Thursday, April 10, 2008

Countdown to the Draft

By Jamie Silva

I have been back in Lancaster, PA for about a week or so. It is back to the hard work. After my workout yesterday, I went for an afternoon jog on the farm I live on.  As I turned the corner, scaling around high out of season harvest, I ran upon I snake that scurried into the tall grass and corn stalks.  This got my blood flowing and heart thumping.  The adventuresome person I am proceeded to move the brush around, hoping to catch a better glimpse of this animal. No luck. Though, today I went on a hike.  My hike was highlighted by two events. First, I caught a salamander. This reminded me of my childhood, scrumming through the woods in Riverside.  The second event is something I never experienced.  I was walking along the fence outside of the cow area, when I noticed some cows were running towards me.  This was not my first encounter with them, so I knew that they were friendly.  One of the cows came right up to me and I reached out to pet her head.  Right when I touched her face she sneezed! I had cow juice sprayed on me… This was not what I was hoping for to happen. Also as the cows head jolted forward at me, came all the fleas and flies that were covering the head of her. Even though I was disgusted and had to go back and shower as soon as possible, I did have to laugh at what happened.

Today I also threw caught passes for Chad Henne, Michigan’s star quarterback. He needed to throw to someone for a local television interview, so I volunteered myself as his receiver.

My agents said that this portion of time (post workouts until the draft) will be tough.  There is a lot of media coverage and “expert” (yeah right) analysis that says where the NFL prospects will go.  There is a lot of talk and anxiousness, but nobody actually knows what is going to happen come the end of April.  I spoke to my agents today and they are developing placement charts, seeing what teams need safeties or are lacking experience opposed to other teams.  Though we are planning and hoping that I do get drafted, this will be very useful if I don’t get drafted. Directly after the draft, teams start offering free agent contracts and it is up to me and my agents to find the best fit place for me.  So if for some reason my name is not called come the end of the draft, I will know what place I will best fit in. 

Just over two weeks to go until the draft. I am very anxious and can’t wait to actually get to a mini-camp. So right now the main goal is just to stay in shape so I can show whatever team brings me in, that I deserve to play in this league.