Category Archives: Scouts

What Happens in Indy

17 Tuesday Feb 2015

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There seems to be a lot of confusion about what people in the football business do in Indianapolis (besides freeze) during combine week. Let’s try to clear that up today with a very brief overview.

If you’re in Indy for the combine, you’re in one of four groups: player, media, NFL, agent or vendor. There are others who show up to be part of the mix, but that’s pretty much it.

Players, obviously, are there to compete and put up numbers. They are there for four days. The last day is always the day they go to Lucas Oil Stadium and run, jump, etc. The first day is the travel day when they fill out all the forms, make sure they’re fitted right, etc. Somewhere in those four days, they also go to the hospital and get all the medical stuff taken care of. They also are interviewed extensively by NFL teams, either as part of the scheduled session the combine sets out or as part of an individual session an interested team schedules.

Most players also are run through the NFL media room, where there are hundreds of credentialed writers and broadcasters there to ask questions, get video, do interviews, etc. The bigger players are sent to a podium, where they get the full treatment in front of a panel of cameras. The lesser players wind up getting placed at tables where they are interviewed one-on-one, mostly by local writers and media.

If you’re NFL media, you’re pretty much stuck in that room in Lucas Oil Stadium for three days, because they bring the players to you. What most writers do is get tons of quotes from players that they have ‘in the can’ as they do features later throughout the spring.

For agents, the schedule varies. The biggest event of the week is the NFLPA seminar, which is always held on the Friday of the combine. All contract advisors have to attend at least one meeting per year, and this is the one that most attend; the other two are in Las Vegas the weekend before the draft and in Baltimore in mid-May. Most of the agents at the seminar don’t have clients at the combine, so they arrive Thursday night, go to the seminar Friday, then race to the airport that afternoon.

Seasoned agents do things a little differently. There is a lot of meeting and schmoozing with league officials, especially for those agents who have players awaiting free agency in a few weeks. The more connected agents also sit down with scouts and NFL executives to bang the drum for their clients. Usually, agents will hang around at least until their client works out, though there’s really not a lot they can do for them. At the combine, it’s all about what the player does in Lucas Oil Stadium.

If you’re NFL — scout, executive, coach, other league official — your routine is pretty simple. You go to Lucas Oil Stadium early in the morning, watch players participate in drills all day, meet with your team, then hit the nightlife (or go to bed). Workouts start Friday and continue through Monday. These days, fans can pretty much see everything the scouts are seeing because it’s all broadcast, but I can tell you there’s one person who won’t be watching: me. I used to sneak into the combine in the early 2000s, and to me, if you want to REALLY get bored, watch men run 40 yards, time after time, all day. It was complete drudgery. I’d rather have nails driven through my eyelids.

If you’re a vendor, you’re pretty much in one of two places, either the Omni Hotel or the Indiana Convention Center (ICC). The ICC is where we’ll be holding our seminar Thursday evening, and we’ll be in amongst several people trying to pitch weight training, mental skills metrics, and other services to NFL types. In the old days, vendors were practically stacked on top of each other because the RCA Dome was connected to the ICC, meaning all scouts had to parade down the hallways to get out of the building. These days, there’s not the same traffic, but you still get some vendors who don’t want to pay Omni prices that use the ICC.

The Omni is kind of the ‘hangout’ for people when they’re between drills or looking to hook up with friends in the business. It has a big lobby with plenty of suites, and Nike always sets up there, as well as several other more non-descript services. But the big win with the Omni is that you’re in the middle of the action. I like to hang out at the Omni on Saturday in the room behind the lobby. The wi-fi is free, and everyone comes through there. It’s the best place to catch up with all my clients and friends.

Combine Week vs. Senior Bowl Week

16 Monday Feb 2015

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Well, I leave Wednesday for Indianapolis. It’s National Invitational Camp (the official name of the combine) week. Combine Week is the second-best week of the year to someone like me after the Senior Bowl. If you’re a person who’ll be in Indy this week trying to make connections, let’s talk a bit about how it differs from Mobile.

People think of the combine as the biggest week in football, at least from an NFL standpoint. The thing is, there are two ‘parties’ for the NFL, and they are the Senior Bowl and the combine. You’re pretty much going to get everyone from the NFL at both of these events, with two major differences.

One, at the Senior Bowl, two teams are still alive, so their staffs are a little abbreviated. You won’t see any of the coaches from those teams, and you might not see as many scouts or the GM.

Two, I always describe the Senior Bowl as a football party where everyone is invited, and to some degree that’s true. It’s far more ‘open’ and if you’re at least peripherally associated with the game, it’s relatively easy to get credentialed. It’s also true that the people of Mobile are super-friendly but also very welcoming and hospitable to football folks, because the Senior Bowl is the No. 1 event on their social calendar (though they take Mardi Gras pretty seriously there, as well). Each night, there’s a gala event sponsored by some major part of the football industry, and it’s by invitation only. People come out in their suits and evening dresses and it’s clearly a big deal.

On the other hand, at the combine, if you don’t have a badge around your neck, access is very limited. You won’t get any farther than the front door of the players hotel if you don’t have an NFL credential. You won’t get past the entrance to Lucas Oil Stadium if you don’t have a media badge. You won’t get into the NFLPA seminar without signing in and showing that you’re an agent.

Probably the biggest difference between the two is that in Mobile, the big event of the week is relatively open. Even if you don’t have a badge, you can come in and watch practices. And if you want to hobnob with NFL types but don’t have any real connections, you can just go to the team hotel, the Renaissance, and you’re good to go. At the combine, you’re not getting into the stadium to check out the workouts unless you work for the NFL or have otherwise obtained a badge, and they’re not so easy to acquire. Meanwhile, because the city is a bigger and more spread out, there’s not one hotel where everyone hangs out. I guess the closest thing to the Renaissance in Indy is the Omni; it’s become the place where all the vendors hoping to attract NFL business rent space and set up suites.

I’ll try to check in frequently from Indy this week, but don’t hold me to it. It’s going to be busy, but also fun. As always, I’ll let you know on Twitter whenever I’ve got something new.

Scenes from a combine prep facility

13 Friday Feb 2015

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This morning, Inside the League conducted interview skills prep with two players headed to the combine next week, Texas A&M OH Trey Williams and Stephen F. Austin OH Gus Johnson. Here are a few random thoughts.

  • Everyone who says today’s athlete is different, and that the joy of the game is gone once you get to the NFL (or near the NFL), is wrong. I wish we had filmed Gus and Trey going back and forth about whose high school was better. Trey went to DeKaney HS in Spring, Texas, (a Class 6A school just outside Houston) and Gus went to Gilmer (a Class 2A school in East Texas). DeKaney won the state title in 2011, when Trey was still there (here’s a picture), while Gilmer is defending state champ. Trey’s position was that he had the upper hand because (a) he was there won his school won its only state title and (b) because it’s bigger and has more talented athletes, while Gus contended his argument was stronger because (a) Gilmer has been a consistently dominant school at several levels of Texas state football, (b) DeKaney had more athletes only because it’s much bigger, and (c) his school is the defending state champ. The best part was that neither got excited, raised his voice, or banged the table; both remained cool, calculated and dry-witted (at one point Trey even threw in a Kanye-style ‘I’m gonna let you finish’). It was like watching ‘Meet the Press,’ but funny. It was good-natured jabbing. That’s what sports is all about.
  • On the way over, I called one of my friends in scouting and asked, ‘what’s the one question you always ask that a player better get right?’ He didn’t hesitate: ‘Is there anything else we need to know about?’ was his response. He said that most teams already know the answers to questions they ask, and they just want to see how the player responds. However, if it turns out there was an issue a player tried to slide past them, off their draft board he goes.
  • I assisted an agent in placing one of his clients with an ex-scout for interview skills work this morning. In the course of our conversation, he mentioned that the industry leader in interview prep, a former NFL GM who has essentially ‘created’ the market, is overbooked and unavailable. He added that his prices were prohibitive anyway. That cracked me up. You know what players need to know before they go into the interview room? Be honest! Be forthright! Be contrite! Be you! That’s all there is to it. If you try to fool teams, they’re going to find out at some point anyway. You’re not going to trick people for long, if at all. Just own what you did (if you did anything) and be a man about it, and you’re set. And it doesn’t cost a cent to do that.

WSW2: Another Perspective on Matthews

09 Monday Feb 2015

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Today, I turned things over to Ken Moll, who two years ago was running the scouting department for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Ken is the scout who ‘discovered’ Seahawks WO Chris Matthews, who excelled in Seattle’s Super Bowl loss to the Patriots two weekends ago. Here’s Ken’s story on identifying and signing Matthews.

 

“I try to do things geographically. During the spring, I hit as many pro days as I could, including Ball State, Louisville, Western Kentucky, Vanderbilt, University of Tennessee, anywhere in about a three- to five-hour circle. I didn’t go much further than that. I mean, I went to (University of Alabama-Birmingham) and Alabama one year, but pretty much I went to Kentucky every year. (Matthews) was a guy that I had marked, but we didn’t have a spot for him. He was a junior college kid, and he comes into Kentucky, and he has a decent junior year and a big senior year as far as amount of catches, more than (former UK teammate and present Packers WO Randall) Cobb. And he had really big hands, he had length, and ran OK at his pro day, though he didn’t have great speed. But he’s 6-5 and I bet he weighed more than 218 .. . and really refined his route-running his second year at UK.

“We had lost a guy named Greg Carr, a big tall kid from Florida State, and he was a good player for us the year before, and after the second year, he was one of the free agents we wanted to resign and we didn’t get it done. (Carr) was very similar to (Matthews). (Winnipeg GM) Joe (Mack) and I got on the horn and we wanted to find another big receiver, and I remembered him, and he didn’t run great, he ran OK, but he could catch the crap out of the ball and was just so big. On turf at (Kentucky’s) indoor facility, he ran in the upper 4.6 range, but had enough functional speed that he wasn’t awkward or gawky. He could run for a big guy, and the catches you saw him make in the Super Bowl, he did that all the time in the CFL. You don’t find those big guys up in the CFL, and at times, he was covered but he wasn’t covered. He was just so big. He was tougher than this Carr kid. Chris was a little shorter but thicker and could go in traffic and get it.

“I’m pretty sure, when I found him, I tried to call and I think he was in Arena Ball at the time, and I remember getting on the phone with him and I think we just took my numbers from a year before (and signed him without working him out). Who knows? He could have looked like a cabdriver, but I’m big on working a guy out again, at least weigh and measure, but I think we took him sight unseen and they loved him up there, and they said, ‘wow, where do you find these big guys that can catch,’ and all I can tell you is, he runs fast enough.

“You only have enough room for a (certain number) of guys, and we didn’t’ want to have five receivers that were 6-4 or 6-5. Chris didn’t have a lot of run-after-the-catch ability, and half the time he was covered, but he’d just reach over guys and make catches. In the practices, the coaches would love him. If you don’t have the speed — I mean, you can’t be flat-out slow — but I said, OK, I need to find a big guy. I mean, Carr had ran like a 4.54 or something like that, and they were similar in route-running, but the whole package was better. Chris was a little stronger, a little more competitive, and caught the ball slightly better.”

WSW: Chris Matthews’ Story

06 Friday Feb 2015

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We missed out on War Story Wednesday again, so we’re going to have a two-part War Story that starts on Friday and continues until Monday.

After WO Chris Matthews had a great Super Bowl last weekend, I did a little research on him. Turns out his agent and the then-CFL scout who ‘discovered’ him are both good friends, so I turned to each of them to tell Chris’ story. Here’s Rodney’s story. On Monday, we’ll tell it from the perspective of former Winnipeg Director of Player Personnel Ken Moll.

Today, we’ll start with Rodney Edwards, his agent. I asked him to tell the story of Chris’ road from undrafted free agent to two other leagues before starring on the big stage.

“Chris signed as an undrafted free agent with the Browns after the (2011) draft, and he went to the last cut. He didn’t make the practice squad and got cut. Then he got a two-game suspension on a prescription with codeine that he took for a toothache, so no teams picked him up, and we couldn’t get him a tryout. So he went back home, and I think he worked at Foot Locker in Los Angeles.

“Then he went to the Arena League, I think with the Iowa Barnstormers, and played maybe eight games. Then he went to Canada, to Winnipeg, in the spring. There, a scout (Winnipeg Director of Player Personnel Ken Moll) saw him and said he wanted to take a look at him, and wanted to know, was he still in Kentucky? I told him no, he’s playing Arena. So they brought him to Canada — I tell all my free agent guys to get their passport so if they get the call to go to Canada, they can go – and he went to minicamp with them. They signed him, and when the CFL season started, he went to camp and made the cut.

“That year, he had about 1,000 yards receiving, 81 catches and 14 TDs, and he was the CFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. Then the next season, a lot of teams came and looked at him from the NFL, and I thought he was going to get bought out of his contract but he wasn’t. So we went into the (CFL) season, and could never get back on track. He had several nagging injuries — a shoulder, butt, and ankle injury — and I think he finished the season with like maybe 200, 300 yards receiving, if that. He was kind of worried he’d have to stay in the CFL, and I told him I wouldn’t do another CFL deal.

“So our first workout was with Indianapolis, and our second was with Minnesota. Then he went to Kansas City, then Green Bay, then Seattle. Seattle was his last workout. (The workouts were) like boom, boom, boom, one after another, even while I was on vacation. NFL teams had wanted to wait until the (CFL) season was over, so they worked him out starting in February, and it went all the way up until April, and (Seattle) resigned him right before the NFL draft.

“He made the practice squad the first week, then they cut him and sent him home. Then they brought him back, and I don’t remember the date. Then they cut him again, and he worked out for Washington. Washington didn’t sign him, so the Seahawks brought him back, then cut him again. I think the Seahawks cut him four times (total). So then he worked out for the Giants but didn’t sign, and finally the Seahawks signed him in October, latter part or in early November, and he was on the roster ever since.

“I didn’t really have to bug teams (to get him workouts), but when it first initially started, I called several teams. After Indianapolis called back and we got a workout, after that first workout, I told others, ‘he’s starting to get interest, and if you’re interested, you need to get in this pool, he’s gonna make a decision pretty soon,’ and several teams called but never could schedule workouts, and after the Seattle workout he signed.”

WSW: A Woman Scorned

28 Wednesday Jan 2015

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I haven’t treated readers to a War Story Wednesday in quite a while, so I thought I’d pass along something of note that happened here in Arlington, Texas, during preparations for the College Gridiron Showcase.

Tuesday was weigh-ins, maybe the most important event of the week for the 106 players on CGS rosters. For National Football Scouting, which always conducts weigh-ins, it’s always a hassle getting the players where they’re supposed to be, then getting them lined up and into their shorts so they can be weighed, measured and paraded across the stage so team officials can check out body types.

As everyone assembled yesterday, there were three players still unaccounted for. After several phone calls and rooms checked, game organizers found two of them, but a third was still MIA. Turns out there was a good reason for that: he was being stalked by a his ‘baby mama.’

The story we heard was that this young man was behind on child support, and had been located by the mother of his child, who lives in the Dallas area or nearby. Intent on getting her money, she started blowing up his phone early-morning Tuesday, challenging him to produce the necessary funds or risk her showing up and causing a big scene in front of scouts and team officials watching players’ every move.

Apparently, the gamble worked, and he was ready to make good, but there was a problem: she wasn’t waiting around for weigh-ins to conclude. That meant that, mid-weigh in, the young man had to find an ATM machine. Fast. Only, he couldn’t find one in the hotel lobby, so he had to run across the street to a convenience store, half-dressed, where the frustrated former paramour was waiting. He quickly withdrew the money and sent her on her way, keeping scouts waiting to get his height and weight.

The story has a happy ending for all concerned. After sprinting back across the street, he stripped down to his shorts, stepped on the scale, and satisfied the needs of the assembled evaluators.

Hopefully, the coming months will be less eventful for the young man as he seeks to make his NFL dreams come true.

A Football Extravaganza

21 Wednesday Jan 2015

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This week is the Senior Bowl, which makes it a big week in the life of college and pro football. Though the media is starting to catch on to the energy, the personality and the football buzz of the week in Mobile, I still think this game (and this week) is one of the hidden gems of football. Here are a few thoughts.

  • I know of at least two people here this week that are budding members of the pro football business who have come here to find their place. No doubt there are many more. One of them is my assistant, Murphy, who’s invaluable to me, but who wants to get an unvarnished look at the life of a contract advisor. I’m happy to help push him out of the nest. Though this is his third Senior Bowl, this week he’s asked several top agents what it takes to be successful in this business. To their credit, they’ve pulled no punches. To Murphy’s credit, he hasn’t flinched at the answers. He’d be crazy not to be given pause by their responses, but so far, it looks like he’s unbowed. Everyone he’s spoken to is a leader in the business, with a lengthy career and a growing practice. You just can’t find that kind of expertise anywhere else in the league except at the Senior Bowl.
  • Of course, there’s more than just agents here. All 32 teams send most of their scouts and often their coaching staffs, too. You also get a lot of college coaches who come to go to bat for players on the rosters or to see if they can land a job in the NFL. It’s a little like a coaches convention, though my sense is that it’s not nearly as popular as a ‘jobs clearinghouse’ as it used to be. I think the AFCA Convention has replaced it in that vein.
  • Though you don’t necessarily have to be a credentialed part of the Senior Bowl to get a lot of out of it, getting credentials isn’t automatic. Yesterday was one of the rare times I got a first-person account of someone almost wasn’t approved. For the most part, if you’re in the business or can make a credible argument that you are, you’ll be approved. Many times, a person’s credential identifies him as merely a ‘friend’ of a player in the game or some other NFL official. I’ve seen it.
  • Even if you’re not credentialed, you can still come and be a part of the week. Having a tag around your neck gets you on the field and gets you into the various galas in the evening, but if you just want to go to practice, you can sit in the stands without getting hassled. What’s more, the Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel, the game’s nerve center, is open and the people are very hospitable. At night, people converge on a handful of bars in downtown Mobile, but only a handful, and they’re easy to find. Last night, walking thru the downtown area, it was clear there were several establishments that wanted Senior Bowl business, but only 2-3 that were actually getting it.

Five MOH players worth considering

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

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Today, we report from Charleston, SC, scene of the second annual Medal of Honor Bowl. It’s the first game in the all-star slate for the 2015 draft cycle.

After attending weigh-ins, we discovered 37 unsigned players. That’s not altogether unusual for an early all-star game (some of these players were in bowl play as recently as Friday and Saturday), but it’s still a high number. Some of these players rate a long look for agents who swung and missed during recruiting. Last year, about 80 percent of the players who attended the game made it at least as far as an NFL camp.

Here are five players that we think deserve a look. As of this morning, none of them had agents.

Quinn Backus, SS, Coastal Carolina: Safeties that can move and cover as well as stop the run are an enticing commodity for NFL evaluators as ‘move’ tight ends have become such a weapon. Backus comes from a program that has gigantic momentum and is really on the rise, and he’s a two-time Walter Camp All-American, so the production is there. In fact, Backus is one of just four two-time Walter Camp honorees this year, and one is in the Senior Bowl and another in the Shrine Game. Backus played outside linebacker at Coastal, so if he proves he can play defensive back, he could be a true sleeper.

David Frazier, WO, Miami (OH): Normally, wide receivers are a dime a dozen, and it’s dicey to represent them because often it all comes down to their 40 time. However, there’s reason to believe Frazier is worth a gamble. First of all, he’s right at 6-feet tall (I don’t have his exact measurements today), so he’s no small-fry, and he averaged 16.1 yards per catch this year, so chances are he’s explosive and will run well.

Alfy Hill, DE, Winston-Salem St.: I haven’t gotten a chance to watch Alfy on the field, but he looks great coming off the bus. What’s more, he signed with Alabama coming out of high school, and if you’re good enough to play on scholarship for Nick Saban, well, that’s saying something. He seems to be very well-spoken and polished, too, based on the limited time I’ve been around him. His listed measurables are legit, too. He’s not a ‘6-4 in the program, 6-1 1/2 in real life’ kind of guy.

Gabe Middlebrook, OB, Charleston Southern: Middlebrook made a lot of plays for Charleston Southern this year and moves really well. He’s also a guy that a team is gonna fall in love with this week because he’s not only athletic but is instantly likeable. One of the big advantages to participation in all-star games is that players make personal connections with scouts, and that really pays off in the war room on draft day.

Mike Sellers, H-back, Winston-Salem St.: When you play H-back, very often you get stuck with the ‘tweener’ label. However, the American roster is down a tight end, and I’ve heard discussion of giving Mike some opportunities as a traditional tight end. If that happens and he flashes, he could really make an impression in a hurry.

Interested in any of these players? If you’re an ITL client, let us know and we’ll put you together with them to see if there’s a fit. And if you’re not part of the ITL family yet, we’d love to welcome you aboard. Even if these five players don’t seem like a natural fit, you can check out the rosters (National here, American here) to see if others might.

For your consideration

30 Tuesday Dec 2014

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We’ve used this space in the last couple weeks to feature some selected players that aren’t getting the attention from agents that perhaps they deserve. Due to the response from these posts, we’ve gotten more players asking to be featured, so here are a few more.

I should mention that we don’t feature everyone that contacts us. These are players, we feel, that at least have a chance of making it to a camp next summer.

There are no guarantees, but I think they have possibilities. I should also note that I’m not ‘brokering’ these players. I’m just passing them along to agents who might have interest. If you’re an ITL client and you have genuine interest in these players, I’m happy to provide their contact info, no strings attached.

Derek Akunne, ILB, North Texas: I’m a little confused on why Derek hasn’t gotten more interest from agents so far. He led Conference USA in tackles this season (108) and led the Eagles in tackles for loss (8.5). That’s good production. He lists at 6-0, so he’s not as tall as teams would like their linebackers to be these days – if he lists at 6-0, he’s probably closer to 5-11 at best – but you can’t argue with what he’s done on the field. And no, he didn’t exactly play at a football factory, but as a member of an FBS team, you know he’s going to have a pro day that gets covered by scouts. That’s not always a given when it comes to players that went to D2, D3 or even Division I-AA (FCS) schools.

Blake Renaud, ILB, Boise St.: Unlike Akunne, Renaud has plenty of size (6-2, 255). He also has a nice pedigree, having played HS ball at powerhouse De La Salle in Concord, Calif., before moving on to BSU. Inside linebackers are seen as unsexy by the NFL, and tend to go late in the draft, if at all. Still, every team uses them, and Renaud’s got a solid shot at making it to an NFL camp if he can stay healthy. The key is that he’s a kamikaze on special teams, and that’s the kind of thing that makes a player valuable.

Zack Patt, DE, Rice: Here’s another player off an FBS bowl-winning team that is squarely under the radar, but maybe shouldn’t be. He has a couple knocks. One, he’s quite undersized for his position, and he’s going to have to consider playing outside linebacker on the next level. There will be valid questions on whether or not he can move in space and drop and cover. He’s also had problems getting into the lineup; he didn’t start until his senior season, and he missed several games with injury. However, when he was on the field, he was a true impact player, notching an eye-popping five sacks in one game (against Florida International) this season.

Nico Carlson, OG, Rice: A 37-game starter at Rice, Nico is the kind of guy who scouts love because his best football is ahead of him. He arrived at Rice as a defensive lineman, but switched to OL his sophomore year and became an immediate starter. This gives him the ‘attitude’ and nastiness of a defensive player with an offensive lineman’s focus, smarts and fire. A second-team All-CUSA pick, he’s a legit 6-3/290 and is willing to live at home and train, so despite all his pluses, he won’t cost too much to represent. And he’s smart and personable.

War Story Friday: Flight to Nowhere

19 Friday Dec 2014

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These days at ITL, we’re re trafficking a lot of information about the postseason all-star games that are a key to getting ‘discovered’ by NFL scouts. I get a lot of calls about agents and/or players getting ‘screwed’ by all-star games that claim a player is not good enough to play in a game, or that they’re full at the player’s position. Well, sometimes it’s the player (or his agent) that does the screwing.

Here’s a good illustration. When I ran the 2008 Hula Bowl, we were the No. 3 game, but we had challenges (as I’ve recounted in the past) related to getting players to commit. These challenges were related to our place on the schedule (players arrived during bowl season) as well as the fact that getting to Hawaii is no easy task. That’s why I was really excited when we got a commitment from a Big Ten linebacker who figured to go in the fifth or sixth round.

As I recall, I had been in regular contact with the school’s head coach, working with him in an attempt to get 3-4 of his players into the game. I already knew the drill; he would encourage a couple of his late-rounders to participate in the Hula Bowl if I would take 1-2 of his ‘program’ guys, i.e., players who had no realistic shot of even going to an NFL camp, but who had been loyal soldiers for the coach.

Unfortunately, the coach was having the same conversations with his own agent, and had worked out a similar deal with him. This agent was an old-school guy, and never one to be an ITL client. Therefore, I had no relationship with him, and he had no interest in my lobbying or evangelizing for my game. It was clear he was going to try to get the linebacker into a ‘real’ game, and the Hula Bowl did not qualify.

Still, I didn’t know that when I was trying to schedule the player’s travel the week before the school’s bowl game. Like many colleges, the town where he had gone to school was quite remote, and we’d have to fly him out of Chicago. Though the head coach had been quite enthusiastic about him playing, I didn’t get the same vibe.

“I gotta fly out of my college town,” he insisted, and wouldn’t budge.

I tried and tried to convince him to fly out of a bigger airport, but he wouldn’t. So I went back to my scouting contacts to get a better handle on his pro prospects; each was adamant that he was a late draftee. So I eventually relented and booked him out of a tiny airport local to his college town. The price of the ticket exceeded $1,000, which was probably 3-4 percent of our entire travel budget.

That’s why I was furious when his agent called about a week later, just days before the player was scheduled to arrive, and told us he wouldn’t be coming. He didn’t have a reason why, but it didn’t matter, because no reason would have been good enough. Now I had to replace the player, finding a flight just days before our players were set to arrive, and spend money on top of the $1,000 I’d already spent. But here’s the kicker: there was no way I could get the money back or the ticket back once his name was on it.

In other words, not only had I been royally gamed by this young man, but I’d just handed him a $1,000 travel voucher. And there was nothing I could do about it.

He wound up skipping the all-star process altogether, and missed out on an attempt to solidify his standing in the ’08 draft. Perhaps as a result, he fell completely out of the draft, and had a brief cup of coffee in the league before his pro gridiron career ended.

I hate to take any pleasure in a player’s misfortune, but I have to admit it was hard not to smile when the last pick was announced that spring and his hadn’t been called. Meanwhile, I’ve never spoken to his agent since.