How a phone call can change your life

It’s amazing to me how one simple phone call can change a young football player’s life forever.

One of my favorite parts of the draft is to see the pure emotion on the players’ faces when they pick up their phones to have their first conversation with their new coach or GM. Forget about the money for a second. They just made it. Most of the time, these players have been dreaming about this moment since they were a little kid playing in their local pee wee leagues.

Sometimes, they didn’t touch the pigskin until they were in high school. Other times, they already have an amazing story, and they were lucky enough to work their way onto their college team as a walk-on and earn a scholarship. All of these routes have the same goal, to make it to the NFL…and they finally have.

Whether you were an elite, top prospect coming into the draft and just got selected in the first round and you are about to get a nice payday or…..

….you’re getting a phone call in a later round. There’s a common theme here. The player and their family’s reaction. Their dreams are coming true.

There’s a possibility the player is going to go in and make an immediate impact on their new team. They are a breakout star, or they were an underrated player in the draft that’s about to make a huge splash and make a name for themselves on Day 1 of training camp and jump right into a starting role.

One of the best reactions is when your team doesn’t exactly draft who you had your eyes glued to for months, but when they make the selection, your eyes get big, and all you can say is, okay, I actually really like that pick.

It’s natural. Fans are like little kids. They see the next bright, shiny new toy, and they want it. But when your parents buy you the toy you never even noticed, it ends up being your favorite toy.

It’s time to sit and wait for fans’ Christmas morning to come when training camp begins, and see if they have a new favorite player to cheer for all season to help lead the orange and black to another Super Bowl contention.