Pandemic’s role matters
INDIANAPOLIS — This year’s NFL draft prospects reluctantly recall their personal COVID-19 experiences.
Some consider them inspirational reminders of obstacles already overcome. Others sound more reminiscent of old war stories. And while the stories change, each comes with unforgettably vivid detail and heartfelt emotion about a challenging two-year battle to pursue their dreams.
Pandemic protocols prevented Alabama receiver John Metchie III from seeing his Canadian family for two years. South Dakota State running back Pierre Strong played 24 games in 10 months. Minnesota tackle Daniel Faalele tipped the scales at 405 pounds after opting out of the 2020 season. Kentucky guard Darian Kinnard worked out by flipping logs while his mother tended to hospitalized patients and UConn defensive tackle Travis Jones dealt with the cancellation of a season. None of it was easy. “I’m glad my family was safe and all,” Metchie said in March. “Not seeing my mom for two years was tough. I knew, eventually, I’d see her again. Of course, technology nowadays helps. It’s not the same as seeing them in person, but it definitely helps.”
This draft class arrived on campus with the exuberant expectation of a traditional college experience and instead wound up using video calls to socialize, isolation to continue playing and pure grit to cope with constantly evolving rules, regulations and restrictions.
It lost the 2020 spring football schedule and planned individual workouts with whatever they could find nearby. Even when they did return to campus, uncertainty remained.
Some Big Ten schools started practicing in pads before university presidents pulled everyone off the field and announced no games would be played. When the SEC and other leagues didn’t follow, Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields and his Buckeyes teammates petitioned conference officials to reinstate the season.
The effort worked — sort of.
“It’s crazy,” Ohio State tackle Nick Petit-Frere said. “The season got canceled, came back, games got canceled. We played one of the most crazy seasons you could ever imagine in the history of college football and somehow, the Ohio State Buckeyes were in the (national) championship game. ... This has been a once-in-a-lifetime two or three years.”
But in some cases, the physical and mental toll came with a cost.
But for everyone hoping to be drafted, the life-changing twists and turns they’ve faced on the path to this year’s draft will help keep football in perspective.
“To think at the end of it all, I’m talking in front of you guys, with an NFL microphone, an NFL nameplate, at a combine with a chance to do what almost every little kid, or every athlete dreamed of,” Petit-Frere said at the scouting combine in February. “When I think about that and I think about where I am now, I can’t really imagine how it happened.”