Speaker 1: Drafted is a production of tree Fort Media, Clutch Sports Group,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio. I always wanted to hit someone
Speaker 1: else rather than someone smacked me or something like that.
Speaker 1: beIN tackled is definitely not fun. Welcome back to Drafted.
Speaker 1: I'm Steven Johnson and this is the tenth and final
Speaker 1: episode of season three. The two thousand twenty one NFL
Speaker 1: Draft has officially begun, and linebacker Hammoca Rashi Jr. Is
Speaker 1: watching the first round at home in Chandler, Arizona with
Speaker 1: his family. I'm like, raston, I'm like, I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna running. I'm running. I got I'm gonna write
Speaker 1: like what happen was supposed to be to run and
Speaker 1: I'm not. That's what I feel like. It's my first
Speaker 1: time since Still, So I haven't been since Still. Hammocka's mom,
Speaker 1: Misha McLamore, has been busy preparing for the draft party,
Speaker 1: so busy in fact, that this is the first when
Speaker 1: she sat down and thought about what this all means.
Speaker 1: This is when all those sacrifices the family made come
Speaker 1: rushing back, from checking in with Hammoca's tutors and coaches
Speaker 1: throughout high school to driving twenty two hours straight to
Speaker 1: get him back to Oregon in time for practice, to
Speaker 1: keeping his spirits up during all those difficult days in college.
Speaker 1: I can't even explabe y'all, which I said, it's like
Speaker 1: having a baby. For the ones who have babies, knowing
Speaker 1: that feels like referenced to it, referenced to it when
Speaker 1: you have that. I feel like that right now because
Speaker 1: out about experience. I can't explain it went down, but
Speaker 1: it's grace. Watching the thirty two first round picks can
Speaker 1: be stressful for any prospect in their family, but it's
Speaker 1: especially tough for a guy like Hamaca, who genuinely could
Speaker 1: be selected at any point anywhere in the draft. He's
Speaker 1: as big a wild card as anyone due to the
Speaker 1: up and down nature of his college career. So when
Speaker 1: the first round ends without him a getting a call,
Speaker 1: he goes upstairs disappointed. Here's one of his younger brothers
Speaker 1: talking about the end of the first day of the draft.
Speaker 1: The first day, I'm lookay didn't get jackted. He took
Speaker 1: off his his little andset or might d and he
Speaker 1: went upstairs. So I was like, I wanted to say
Speaker 1: something about was like, I don't want to say anything
Speaker 1: because it's kind of crazy. His little brother was probably
Speaker 1: right to avoid him at that moment. Kimaa explains how
Speaker 1: he was feeling first day. You know, I'm just waiting,
Speaker 1: just thinking, like waiting to see if my coma is
Speaker 1: gonna be called. Now, I watched um a lot of
Speaker 1: people and I'm pretty much my agents and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: It's just telling me like we need as much as
Speaker 1: my ships to go on first day, then you're then
Speaker 1: you're coming. So I'm just thinking, uh, that's unless some
Speaker 1: more people come off. But you know, they're telling me
Speaker 1: it's waiting to other people, um get off the board.
Speaker 1: I'm like, why can't they just call me? You know,
Speaker 1: it's pretty easier just to call me round than wait
Speaker 1: for other people to get picked off the board. I'm
Speaker 1: just thinking, like talk to the Ravens all day every day,
Speaker 1: the draft day in the corner everyone, and I'm just
Speaker 1: like hopefully, like just call me, just call me. At
Speaker 1: that point, I'm just pissed and that I end up.
Speaker 1: I just took my mic off and I went upstairs
Speaker 1: and I was hot. I was just mad. Camico will
Speaker 1: have the whole night to stew until rounds two and
Speaker 1: three begin in the morning, and that's exactly what happens.
Speaker 1: He and his family continue trying to make sense of
Speaker 1: why he hasn't been taken yet as they make breakfast
Speaker 1: and wait for day two of the draft to begin.
Speaker 1: I was hot. I was watching it. They called somebody
Speaker 1: else names. I'm over there like, okay, there's got to
Speaker 1: be another position. I see the same position, then IM,
Speaker 1: that's good, all right, Now I'm gonna do this. I'm like, look,
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh hell no, buy and I'm your stressed
Speaker 1: out and I already know took that mic off. I
Speaker 1: was like, every person were talking to you, like your
Speaker 1: first round. Guy? Did you sit here and get a
Speaker 1: guy that has nothing nothing close to what I'd be. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, you're gonna go
Speaker 1: where you're supposed to go. God play for you, has
Speaker 1: a purpose for you. He's not going to deliver your
Speaker 1: mail at somebody else's house, so where your mail supposed
Speaker 1: to come to, it will make it to your add
Speaker 1: just Camica is mom. Misha gives him yet another pep talk,
Speaker 1: just like she did when he started at a new
Speaker 1: high school his senior year and when he didn't get
Speaker 1: to play during those first few seasons at Oregon State,
Speaker 1: and even when he got COVID during the past season.
Speaker 1: Throughout it all, she always believed he'd get his chance.
Speaker 1: The only question is when in the mountains of Big Bear, California,
Speaker 1: cornerback cam By them watches the start of the second
Speaker 1: round with his friends and family at the rented lakehouse.
Speaker 1: Right now will be a great time for somebody Frank
Speaker 1: calling me. I can't even lie. Please don't, I actually don't.
Speaker 1: I'll be sick. Come on, call my phone, somebody, somebody
Speaker 1: called my phone. I will be dying all practice. You
Speaker 1: tell me, tell me if you want me. Despite the
Speaker 1: obvious mental strain of waiting for a chance at fulfilling
Speaker 1: his hopes and dreams, Cam is actually joking around to
Speaker 1: keep the mood light, and that's because he's always like this,
Speaker 1: he explains, So like football. A lot of people see
Speaker 1: it as like super serious and hard and all that,
Speaker 1: But I go out in the field having fun. It's
Speaker 1: like it's everything I do. Actually, like a movie like
Speaker 1: this is like super fun. I shouldn't be playing football
Speaker 1: for a living, or I shouldn't be be able to
Speaker 1: I should be scared to jump out of a plane
Speaker 1: and do three backroops out of a plane and Scott,
Speaker 1: I've jumping off cliffs in the waters. That stuff you're
Speaker 1: seeing movies and crazy stuff that's like super fun that
Speaker 1: a lot of people be scared to do. So that's
Speaker 1: that's my whole. Everything I do, I try and make
Speaker 1: it fun. I should be scared of doing all that.
Speaker 1: But the fact that I'm not, like, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a movie, It's like, this doesn't happen. This isn't regular.
Speaker 1: So that's my that's my little catch phrase. Do it
Speaker 1: for the movie. He lives as if all the reality
Speaker 1: is a movie, one that happens to star Cam, buy them.
Speaker 1: I got fine. Corn is off the board. We're good, uh,
Speaker 1: happy with it. Obviously, the more corners that go earlier,
Speaker 1: the more chances I go early. But overall, I'm not
Speaker 1: tripping where I go. So I'm just happy and blessed
Speaker 1: to be here. So it's gonna be a movie. Produces.
Speaker 1: As they continue watching the draft broadcast, Cam roots for
Speaker 1: the highest ranked cornerbacks and safeties to all get drafted.
Speaker 1: That would move him up the board and increase his
Speaker 1: likelihood of being picked earlier. Okay, come on, a couple
Speaker 1: more picks. Come on, that's good. I'm rooting for them
Speaker 1: to just leave. Come on, that's all the cloud people
Speaker 1: off the board. I got four more give me the Niners.
Speaker 1: Just people hitting me saying we're trying to get you today.
Speaker 1: We're trying to get you. Packers hit me. Charges hit
Speaker 1: me again, Packers hit me, the charges hit me. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what the trigger? What I'm trigger? Day two of the
Speaker 1: two thousand twenty one NFL Draft officially comes to a
Speaker 1: close as both Cam and Hannoto wait for their names
Speaker 1: to be called. Only one more day remains, with the
Speaker 1: rounds four through seven Jakie place. On the final afternoon,
Speaker 1: Cam says goodbye to his friends and family, inviting them
Speaker 1: back for the last draft day. Thank you all for
Speaker 1: com here. Love y'all, okay, you're nice and several day
Speaker 1: three day three day three day three tomorrows for sure
Speaker 1: the day ought to anticipation. Four fift six, sevens and
Speaker 1: four rounds. I thought it'd be today, honestly, but didn't
Speaker 1: happen today, so said again, I thought the charges today
Speaker 1: because they hit me last night talking about we need
Speaker 1: YEARL but didn't end up happening. It's where I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to be. They don't matter. I'm strapping regardless. So day
Speaker 1: two is done. Motivation, Cam spirits remained high. This is
Speaker 1: a movie, after all, and he's confident this one has
Speaker 1: a happy ending. Meanwhile, in Arizona, Hammica isn't feeling quite
Speaker 1: as optimistic. He shares his feelings after sliding into the
Speaker 1: later rounds of the draft. Second they go by, I
Speaker 1: don't get picked, I don't get a call. I'm mad.
Speaker 1: I'm just like just super disappointing. Man. I feel like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I had a lot of people in my house.
Speaker 1: I just feel like I was just disappointed embarrassed at
Speaker 1: the same time, you know, like like these people, I'm
Speaker 1: seeing people get drafted with like no names, and like
Speaker 1: it's just it's just irritating, Like how do I go
Speaker 1: from our first first team on American and now all
Speaker 1: these people are better at me? And that's what really
Speaker 1: like maybe mad Clutch Sports agent to Marius Bilbo elaborates
Speaker 1: on that inner struggle players like Hammica and Cam faith
Speaker 1: when falling in the draft. So the hardest part is
Speaker 1: really when that an ounce of disappointment sets in, you know,
Speaker 1: just getting a guy over that home, and it has
Speaker 1: to be quick. It has to be a quick turn.
Speaker 1: I was like, look, bro, we got we got next round,
Speaker 1: we got tomorrow, we got the next day. You know,
Speaker 1: and this this is a lifeloan, you know, a period
Speaker 1: of work that's kind of crumbled into three days on
Speaker 1: the weekend, and it doesn't always happen how they wanted
Speaker 1: to happen. But look, you do have an opportunity, and
Speaker 1: that opportunity is going to really shape how people look
Speaker 1: at you down the road. That opportunit unity he talks about,
Speaker 1: comes from being picked late in the draft, signing as
Speaker 1: a free agent, or proving yourself as a practice player.
Speaker 1: The draft doesn't always end the journey for players who
Speaker 1: don't make it, how they respond and what they do
Speaker 1: next matters almost as much as when or where they
Speaker 1: get drafted. Just ask sixth round pick Tom Brady or
Speaker 1: all the other late rounders who went on to become
Speaker 1: NFL legends like Deacon Jones, Bart Starr, and Raymond Barry.
Speaker 1: This is why Demarius wants cam in Hammocka to know
Speaker 1: that the only thing that matters right now is the
Speaker 1: beginning of day three. Alright, Mike is on Day three
Speaker 1: in the draft is about the movie being a movie's guaranteed. Today,
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. Cam by them sits in Big Bear, California,
Speaker 1: surrounded by friends and family, waiting for someone to give
Speaker 1: him the opportunity. His agent to maryus Bilbo talked about
Speaker 1: he's still feeling confident even as he watches another corner
Speaker 1: get picked over him in round four. Yes, sir, another
Speaker 1: one bites the desk. Anything, anything, It all depends on
Speaker 1: where I go. Honestly, Cam was willing to play any
Speaker 1: position on any team. He just wants to get out there.
Speaker 1: Who is it? Oh another DV? Are we chilling? Were good?
Speaker 1: I don't know. Was he on any of the boards? Yeah? All, okay,
Speaker 1: Hello River ball Player and I like to value and
Speaker 1: a Hello Cameron, Yeah, this is me. Hey Cameron, this
Speaker 1: is Pat Roberts at the Minnesota Vakings. How you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm doing great? How are you doing? I think we're
Speaker 1: gonna get ready to your car here. But what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do is I'm gonna dial you back from another
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna be honest like a zoom. Our
Speaker 1: team's getting with our general manager. Okay, Okay, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I caught everything you just said. But we'll
Speaker 1: get it done. We'll get it down. We're gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna call him like ten seconds. All right, all right,
Speaker 1: I got you. We don't know what we're gonna know. Hello,
Speaker 1: how you doing, Viking? Ready for a game? That's good,
Speaker 1: that's good. Hey what We're going to turn you in
Speaker 1: and that I know our coaches talk to you. We're
Speaker 1: gonna turn you into the safety. Okay, let's get it.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be the best safe thing me. Let's get it.
Speaker 1: We're going to I'll have our coach rolling across the congratulation.
Speaker 1: Thank you, guys, appreciate it. But okay, thank you. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, h love me, guys. This man for this man,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I work for this man pretty too much.
Speaker 1: Once it is, the Minnesota Vikings have officially picked Cameron
Speaker 1: Binum with the one of the two thousand twenty one
Speaker 1: NFL Draft. Here are his parents, Curtis and Jennifer on
Speaker 1: House are real that moment felt when he got the car.
Speaker 1: Even though I knew it was coming, I still thought
Speaker 1: it was a joke. I thought I thought he was
Speaker 1: messing around with everyone. And then I'm like Okay, maybe
Speaker 1: he's not. But originally when I saw him looking at
Speaker 1: his phone, like now he's joking, I'm not following for that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you put it on speaker, Funes so we
Speaker 1: can all hear him. Take this is coach, and Cam
Speaker 1: was just so excited. The only thing left now is
Speaker 1: for the selection to be officially announced on the draft broadcast.
Speaker 1: It was on the King was dead. Let's do he
Speaker 1: sacrifice on that work. I love you y'all put in
Speaker 1: hours for it is. It's now about to go to
Speaker 1: be great. We're going wrong for me to work out
Speaker 1: My gosh, did it too times. Cam's hugging his parents
Speaker 1: talking about the extra odd jobs they picked up to
Speaker 1: help pay for his football camps and trainers, all those
Speaker 1: five in the morning workouts, they drove them to the
Speaker 1: recruiting operation, they helped him manage, all the sacrifices they
Speaker 1: made over the years to get them to this point.
Speaker 1: Here are all three of them again describing those overwhelming emotions.
Speaker 1: That's whatever I really felt real once they said it
Speaker 1: on TV. And when when I yeah, when they said that,
Speaker 1: I was crazy hyped and I was pretty emotional to
Speaker 1: I was crying it's probably me and I'm honestly, I
Speaker 1: didn't think I cried, but I did. But yeah, it
Speaker 1: was both of the best. We were competing for who's
Speaker 1: gonna cry the most? Just seeing everybody they're just celebrating
Speaker 1: his accomplishments and everything. Yeah, I was a crying baby,
Speaker 1: So I was. It was really emotional, really emotional. Back
Speaker 1: in the cabin, Cam's phone rings once again. Hello, thank
Speaker 1: you guys. Get what do you mean? That's his longtime
Speaker 1: coach and trainer Anthony Brown on the phone. Coach Brown
Speaker 1: elaborates on what it meant for him to see the
Speaker 1: high school kid who couldn't even get on the field
Speaker 1: for the JV team developed into the professional who just
Speaker 1: got picked by the Minnesota Vikings. Saturday morning. Uh, I
Speaker 1: called him, tell him I'm coming up, and I look
Speaker 1: at my calendar. I'm like, oh crap, I got a kid.
Speaker 1: I gotta train this morning at nine o'clock. So Calm
Speaker 1: is that big beer. So I'm training this kid. I'm like,
Speaker 1: he's he's thirteen years So I finished. I finished up
Speaker 1: the training with him. As I'm finishing up my training
Speaker 1: with him, I get a phone call from Calm. You
Speaker 1: know that he's been drafted, but it was other people
Speaker 1: that called. But when I got on the phone with him,
Speaker 1: it was one of those things who I just broke down.
Speaker 1: He didn't hear me crying on my side of the phone, bro,
Speaker 1: but it was just it was just it was so unreal.
Speaker 1: And I swear to you, for about twenty minutes, I'm
Speaker 1: sitting on the couch just crying my butt off. Man,
Speaker 1: I couldn't. I couldn't stop crying. You know, it was
Speaker 1: so emotional because you watched this kid that only people
Speaker 1: better than him was him, his family and me, you know,
Speaker 1: and you see being drafted to the NFL and you like,
Speaker 1: you know, you you things are gonna happen. But him
Speaker 1: being drafted, putting the countless hours, uh, you know, overcoming
Speaker 1: all the eyes of to where he's being drafted in
Speaker 1: the fourth round to the National Football League and ended
Speaker 1: up at the Minnesota Vikings is man is you know,
Speaker 1: this is special and it's and it's something that you
Speaker 1: you know, you can't take you can't take you away
Speaker 1: from him and his family because the kid did it.
Speaker 1: He did it the right way. It's a blessing. The
Speaker 1: this kid was able to in a long way to
Speaker 1: the support that he picked up on the way. It is.
Speaker 1: It's really it's remarkable that this really happens to Cam Biden,
Speaker 1: and I just and I just praise God that it
Speaker 1: happened to him, because he deserved everything that's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Happy to damn, but it's family. He really deserves it.
Speaker 1: After Cam finishes doing interviews and media appearances, he records
Speaker 1: one final message before heading down to the lake where
Speaker 1: the celebration will really get going. All right, so this
Speaker 1: is my last little voice message for a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'm about to go jump in this lake. Uh, finally
Speaker 1: doing my interviews, had like five of them already, they're
Speaker 1: on my calls, So now I can finally go celebrate
Speaker 1: with the family. Everybody's outside waiting for me. So I'm
Speaker 1: about to go jump in the lake and everybody's doing
Speaker 1: it with me. So yep, thank you all. God is good.
Speaker 1: God is great. I'm a viking with that. Cam goes
Speaker 1: outside and gets ready to jump. So after I got drafted,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, we're off the lake. We're in
Speaker 1: We're in Big Bear in the cabin right off the lakes.
Speaker 1: That we gotta do something that we're gonna remember forever.
Speaker 1: It's something that's gonna be super cool to capture on tape.
Speaker 1: We can't just sit there and just jump and be happy.
Speaker 1: And now just till around looking at each other this
Speaker 1: You're like, all right, I get draft. We're jump in
Speaker 1: the lake. All of us are jump in the lake.
Speaker 1: So they're like, uh, sure, I guess it's your day.
Speaker 1: So we're doing it. So all my family were planned it.
Speaker 1: After I got drafted. Had to go up there upstairs,
Speaker 1: good a couple of interviews real quick from Minnesota. As
Speaker 1: soon as I came down, had to speak to you
Speaker 1: with my song playing, And we y'all ran down some
Speaker 1: water and jumped off the dock and like all my teammates,
Speaker 1: we all did backwards in the water. We'll be right
Speaker 1: back come The third day of the two thousand twenty
Speaker 1: one NFL Draft is still underway in Chandler, Arizona. Hammaka
Speaker 1: Rashi Jr. Watches Round four come to an end. There
Speaker 1: are only three rounds remaining, and he still hasn't gotten
Speaker 1: his phone call. But it's my Misha refuses to let
Speaker 1: him or anyone in the house feel down. God's not
Speaker 1: gonna giveson you. Somebody else at the door or blessing.
Speaker 1: He got your own blessing when it's your turn. Don't
Speaker 1: matter what else somebody else got or whoever Scott drafted.
Speaker 1: Your Your blessing is your blessing. Like our race said,
Speaker 1: we have the one for cent town, only one experience
Speaker 1: what we are today. So the fact that we're here
Speaker 1: and all the people that was on your team and
Speaker 1: the God has opened that door one. You've been at
Speaker 1: to too much hype brasity. You can't never reacholla of
Speaker 1: what somebody else happcause you don't know what they have
Speaker 1: to go through, just like whoever hate like you don't
Speaker 1: know your story. Yeah, they don't know your story. They
Speaker 1: don't know the adversity that all they're gonna see is
Speaker 1: where you are. They don't know what you went through.
Speaker 1: The we're here, Curry, we're here. That's right, we're here.
Speaker 1: Gloria has around five ends and six begins. Even Misha
Speaker 1: begins to struggle with her emotions. Here she is again
Speaker 1: describing her mental state as the final two rounds continue
Speaker 1: flying by. It was to me like a death. It
Speaker 1: was like a death. Brabies and now the baby at
Speaker 1: the same time, like what in the world just happened.
Speaker 1: I would not even buyed all these people over our head.
Speaker 1: All these people come thinking this is the bottom line,
Speaker 1: and to pull him out the tree. The first day like, okay,
Speaker 1: come back then, we're gonna get through this. So the
Speaker 1: first day it was red forms and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: you gotta come back down here. This is just the
Speaker 1: first day. So he came back down. The second day, Okay,
Speaker 1: we get through. The second day. The third day he
Speaker 1: was just you know, we all were here for support
Speaker 1: for him, don't get through this. And then he was
Speaker 1: still okay. I wasn't one of the Philip part like
Speaker 1: I did, but he was still okay. I was a
Speaker 1: wreck by then. I was just like it was a
Speaker 1: very emotional. Hammaica's father in law, Chris, also ways in
Speaker 1: on the emotional burden. My husband want to say something.
Speaker 1: I was broke trying to people for three days and
Speaker 1: trying to make sure everybody pass up to the drink.
Speaker 1: My ap bill double. Basically it was very expensive. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Hammaka tries to process his free fall into what is
Speaker 1: now the seventh and final round of draft. I think
Speaker 1: I his flight just I'm just like, wow, that's why
Speaker 1: I'm just hoping for a call no matter what. But
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to figure out what's going on why
Speaker 1: I'm not getting drafted, And honestly, that's probably like the
Speaker 1: biggest disappoint h I want to say I got. I
Speaker 1: feel like I just got egged on, Like people are
Speaker 1: just misleading me, thinking acting like they're gonna draft me,
Speaker 1: and I'm seeing what kickers and puntershs get drafted before me.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what is going on? And that's probably what
Speaker 1: makes me mad at the most, Like you don't act
Speaker 1: like you're undrafting, you don't draft me, end up drafting.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying a different guy in my position, and
Speaker 1: that's like wow, okay, and end up getting the call.
Speaker 1: Somebody called me and they were just like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: heard that they're getting a ride receiver, but we love
Speaker 1: to get you in free agency. He was like. I
Speaker 1: was just like wow. I was like that's tough. Like
Speaker 1: I'm thinking this is the call, but they're telling me like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we can get you for you just if you want
Speaker 1: to come here. Okay. The calls, Hamnaker receives our teams
Speaker 1: saying they'd like to sign him as a free agent.
Speaker 1: After the draft ends, no one ever calls to say
Speaker 1: they are drafting him. It's a heartbreaking weekend for a
Speaker 1: player who had first round aspirations only a year earlier.
Speaker 1: Honestly for a lot of teams like me. But there's
Speaker 1: nobody will pulling the trigger. And that's what I like,
Speaker 1: I really to understand still, but overall, I would say
Speaker 1: the disappointment. Rookies always say the biggest change from college
Speaker 1: to the NFL is the speed of the game, and
Speaker 1: that's true with the business of football as well. Before
Speaker 1: the draft even comes to an end, multiple teams text
Speaker 1: and call Hamaker, expressing their interests and signing him. After
Speaker 1: it's over, and as soon as the final picks announced,
Speaker 1: they start making offers. As soon as the last pig
Speaker 1: goes in. Now people are calling or they're calling before that.
Speaker 1: I think the Raiders called me for the or the
Speaker 1: SEC after the Jets. Um, I want to say, the
Speaker 1: Patriots or somebody. A lot of other people to text
Speaker 1: me and calling, and it's pretty much like, yeah, I
Speaker 1: believe you make team and you'd be a great fear
Speaker 1: here and you're pretty much just like okay, you either
Speaker 1: say yeah, I don't know. The race to sign undrafted
Speaker 1: players often becomes competitive and can even turn into bidding wars,
Speaker 1: where sometimes the contracts end up higher than those signed
Speaker 1: by guys drafted in the sixth or seventh rounds. Here's
Speaker 1: Hammokah again on how quickly at all unfolded for him.
Speaker 1: I want to say the Jets de coordinated. Text me,
Speaker 1: He's like, I think you have a great upside of
Speaker 1: here and you could play and ended up what's going
Speaker 1: to the Jets and at this poem and Jet and
Speaker 1: you know, so that day, you know somebody saw something
Speaker 1: in me, and you know I'm gonna work my butt
Speaker 1: off to make this team and become a starter anything
Speaker 1: around there. Here's agent to Marius Bilbo again describing how
Speaker 1: he sees this wild West free agency process. Well, it's
Speaker 1: actually frustrating because you know, teams us that as escape
Speaker 1: why not get it? They only have so many picks,
Speaker 1: they have so many positions to feel And I know
Speaker 1: inside those rooms you have a plethora of people fighting
Speaker 1: for different things. You have defensive coaches fight for defensive player,
Speaker 1: offensive coaches saying we have to dress this need and
Speaker 1: you'll start getting those calls. Um, hey, some things will
Speaker 1: do it before the draft even starts before round one,
Speaker 1: they'll say, hey, if your guys to go undrafted, you know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like uh dating, but uh. You start
Speaker 1: to get frustrated with the teams that said, oh, we
Speaker 1: wanted to take him in the forth, why didn't you
Speaker 1: take him there? You know, I don't I don't want
Speaker 1: to hear that after the draft is over, like, who gars?
Speaker 1: You know, we had a high grade on them. Wasn't
Speaker 1: high enough, you know, because he's hitting here, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's that frustration that kind of sets in. I
Speaker 1: got about fifteen teams that called and was like, I
Speaker 1: don't know what happened. And again in my mom I'm pissed.
Speaker 1: I'm pissed for the kid. But then you start to
Speaker 1: look at roster. You start to break things down and say,
Speaker 1: if in fact he's not drafted, where's the best fit?
Speaker 1: You know, where does he fit in the scheme wise
Speaker 1: he gets to go into a place that's unbiased on
Speaker 1: draft and then's just looking at potential and talent. And
Speaker 1: that's when you have to push the emotion to the
Speaker 1: side and say, what are we gonna do best for
Speaker 1: him in terms of scheme fit, in terms of teams,
Speaker 1: you know, things like that. Hammaka signs with the Jets
Speaker 1: almost immediately after the draft because he fits their scheme
Speaker 1: on defense, and it's a team where he has a
Speaker 1: good chance to make the roster and to get playing time.
Speaker 1: So now once again he stares down a daunting path
Speaker 1: in his journey, and once again he's ready to prove
Speaker 1: to everyone what he can do. A lot of people
Speaker 1: are texting me happy for me going to the league
Speaker 1: and get assigned to the Jets. Now I just took
Speaker 1: that as like, Yeah, rather you stopped telling me congratulations
Speaker 1: when I haven't made it, you know, so like you
Speaker 1: rather rather you tell me I work. Aren't in congratulating
Speaker 1: because I'm not not where I am while where I'm
Speaker 1: supposed to be, I'm not where I want to be.
Speaker 1: Coach George Hawthorne, who worked with Hammaco at Chandler High
Speaker 1: School and later became one of his mentors, has seen
Speaker 1: this all before. He's watched Hammoca face adversity from the
Speaker 1: day he met him all the way to the end
Speaker 1: of this year's draft, because he had already been down
Speaker 1: those those bumpy roads and those roads with the detours
Speaker 1: in the roadblocks, and the things. He was able to
Speaker 1: handle that much better than some of the people that
Speaker 1: hadn't been down those roads. A lot of people have
Speaker 1: only encountered success on their journeys, so when they come
Speaker 1: to the first obstacle, they don't know how to handle it. Well.
Speaker 1: A good thing about him, he's been up against these
Speaker 1: types of obstacles before. He's had to face adversity throughout
Speaker 1: his life. Transferring schools and you know, having to overcome
Speaker 1: the obstacle of not having the grades and having a
Speaker 1: really really buckle down in school and getting his grades together.
Speaker 1: So even go to Oregon State, he had a game
Speaker 1: waiting in order to be a college football player. So
Speaker 1: he's you know, where he is, where he's sitting is
Speaker 1: not an unfamiliar, unfamiliar situation. He's been there, He's been
Speaker 1: a many times. He knows how to overcome it. You know.
Speaker 1: It's going to work through it, you know, and I'm
Speaker 1: really looking forward to the journey of him working through
Speaker 1: it and proving to you know, everybody in New York
Speaker 1: and everybody in the NFL and everybody in the country
Speaker 1: that he can be one of the best in the game.
Speaker 1: Another mentor, coach Russell Scott has also been by Hammock
Speaker 1: aside throughout this journey, and he knows hammaca is as
Speaker 1: prepared as anyone for what comes next. Yeah, He's had
Speaker 1: to endure, you know. Um Joseph was thrown into a
Speaker 1: fiery pit by his brothers, you know, and and came
Speaker 1: out as a king. So I believe ham is going
Speaker 1: to do the same thing. He's had to endure a
Speaker 1: lot that he had the direct rug pulled out from
Speaker 1: underneath him, and he's had to face adversity a few
Speaker 1: times in his life and it's prepared him for this
Speaker 1: position that he's in right now. I believe even with
Speaker 1: the divorce of his parents, that takes a total on kids.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes they blame themselves for their parents being divorced,
Speaker 1: and so, you know, I think what we're going to
Speaker 1: watch is a success story because of what he's had
Speaker 1: to endure all of his life. And I try to
Speaker 1: encourage him not to look at these things as a setback,
Speaker 1: but a set up for what's next in his life.
Speaker 1: And I think he's going to be ready, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: to to take this next step. Hammocker recognizes the familiar
Speaker 1: position he's in. He stood at life ros rugs many
Speaker 1: times before. He knows there are nearly five undrafted players
Speaker 1: currently in the NFL and that he has the opportunity
Speaker 1: to add to that number. He's ready to fight his
Speaker 1: way onto a roster and eventually to the top once again.
Speaker 1: I feel like um freshmans off my year, going to
Speaker 1: like No orgiest state state, work my butt off again.
Speaker 1: The show you know people just like in high school.
Speaker 1: So it's the saying Susant Road. Different journey. As the
Speaker 1: NFL season progressed, Hammica has made the Jets practice squad.
Speaker 1: Dez Fitzpatrick is also playing the practice squad for the
Speaker 1: Tennessee Titans in Minnesota. Cam Bin them is beginning to
Speaker 1: get playing time at safety, while Kellen Mond works as
Speaker 1: their third string quarterback. Alex Leatherwood and DeVante Smith are
Speaker 1: starting for the Raiders and the Eagles. These six players
Speaker 1: beat impossible odds and now have the chance to pursue
Speaker 1: their dreams at the highest level. They're facing an entirely
Speaker 1: new challenge against the best athletes in the world. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the NFL. Drafted is a production of tree Ford Media,
Speaker 1: Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio. The executive producers
Speaker 1: are Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Eric Slott, Eric Weiner, and
Speaker 1: Sean Tatone. The series is produced and written by Eric Winer.
Speaker 1: Garme Mamalu is our coordinating producer. Coral Silverberg is our
Speaker 1: associate producer. Tom Monahan is our senior audio engineer. The
Speaker 1: show is mixed, edited and how stood by me Stephen Johnson.
Speaker 1: Additional production helped from Tim Shower and Hailey Mandelburg. For
Speaker 1: transcripts of the show and more information undrafted, go to
Speaker 1: tree for dot fm, and for more podcasts from My Heart,
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.