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Craig Sjodin)

Emma Slater: Rashad Jennings, the football player

The football players on this show have run the gamut of great to terrible. There are plenty of cases of them making up for technical difficulties with their personalities. Active football players are more likely to be good than retired ones, but it’s still hard to make a prediction for any one player. Still, Rashad Jennings had defied some odds already. He describes himself as having once been a “270 lb. chubby kid with asthma and glasses.”  Now he’s had four years as a starter for two different teams, the Oakland Raiders and New York Giants. A football player with that kind of determination can probably become something or a dancer if he really wants to be.

Most football players come in with something of a fanbase, though week one eliminations are not unknown for them. Jennings is actually between teams at the moment, after the Giants released him a couple of weeks back. He has yet to become a longtime fixture on any. Still, fans of both his second two teams and especially New York should provide him with at least some votes. Emma can bring some of the table too. If Jennings proves either a brilliant dancer or even just a brilliant performer, they’ll pick some more up. Then they could easily reach the tail end of the season. But his proving *that* good, while possible, isn’t too likely.