Today, you’ll have to indulge me as I tell one of my favorite stories. It involves my favorite all-time football player, Saints Hall of Fame LB Rickey Jackson, and my mentor in football, John Paul Young.

In 1981, John Paul had just arrived in New Orleans as part of Bum Phillips staff with the Saints. Bum, John Paul and the new staff had been brought in to try to capture the energy and excitement Phillips had created in Houston as part of the ‘Luv Ya Blue’ crew that always challenged the Steelers for AFC supremacy during Pittsburgh’s series of Super Bowl wins in the 70s. The Saints made a bold move in the 1981 draft, passing up North Carolina’s Lawrence Taylor for South Carolina’s George Rogers with the No. 1 overall pick. As the narrative has developed, in that draft, this was just another Saints blunder in an early team history chock full of them. What people don’t realize is that the Saints could take their ‘new Earl Campbell‘ with the top pick because they hoped another elite linebacker would be available in the second round. That player was Jackson, whom they took with the 51st pick.

From there, as the Saints’ linebackers coach, it was John Paul’s job to groom him and get him ready to be an impact player. However, things got off to a bumpy start. As a new member of the team and someone learning a new defense, Jackson was not yet instinctive in his first couple practices. During film sessions, John Paul consistently corrected him, in a teaching manner but firmly and directly. This seemed to embarrass Rickey, who was clearly down in the dumps after one such session. Eager not to lose his star pupil, John Paul took him aside to encourage him.

“What’s the matter, Rickey?” he asked a visibly pouting Jackson. “Nothing, coach,” the ‘backer replied.

“Come on, Rickey, what’s the matter?” he prodded.

“You’re always on me, coach,” Jackson responded.

Concerned that Jackson would be so easily hurt, John Paul expressed concern.

“Well, Rickey, when you were at Pittsburgh playing for Coach (Jackie) Sherrill, didn’t they have to fuss at you sometimes?”

“Nope, coach, never.”

“Really, Rickey? Well, what would they say to you?”

“All they ever said to me was, ‘Attaboy, Rickey!'”

Under John Paul’s tutelage, Jackson made fast adjustments to the NFL talent level, speed of game and styles of defense. In short order, he was one of the few consistent Saints play-makers and after a long career, he went to the Hall of Fame in 1997. This is why I suggested to my wife that we name our first-born son Rickey Jackson Stratton. She quickly dismissed the idea. I still believe she thinks I was joking.

As you may know, one key part of the NFL combine is the night when the players are herded into a big room at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and all NFL teams get a crack at interviewing them for up to 15 minutes. Of course, that’s a pretty tight window, so teams have to get their questions in quickly and draw their conclusions almost as quickly. Usually teams hold interviews knowing that a kid can play, but they want to make sure there aren’t any off-the-field red flags they need to know about, so they focus on the usual questions about arrests, alcohol- and drug-related issues and the like.

Seattle has acquired a reputation for being very thorough not just in its scouting but in evaluating players that will go outside the top 100 players, and obviously, it’s paid great dividends. With that in mind, the Seahawks took an all-hands-on-deck approach to interviewing players, with head coach Pete Carroll himself getting out and speaking to selected players. One of them was Rob Blanchflower, a tight end from Massachusetts who despite a great career at UMass had missed the Senior Bowl with a leg injury. This created a bit more mystery surrounding the pass-catcher as teams weren’t able to do the normal level of due diligence. Within that context, Carroll stopped by for a quick chat.

“Rob, nice to meet you and talk to you,” Carroll said. “You seem like a really good guy. Tell me a little about yourself. Have you ever been in trouble? Done any drugs?”

“I drink a little,” Blanchflower replied.

Eager to make sure “a little” didn’t mean two cases and a bottle of scotch per day, Carroll followed up with another question. “What’s that mean?,” he asked.

“I drink when we celebrate,” the tight end said.

Starting to get a bit concerned, and probably thinking he might have tripped up on an area of concern, Carroll asked for clarification.

“What does that mean?” he asked again.

At that point, the Minuteman sensed a brewing storm he needed to head off, and he knew exactly how to do it.

“Coach, we were 1-11 last season,” Blanch said.

Carroll had no more concerns.

Today, we continue our conversation with Don Mewhort, whose son, Jack, was drafted 2/59 by the Colts in May.

As you read Jack’s answers, there are a few things I find noteworthy. First, he cautions that a good agent doesn’t over-promise, and in fact is adamant that the only person who can improve a player’s ‘draft stock’ is the player himself. Second, though contact with agents was (rightly) restricted by Don and his attorney father, the limited contacts that several agents had with Jack before the season seemed to factor into the Buckeye’s final decision. He also has an interesting idea on what the NFLPA might provide to NFL draft prospects that he would have found helpful.

When did you conduct meetings with agents?

People would come into Toledo and meet with my father (an attorney) and I and that happened from right now through Thanksgiving, maybe the Michigan game (Nov. 30). We met with a number of people, then narrowed the list down after the regular season, after the Big Ten Championship Game (Dec. 7), and we narrowed the list down, and after that, coordinated that, narrowed it more. After the Big Ten Championship Game we had it down to four. Jack was not that involved in that process. It was more my father and I who did it, and he left it up to us. He was more focused on football at that point. And really the reason for that was that the people we had spoken to, everybody emphasized that the most important thing for Jack to do was having a good senior season.

Did any agents ever offer anything illegal or make any untoward advances?

No, no one.

From what you saw, what tipped the scales to Priority Sports for Jack?

I think there was a personal connection between Mike (McCartney) and Jack that they developed, and I’ll tell you, the final four were very, very close. It was a very difficult decision. I think the client base that Priority Sports had was helpful, because they had (ex-Buckeye and former NFL first-rounder) A.J. Hawk as a client, so the other type of clients they had we thought fit with the kind of player and person Jack was. We felt the agent selected would be accessible for Jack, and we felt that way for the others as well, but (we felt that) once he made that decision, the agent wasn’t going to disappear for four years. We felt any of the final four were going to be real advisors to him. One of the things I think Mike did a good job of doing, and one of the things Priority did well, was that they were very straight from the very beginning that there’s not a lot of things that an agent can do to improve your draft slot. It’s really how well you do in your senior year. I would warn people that go through the process that if (an agent) tells you they’re going to make you a first-round draft pick, ask them how they’re going to do that. It’s really flattering (for agents) to tell (potential clients) how good they are, but if they can’t tell you how they’re going to take you from a fourth-round draft pick to a first-round pick . . . ask them how it’s going to happen. One thing that was consistent among all the finalists was that they were very straightforward with us, and what they were telling us was true and not what we wanted to hear.

Did you have a lot of people who told you they could really move Jack up in the draft?

Some people would tout their relationships in the league and stuff like that; they know this guy or they’re tied in with this person, or, well, you know. But we were pretty careful. Of the 10-15 people we met with, we were pretty careful with who we met with. The ones we met with were all pretty professional. We were pleased. They were all very competent people. You have to make a decision, and one personality might fit a little better with your son.

So Jack made his decision based solely off the presentations the four finalists made on that day after the season when you conducted interviews?

Well, he had had conversations with most of the guys, on and off, and had talked to them before, before we had asked people to hold off on calling, or maybe traded some texts or had some interaction with them. Maybe he had seen them after a game. But (the day when we conducted interviews is) when the harder questions were asked about how it was going to work. We couldn’t have even brought them in if they hadn’t had some interaction with Jack before then.

Did the school try to limit your contact with agents or put any other restraints on you?

The compliance department at Ohio State is ‘on it.’ They do an excellent job of trying to educate the kids and parents about the pitfalls if you don’t handle it properly. They didn’t put any restrictions on us but they did educate us on it, and if you have a question, you better go to compliance and talk to them. That comes straight from Coach Meyer. He doesn’t want anyone to say they didn’t know. (Athletic Director) Gene Smith and the compliance people do a really good job.

What is the one thing – resource, advisor, whatever – you wished you’d had at this time last summer?

What would be helpful for parents is if the Players Association would put out the contracts from players from the previous draft. Like, ‘here’s what the second pick in the fourth round got in ’12, and this was their agent,’ because everyone brought in their own interpretation of the contracts. If the (NFLPA) could put out a consistent document that said, ‘this is what everyone got, and this was their agent,’ that would be helpful. Because you can go online, but you can’t tell what’s guaranteed and what’s not guaranteed, and I think it would be helpful for agents as well.

We’re probably a little different, but you got to find someone you can trust. You feel someone else can do it better, or a coach, or a lawyer, or an accountant, somebody at church, but somebody who doesn’t care and that can help you with it. As a parent, you get a little biased, and you’re probably not as objective as you should be. You should find that person who only cares about your kid, that can be helpful, and obviously the service (ITL provides) is helpful.