The questions are always met with a laugh.How can a South Carolina city with a population of 68,000 and change claim 21 NFL players as its own including eight who were on active rosters in Week 1 this season? How can that same city have 24 players in either the FBS or FCS including one of the leading candidates to be the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NFL Draft?Rock Hill, S.C. known as "Football City, USA" to the locals is a southern textile town turned football factory. Three high schools Rock Hill, Northwestern and South Pointe export a new wave of talent to the next level each fall."You can spend six dollars and see these kids every Friday," longtime local radio broadcaster Gene Knight said. "Or you can wait a few years and spend $600."PHOTOS: The numbers back up that a se sment. The city of Miami has the most players in the NFL at 24, but that's a rate of one per 17,254 people. Rock Hill produces one NFL player per 8,512 people. The headliners are easy to recognize. University of South Carolina star defensive end Jadeveon Clowney likely will be the third consecutive first-round pick. He follows Buffalo cornerback Stephon Noah Igbinoghene Jersey Gilmore (2012) and Minnesota wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson (2013).Names and numbers pile up in other high-school havens too, but Rock Hill football brings its own distinctive sauce. This isn't Texas, where multi-million dollar high school stadiums are becoming the norm. Rock Hill's proving ground stage is District Three Stadium, an 8,738-seat institution nestled in the city's core at the end of a dimly-lit neighborhood on Cherry Road. It's a venue that has seen more than its share of standing-room only affairs.The visitor's side bleachers are ironically carved into a hill, the hill NFL alumni such as Chris Hope, Johnathan Joseph and Ko Simpson shuttled up and down countle s times together, chasing their dream.That dream is being realized more with Larnel Coleman Jersey each generation. Why? That's where the laugh kicks in, a ticklish chuckle that suggests, "We've been seeing this for years. Where have you been?""It's just part of the city," Northwestern coach Kyle Richardson said. "There are athletes all over this town, and they are split between the three schools. You talk about freakish talent. It's a freakish city when it comes to that."SPEED THRILLSThere's "SEC speed" and "Sunday speed." Perhaps "Rock Hill speed" deserves its own cla sification. with the Vikings this season. He had a 105-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in Week 2 and tied a NFL record with a 109-yard kickoff for a score in Week 8.Patterson, who starred at Northwestern, ran a 4.42 in the 40 at the NFL Combine. Gilmore, a South Pointe product, ran a 4.40. Clowney, all 270 pounds of him, reportedly ran a 4.5 during workouts last summer. Now imagine Mark Clayton Jersey watching Patterson and Gilmore on the same field or Gilmore and Clowney on the same team."It was a rivalry," Patterson said. "(Gilmore) is a great guy. He's a competitive guy. I'm a competitive guy. It's really a great thing, and now we're here."Here, of course, is the NFL, a popular destination for Rock Hill defensive backs since safety Rick Sanford was taken in the first round of the 1979 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. Jeff Burris, a two-way standout at Northwestern, was next. He starred at Notre Dame before a 10-year NFL career from 1994-2003. Burris now is the a sistant defensive backs coach for the Miami Dolphins.Hope, Simpson and Derek Ro s were among those who followed Burris' lead. Of Rock Hill's current NFL players, four Gilmore, Joseph, Phillip Adams and Jonathan Meeks are defensive backs.Burris touches base with any Rock Hill native once they arrive in the NFL, and he's quick to point out that many of those defensive backs played other positions in high school. Gilmore played quarterback. Hope was a Parade All-American running back at Rock Hill.It still boils down to that freakish attribute that only gets better."The speed is ridiculous," Burris said. "If Stephon runs a 4.4., then the next guy wants to run faster. It's competitive, and it's really amazing to watch." Former Northwestern High School standout Cordarrelle Patterson has two kickoff returns this season as a rookie with the Minnesota Vikings. (AP Photo Tyreek Hill Jersey )EVERY DAY IS FRIDAYOf course, talent needs cultivation. There's no shortage in that regard.Burris played for legendary high school coach Jimmy "Moose" Wallace at Northwestern in the 1980s. "Moose" is a southern-fried Madden clone; friendly, fiery and forever-talking football philosophy. He coached for 40 years and won four state championships. Wallace retired in 2011, but doesn't stray too far from District Three Stadium. He does color commentary on the radio every Friday night. Wallace watched it all unfold in Rock Hill. Northwestern High School was founded in 1971, and immediately formed a cro s-town rivalry with Rock Hill, a game that's played on the last week of the season ever since. The city added South Pointe to the mix in 2005. At least one of those schools has played for a state championship each of the last five years. Northwestern and South Pointe are each one game away from playing each other in the state championship this season."The intensity manifests itself into an extremely high level of performance and a high standard," Wallace said. "I think the area within a 25-mile radius produces some of the best high school football in the United States, and that's a great thing for us."AROUND THE NFL: | | The results are real-life stories that put the contrived TV plotlines of "Friday Night Lights" to shame.Gerald Dixon Sr., a Rock Hill graduate who played linebacker at South Carolina before a 10-year career in the NFL, is an a sistant coach at Rock Hill. He has two sons half brothers who share the name Gerald. One played for Northwestern, the other played for South Pointe. Both now play at the University of South Carolina.Former South Pointe coach Bobby Carroll, a longtime a sistant for Wallace at Northwestern, coached Clowney in high school. Robert Hunt Jersey Carroll's son Spencer played quarterback at nearby York at the time. In other words, Carroll had the top recruit in the country at his disposal, and he was sending him at his son.Richardson runs the "Air Raid" at Northwestern a sophisticated no-huddle pa sing attack complete with those poster-boards college teams use to call plays. The Trojans are ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 14 in the USA Today Super 25.Benjamin Watson, a veteran NFL tight end now with New Orleans, saw the town from the inside-out when he transferred to Northwestern from out of state."I moved to Rock Hill from Norfolk, Va., and I was able to see Rock Hill from the outside," Watson said. "I'm telling you when I moved there, the emphasis was on football. It's a smaller town, and the support you get is amazing. On football Friday nights the entire town shuts down. You look even down to the little leagues, and the p