He spent all those years chasing a game he feared he’d never catch.

“I was always the guy who was a little too small, a little too slow,” he said.

The NFL took care of that.

Tyler Higbee came from Tarpon Springs, Fla. and developed at Western Kentucky. He learned a lot of diverse football from three different head coaches and offensive coordinator Tyson Helton.

But he also finds himself in the Roaring 20s, the jazz age of tight ends.

It’s like the old joke about the two guys who encounter a bear. One of them worries that they aren’t fast enough to escape. The other says he doesn’t have to be faster than the bear. “Just faster than you,” he said.

Because he can catch, run and anticipate, Higbee has made a nice living against linebackers who are slower and safeties who are smaller.

The last time Higbee was in an NFC championship game, he took a touchdown pass from Jared Goff, and put a finger to his lips to shush the New Orleans crowd. The Rams eventually became the first team, out of 10, to lose a coin flip and win an overtime playoff game.

“I’m glad this one is at home,” Higbee said. “That game in New Orleans was the loudest I’ve ever played in.”

If the Rams break their Six-Game Losing Streak in the San Francisco series and then win the Super Bowl two weeks hence, Higbee will be the first WKU alum with a championship ring.

“I played for Willie Taggart, Bobby Petrino and Jeff Brohm in four years,” Higbee said. “The last two guys, their offenses were similar but their terminology was different. I had to learn a lot of things, different nuances, different details. That helped me coming into this.

“It’s all about creating those matchups. It’s a tough position. You have to know the protections, know the defensive fronts, know the pass concepts that we’re doing and then know everything the secondary is doing. Other than the quarterback, we probably have to know more stuff than anybody on offense.”

Mark Andrews, Travis Kelce and Zach Ertz all caught 90 balls or more from the tight end spot. Andrews, in Baltimore, had 107. Higbee caught 61, which ranked 10th among TEs.

It’s not new, but it’s proliferating because the Shanahan School of offense doesn’t feature as many throws to running backs as the West Coast offenses do.

Mike Shanahan’s son Kyle coaches the 49ers, Sean McVay the Rams, Zac Taylor the Bengals and Matt LaFleur the Packers.

All had experience in Washington with the elder Shanahan, who won two Super Bowls in Denver with linemen running, backs attacking the edges, receivers blocking, lots of folks in motion, and tight ends beating coverages.

Higbee has 234 catches in six years. In the Super Bowl season of 2018 he caught 24, splitting time with Gerald Everett, but two-thirds of those went for first downs. The Rams let Everett become a free agent and kept Higbee.

It’s startling to notice the extent of the Rams’ makeover since that Super Bowl loss to New England. Aaron Donald is the only surviving defensive starter. and Higbee, Andrew Whitworth, Rob Havenstein and the injured Robert Woods are the only holdovers on offense. Brian Allen, Ogbonnia Okoronkwo and the injured Johnny Mundt were there, too.

Only Donald was on that prodigal team that returned from St. Louis in 2016. That year Higbee “came in for power, when it was fourth and one on the goal line” but had no assurances of more as a rookie.

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“It was different, coming across the country,” Higbee said. “I hadn’t been past Mississippi. What I remember most is coming back from practice at UC Irvine and it was 98 degrees on the thermostat, and they didn’t have the AC working yet. It’s kinda tough sleeping on those sheets.”

The Rams took Higbee with the 110th pick in the 2016 draft. It was an act of faith. Higbee’s ankle kept him out of the Senior Bowl, and he was arrested 18 days before the draft for attacking a student from Saudi Arabia, outside a bar. He was found guilty but avoided jail through community service and restitution to the victim.

There has been no trouble since. Among that draft class, Higbee ranks eighth in catches, seventh in receiving yards and seventh in touchdowns. The only receiver with better stats who was drafted behind him is Kansas City’s Tyreek Hill.

Higbee is signed for the next two seasons, at $6.25 million per. Now he has a second NFC championship game, watched by tens of millions, including some who were a little bit faster and bigger.