Muhammad Abdulqaadir has the flu, but he refuses to skip training this rainy March afternoon. Between coughing fits, the once and (he hopes) future running back limbers up at Hammer Bodies, a new fitness center in suburban St. Louis. He’s short and stocky, yet improbably graceful and light on his feet. As he glides sideways with hips swiveling or accelerates with a sudden burst on the artificial grass, it’s easy to picture him darting past hapless linebackers as he did so often at Southern Illinois University, where as an all-American, he set a school record with 21 touchdowns in one season.

He sheds his windbreaker to reveal a tattoo of the number three on his right triceps—a tribute, he says, to the prophet Muhammad, who instructed Muslims to wash three times before prayers. Then, after former National Football League running back Jon Vaughn gives him some pointers, he begins practicing the drills required of all N.F.L. prospects. He sprints 40 yards in 4.4 seconds, crashing full-speed into the blue padding beyond the indoor track’s finish line, and broad-jumps nine-and-a-half feet from a standing start.

A running back with those results would normally expect to be picked somewhere in the middle of the N.F.L. draft. But for Abdulqaadir, the draft has come and gone, one of a series of startling rejections that turned his dream of a football career into a nightmare. After a stint at Coffeyville Community College, in Kansas, where he set many school records, Abdulqaadir says he agreed in late 2001 to play for Washington State in the Pac-10, one of college football’s major conferences. Then Washington State rescinded its offer, and he settled for lower-profile Southern Illinois. Following two impressive seasons there, he was the leading rusher in a national all-star game. Yet not one N.F.L. team even invited him to training camp. While two of his successors at running back for Southern Illinois have signed with N.F.L. teams, Abdulqaadir played a season of indoor football for $300 a week. Now, with his 27th birthday coming up shortly before N.F.L. camps open in July, he is honing his body and skills for one last chance.

Two of Abdulqaadir’s Coffeyville teammates still wonder why he hasn’t joined them in the N.F.L. In 2001, as a freshman, Brandon Jacobs backed up Abdulqaadir. Now Jacobs starts at running back for the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. Abdulqaadir is “most definitely good enough to play in the N.F.L.,” Jacobs says. “He could make you miss. He’s a good, tough runner. There was nothing he couldn’t do. People missed out on a great back.”

Ryan Lilja used to block for Abdulqaadir at Coffeyville. As a lineman for the Indianapolis Colts, he’s opened lanes for standout backs Edgerrin James and Joseph Addai. “Muhammad’s right up there talentwise with all those guys,” Lilja says. “He can be a starting running back in the N.F.L.” He adds that Abdulqaadir enjoyed the respect of coaches and teammates. “He didn’t stay in a clique. He had friends who were white guys, friends who were black guys, friends from the South, friends from the North. He was a born leader.”