Speaker 1: Drafted is a production of tree Fork Media, Clutch Sports Group,
Speaker 1: and I Heart Radio m M. Most people have that
Speaker 1: are getting drafted, they're always the guys since freshman year,
Speaker 1: always the best, one of the same. But for me,
Speaker 1: that wasn't the case. Sophomore year of high school, I
Speaker 1: was trash and football fist sting on JV. So, like
Speaker 1: now that it's like literally less than a day away,
Speaker 1: it's kind of starting to get surreal. I'm I'm a
Speaker 1: cry I'm an emotional person, so I'll be tearing up
Speaker 1: thinking about my process. I was talking to my mom's
Speaker 1: instagram from like six years ago, watching all my high
Speaker 1: school videos and all my old workouts and all that.
Speaker 1: So it's finally starting to get real for me. Welcome
Speaker 1: back to Drafted. I'm Steven Johnson and this is episode
Speaker 1: nine of season three. In this episode, we'll meet our
Speaker 1: sixth and final player of this season, Oregon State linebacker
Speaker 1: Hammaka Rashid Jr. We'll be joining Hammacah and his family
Speaker 1: in Phoenix, Arizona for their draft party, but first we're
Speaker 1: returning to the mountains of Big Bear, California for cornerback
Speaker 1: Cameron Bonham's big day and now it's finally here. Cam explains,
Speaker 1: all right, so it's the morning of the draft April.
Speaker 1: We're about to late breakfast. But today I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: tell people, well unless it's just talking crazy, but from
Speaker 1: my immediate family, I'm not telling him. I'm Mike, So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna keep it as authentic as possible for you.
Speaker 1: All good content. All right, I'll be back. Cam joins
Speaker 1: his family in the living room, where they all wait
Speaker 1: for the first round to begin. Shortly. All right, Kevin,
Speaker 1: give me some wisdom you Yeah, I want to be
Speaker 1: quiet on all of a sudden, come on, give me something.
Speaker 1: All his normally talkative siblings are suddenly quiet, maybe finally
Speaker 1: succumbing to the weight of what's at stake. So to
Speaker 1: lighten the mood, Cam shows off his newest skill. I
Speaker 1: just want to Cam talked himself how to play the
Speaker 1: piano while recovering from a knee injury last season. He
Speaker 1: did this by following his same routine from football. Here.
Speaker 1: He explains, physically, I just had to sit back and
Speaker 1: do nothing for a little So that's the first time
Speaker 1: I've ever done that. So that was the biggest challenge.
Speaker 1: I was sitting in the garage doing curls, sitting with
Speaker 1: my legs straight on the bench, and I wasn't allowed
Speaker 1: to sweat, so I make it really put the fan
Speaker 1: on me, sit there, do a set of curls. I
Speaker 1: have to rest for like five minutes so I don't
Speaker 1: get sweating and get it affective. But I was any
Speaker 1: any little way to still get working. So that was
Speaker 1: that was the biggest challenge for me, to to actually
Speaker 1: sit back and rest. And I knew that I still
Speaker 1: find a way to do something productive. Let me challenge
Speaker 1: myself mentally in a different way. So that's when I
Speaker 1: started playing piano and fell in love with music. Ever since,
Speaker 1: Cam assumed his process for football would directly translate. He
Speaker 1: substitute finger drills on the keys for footwork on the field,
Speaker 1: as if tackling a running back or covering a wide
Speaker 1: receiver are the same as combining notes and timing the pedals.
Speaker 1: If always wanted to play the piano, and this is
Speaker 1: super tough, super big challenge, And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: this does memic football. I gotta learn something. I gotta
Speaker 1: drill it and then make a big picture and we
Speaker 1: able to make music. Same thing with football. Gotta learned
Speaker 1: to playbook. You gotta do drills to try and get
Speaker 1: the movements down. Then you put it together and that's
Speaker 1: a full play. So let me challenge myself and start
Speaker 1: learning this instrument that I love and have loved my
Speaker 1: whole life. That never played it. Uh, that was like
Speaker 1: the best thing I've done so far. Going into the draft,
Speaker 1: NFL scouts thought Cam might make a better safety than
Speaker 1: a cornerback. However, it's a big risk moving a player
Speaker 1: to another position at the pro level. Many athletes aren't
Speaker 1: open to the idea or the amount of work required,
Speaker 1: and the early struggles can shatter their confidence or overwhelm
Speaker 1: them completely. So almost every team asked Cam how he
Speaker 1: felt about trying to change positions. Would he be all
Speaker 1: right getting outside his comfort zone and learning a new
Speaker 1: role on defense? Could he handle the mental challenges that
Speaker 1: come with initially struggling, And what about the amount of
Speaker 1: time and commitment it takes to master these new skills. Now,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty good now to the point where I can
Speaker 1: play almost anything once I learn it. I can read
Speaker 1: all the music, so it's just a matter of memorization. NASA.
Speaker 1: Now I'm branching out to now I'm obsess of the
Speaker 1: baskits are along with pianissa um, just trying to branch
Speaker 1: out of the music and just keep learning. It was
Speaker 1: this exact approach that got him here to draft day.
Speaker 1: Throughout the week, it was before school there we're start
Speaker 1: workout starts at five, and then right after school another
Speaker 1: practice on the field at the high school, and then
Speaker 1: right back at five o'clock we're back up with the
Speaker 1: facility doing our speed work, doing our lifting, and one
Speaker 1: more DV workout. So it was it was at least
Speaker 1: with fourteen hours a day of from the time you
Speaker 1: wake up at five am and I'm not getting home
Speaker 1: until seven at night after my last workout, and then
Speaker 1: I had to do homework and then right back and
Speaker 1: now that was basically my whole routine even when I
Speaker 1: got to college, still doing those crazy hours, still putting
Speaker 1: it in extra hours. When a whole year without missing
Speaker 1: a dave doing extra work. So that's that's really been
Speaker 1: the whole story of my entire career. In addition to
Speaker 1: the fourteen hour work days, Cam added another layer once
Speaker 1: he started playing in college. I talked to the quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: to the receiver coach, and the offensive coordinator after games
Speaker 1: just say what what did you see him my game
Speaker 1: that made you do this this or that? And after
Speaker 1: games I'm d M and receivers like, okay, what was
Speaker 1: going through the film room that week? And how are
Speaker 1: you guys planning to beat me? After games, Cam questioned
Speaker 1: opposing quarterbacks and coaches about his weaknesses. Then he continued
Speaker 1: texting opposing receivers for days, desperately seeking any edge to
Speaker 1: improve and any new area to work on. So maybe
Speaker 1: when of those NFL teams asked Cam if he'd be
Speaker 1: open to learning a new position like safety, instead of
Speaker 1: answering their questions, maybe he should have just played them
Speaker 1: a song or two. Meet hammaca Rashid Jr. Linebacker from
Speaker 1: Oregon State University. I had a lot of meetings, play
Speaker 1: I every meeten and I had to play two teams.
Speaker 1: We're talking about, um, how did I drop from you know,
Speaker 1: fourteen sacks zero? And that's pretty much where I'd answered
Speaker 1: his whole drive time. And that's probably the biggest question.
Speaker 1: Now I've been asked arguably no prospect and the entire
Speaker 1: draft has a wider range of possible outcomes than Hammoca.
Speaker 1: He's projected to be picked anywhere from late in Round
Speaker 1: one too late in the seventh round. In other words,
Speaker 1: at almost any point in the entire draft. This is
Speaker 1: because Hamaca had possibly the two craziest back to back
Speaker 1: seasons out of anyone in college football. Two years ago,
Speaker 1: he had fourteen sacks, barely trailing last year's number two pick,
Speaker 1: an NFL defensive Rookie of the Year, Chase Young. Then
Speaker 1: he decided to come back for his senior season. Here's
Speaker 1: Hammokah elaborating, Yeah, I wanted to come back and be
Speaker 1: a top teen. You know what they're saying, I'm top thirty.
Speaker 1: You know thirty people are better me. I wanted to
Speaker 1: come back, and so I'm like, no, these thirty people
Speaker 1: are not betting me. All these sixty people are not
Speaker 1: betting me. That's really motivated me to go back. He
Speaker 1: returned to Oregon State and only recorded two tackles for
Speaker 1: a loss and zero sacks. So naturally everyone wants to
Speaker 1: know how and why that happened. And this is why
Speaker 1: he has a nearly unprecedented draft range and why he
Speaker 1: and his family are feeling a little nervous right now.
Speaker 1: As the final few pre draft minutes take away his mother,
Speaker 1: Misha McLamore especially, begins to struggle with the tension. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sitting down there. Yeah, I like down and we're
Speaker 1: not getting Mischia takes a seat on the couch to
Speaker 1: try to calm herself. She's struggling with a similar question
Speaker 1: and the fel executive's face. What's next for Hannock's career?
Speaker 1: Is he the player from two seasons ago or the
Speaker 1: one from last year? Which player is the real hammockaver
Speaker 1: Sheet Jr. To answer that question, you have to go
Speaker 1: all the way back to his childhood where he grew
Speaker 1: up playing sports with his three brothers in South Phoenix, Arizona.
Speaker 1: Growing on yesterday. You know, I had a lot of
Speaker 1: people going outside playing basketball and football, and I feel
Speaker 1: like that's when it started my football career, you know,
Speaker 1: talking all the people in the streets, so you know,
Speaker 1: hot deserts, scrapes and bruises and all types of stuff.
Speaker 1: Now that was you know, no fun times. For sure,
Speaker 1: football was fun. Hannaka played in the youth leagues along
Speaker 1: with the pickup games in the neighborhood. He'd go crashing
Speaker 1: into anyone and everyone, no matter the age or size
Speaker 1: or whether he was on the field or a paved street.
Speaker 1: The tackling and chasing and collisions all felt natural. I
Speaker 1: think I'm just born like this. You know, I'll never
Speaker 1: back down, you know. Sorry early age. I think I
Speaker 1: want to say, probably my older brothers they made me tougher.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm always fighting man, I'm fighting your friend
Speaker 1: or something like that, and I'm not backing down. The
Speaker 1: probably started from my brother and my dad. You know,
Speaker 1: they're always tough on me and working me being fearless.
Speaker 1: I'm fearless and I'm not scaring. You know. It's the
Speaker 1: heart and how tough you are. Like DeVante Smith getting
Speaker 1: pushed her ounto the basketball court. As a younger kid,
Speaker 1: Cammica grew up always playing against older siblings and bigger
Speaker 1: kids in the neighborhood. Here's his older brother DeAndre on
Speaker 1: those intense childhood games, like any other big brother. For me,
Speaker 1: you're gonna you're gonna pick on the little ones. It's
Speaker 1: my to make sure you're coming you tough. Most things
Speaker 1: about happen. Like I said, we all was rough. So
Speaker 1: even though my mom trying to protect you, to keep
Speaker 1: us clean, we're just like any other kids. We're bad
Speaker 1: we're playing, you know, picking on each other, that type
Speaker 1: of ordeal. So as Hammer came along, the one visual
Speaker 1: thing I got about ham He usually had his arch
Speaker 1: little hockey stick like he's probably like I want to say,
Speaker 1: the water too, and he probably had like a pull
Speaker 1: up ball. He ran to the house chasing as little
Speaker 1: a little as he was chasing us, you feel me,
Speaker 1: So I feel like that could have been another thing
Speaker 1: where he was. He was crazy and the football he
Speaker 1: already had it even as a toddler him I would
Speaker 1: chase his older brothers to the house with a hockey stick,
Speaker 1: already playing like a future linebacker looking for someone to hit.
Speaker 1: But like I started at the early age, I know
Speaker 1: I was gonna be a for all players because I
Speaker 1: was just tough as a one, ain't I'm fighting, I'm
Speaker 1: picking on kids three times bigger than me. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm not backing down out there, just putting my head
Speaker 1: and hitting arry kid out there. So I feel like
Speaker 1: I learned that. I think I learned that us like
Speaker 1: probably seven nine years old, and and I didn't look
Speaker 1: back to Sinderstand. Despite some success, Hammaka wasn't heavily recruited
Speaker 1: or getting much publicity during his first two seasons of
Speaker 1: high school. Then everything changed his junior year. It wasn't
Speaker 1: really recruited. Um, I end up had to get like
Speaker 1: ten sacks in one game, and that's what I'm everything like,
Speaker 1: offers started trying to come. You know, I blew up
Speaker 1: my last two years. But nobody knew me until. But
Speaker 1: that's that. That's that line of having twenty sacks in
Speaker 1: my jail year. In case you think you misheard those
Speaker 1: cartoonists sounding statistics, Hammaca recorded ten sacks in one game
Speaker 1: his junior year of high school and twenty for the season.
Speaker 1: I'll just pinned dn and honest f ls, I was
Speaker 1: just running past the kids the whole time and just unstoppable.
Speaker 1: I feel like, you know, I was just pretty easy,
Speaker 1: just getting off the bar, just honestly. I don't even
Speaker 1: say it counted, but you know, tis saxs tis sacks,
Speaker 1: you know, so you can do that in the video game. Then,
Speaker 1: following the best performance of his football career, everything in
Speaker 1: the himcas like quickly turned once again. I had twenty sacks,
Speaker 1: a lot of tiger for losses. You know, I was
Speaker 1: glowing up. I had a great year, but into my
Speaker 1: senior year, my parents end up breaking up and he
Speaker 1: broke up, and that led to me moving in with
Speaker 1: my mom, Me and my little brother. We end up
Speaker 1: having to live with my my oldest brother for a
Speaker 1: couple of months, and I wasn't sure where I was
Speaker 1: gonna go. Uh. I was um sharing rooms from my
Speaker 1: nephew and my little brother, So you know, it was
Speaker 1: tough time. Hammaco and his younger brother, along with her mom,
Speaker 1: moved into his older brother's apartment in a new school district.
Speaker 1: That meant Cammica would now be attending a new high
Speaker 1: school for his senior year. His mom, Misha, recounts those
Speaker 1: traumatic days. It was a trying time for all of us.
Speaker 1: We had just went through our family breakup and then
Speaker 1: you know, he would just had to be strong. It
Speaker 1: was his senior year that everything happened before we got
Speaker 1: to Chandler, and the whole life just changed. And I
Speaker 1: just said, okay, we'll have a goa. We got to
Speaker 1: figure this out. So I said, whatever I gotta do,
Speaker 1: whatever I have to do, we're gonna get through this.
Speaker 1: And with the grace of God and my my dad's
Speaker 1: deceased now, but he was there and then my grandmother,
Speaker 1: she stepped in and my other grandma, who just passed
Speaker 1: away two months ago. My family came together and helped
Speaker 1: me to make sure that me and my boys would
Speaker 1: be fine. And it was a child Mischa and her
Speaker 1: parents and grandparents all came together to care for the
Speaker 1: boys and work with the coaches at Hammonka's new high school, Chandler.
Speaker 1: My name is Russell Scott. I am I'm assistant football
Speaker 1: coach at Chandler High School. I am also a teacher
Speaker 1: on campus as well, and I know him by way
Speaker 1: of football. Of course, we knew of him and we
Speaker 1: did hear about this tensack game that he had, and
Speaker 1: we knew he was special. But my relationship with with
Speaker 1: him was more after practice. He also, you know, he
Speaker 1: had a hip injury at the beginning, and so I
Speaker 1: would take him to physical therapy, so he and I
Speaker 1: would ride along, you know, So we had twenty minutes
Speaker 1: therapy and twenty minutes back from therapy, and you know,
Speaker 1: I do leadership here at Chandler, and so much of
Speaker 1: our conversation was, you know, about life, because we knew
Speaker 1: he had the physical tools to make something happen for himself.
Speaker 1: But we also want to know about his mentor background.
Speaker 1: He want to know his goals and his aspirations as well.
Speaker 1: You know, so much of of my conversation with him
Speaker 1: came from being off the field. Coach Scott and Hammaca
Speaker 1: began to bond, and because Hamaca didn't know a single
Speaker 1: person at his new high school, this relationship provided him
Speaker 1: with someone to turn to for help during this dark period.
Speaker 1: He did have some things going on family wise. He
Speaker 1: also had some academic things going on as well. Uh.
Speaker 1: And so when he came over to Chandler, we let
Speaker 1: him know. So if a kid has the utmost the
Speaker 1: potential to play at the next level Division one, two three, uh,
Speaker 1: we we delve into him and we do transcript research.
Speaker 1: And so we put together a plan for for him.
Speaker 1: And it took him getting all a's and beats both
Speaker 1: semesters in order for him to to really have a
Speaker 1: shot to go anywhere. Hamaca's living situation is unsettled. His
Speaker 1: parents are recently divorced, and he has to start over
Speaker 1: at a new high school with a new football program
Speaker 1: where he doesn't know anyone. Then he discovers that he
Speaker 1: has to get all a's and b's both semesters to
Speaker 1: academically qualify to play college football. His senior year quickly
Speaker 1: turns into the greatest challenge of his young life, and
Speaker 1: his decorated twenty season disappeared into the background as everyone
Speaker 1: wonders whether he will be able to rise to the
Speaker 1: occasion on and off the field. We'll be right back like.
Speaker 1: Coach Scott and the staff at Chandler High School called
Speaker 1: a meeting with Hannukah and his mom to deliver the
Speaker 1: tough news about his respects my high school coaches. They
Speaker 1: sent me down. He was like, listen, there you have
Speaker 1: I want to say. I had like a two four
Speaker 1: two three g p A. And they were like, you
Speaker 1: have all these schools coming up to us talking about
Speaker 1: you know, you're a great athlete. You you can do
Speaker 1: all this stuff. You have talk of production and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. But it was like, you're having no grades.
Speaker 1: You gotta do the S A T. S uh. I
Speaker 1: think it's S A T or the other one. And
Speaker 1: they pretty much tled me down. And I believe Coach Eric,
Speaker 1: who was the guy that he sent me down, he
Speaker 1: told me he's planning this whole map out. He was like, listening,
Speaker 1: I need you to buckle down and get straight a's
Speaker 1: to qualify, And he's like, I know you're doing, and
Speaker 1: I believe all your Harvard will pay off. If you
Speaker 1: buy into this, buy into what I'm saying right now,
Speaker 1: you'll be in college. Hamaka needed to excel in the
Speaker 1: classroom and on the football field, and he needed to
Speaker 1: do that amid the turbulence and emotional challenges with his
Speaker 1: life at home. She's sick because she's out of she's hurt.
Speaker 1: You know, it's tough, you know, watching her come home
Speaker 1: from work and just go straight to the room, and
Speaker 1: I really, you know, obviously all that stuff is just
Speaker 1: tough to see. So I feel like that's probably the
Speaker 1: toughest party. You know. He wasn't sure if she was
Speaker 1: physically ill, suffering emotionally, or both. Under these conditions, his
Speaker 1: life seemed to be facing acrossroads. He could use these
Speaker 1: challenges to focus and further commit to his goals, or
Speaker 1: he could understandably wilt under the intense pressure bearing down
Speaker 1: on every part of his life and give up. So
Speaker 1: I feel like for me, it was just being there
Speaker 1: and you know, being strong for her mom because she's
Speaker 1: having a tough time just having her not worry about
Speaker 1: me because she already has so much stuff to worry about,
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't have my mom stressed about me.
Speaker 1: And see where I'm at. And I just took it
Speaker 1: as I go to show my mom like I can
Speaker 1: help her. And you know, doing everything right helped me.
Speaker 1: See Claire, I wanted to get to college and now
Speaker 1: you know the NFL. Hammock A committed himself to these
Speaker 1: goals in a new way, throwing himself into his schoolwork
Speaker 1: and football. Here's Coach Scott on what he saw from
Speaker 1: Hammoca during this period. He had to go to tutoring
Speaker 1: and so he had to get with his teachers. He
Speaker 1: had to sit in there and and and study for
Speaker 1: another hour or so before practice, you know. And then
Speaker 1: he once he made out the practice, he gotta study
Speaker 1: out there on the field too, so you know, he
Speaker 1: was putting in time. Then after school and he did
Speaker 1: go to the public library, which is down the street
Speaker 1: from this house. He went to the public library in
Speaker 1: order to get some homework done because I don't believe
Speaker 1: they had an internet connection in the apartment that he
Speaker 1: was staying in with his mom and brother while he
Speaker 1: was going to school. Here's Hammocka again on these compounding challenges.
Speaker 1: I pretty much bought it and worked my butt off
Speaker 1: to go to a library for like three or four
Speaker 1: hours and study with an S A T guy. You know,
Speaker 1: obviously math and stuff was hard. To end up getting
Speaker 1: straight a's probably for my first time in my life
Speaker 1: and kind up qualified and I was just so happy.
Speaker 1: He qualifies for Division one football and follows up his
Speaker 1: twenty SA junior year with thirteen more sacks as a senior.
Speaker 1: This leads to hammaca committee to Oregon State, planning to
Speaker 1: join his older brother there who plays on the basketball team. Finally,
Speaker 1: the dark days are behind him, until what seemed like
Speaker 1: the perfect situation in college quickly turns into another bad dream.
Speaker 1: Our freshman year, end up traveling every game thinking I
Speaker 1: was gonna play, you know, the coach telling me to
Speaker 1: get ready, stretch and stuff like that, and I'm never
Speaker 1: going me in. At the last like two games, he
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm your ash, saying that
Speaker 1: he is like seeing you to do elemental lived and
Speaker 1: that was that, and it was pretty tough. I was
Speaker 1: working my butt off, you know, I was probably just
Speaker 1: stronger than just starting linebacker and faster than him. And
Speaker 1: I'm working my butt off from doing everything right, and
Speaker 1: I just didn't get that chance. And second year comes
Speaker 1: around the same thing. I end up playing this special
Speaker 1: team my second year, um doing everything right out there,
Speaker 1: smacking people, smacking people around on kickoff and punt and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, with the hopes of, you know, playing
Speaker 1: on defense. And I think I want to say, I
Speaker 1: probably got eleven plays that whole second year on defense.
Speaker 1: He wasn't getting to play, and he certainly wasn't having
Speaker 1: the same fun he used to when he was younger.
Speaker 1: It was a tough time and I couldn't do nothing
Speaker 1: about that. You know. Everyone went around me was like,
Speaker 1: I can't believe you're not playing. So I feel like
Speaker 1: that's probably what this motivated me. Even are those years,
Speaker 1: those past years, I'm just like, they don't believe me.
Speaker 1: They don't see what I see, and they are not
Speaker 1: even gonna give me the chance to even try to show.
Speaker 1: That's what probably the hardest part was anger, you know,
Speaker 1: just not playing. You know, you're not playing football. You
Speaker 1: just YEA, obviously you can lose yourself. Because mom Misha
Speaker 1: tried to stay positive despite the difficult years adding up
Speaker 1: and Hammka's brother transferring to another university. We just try
Speaker 1: to do is just encourage him and still hanging there
Speaker 1: for him, never playing, from him always playing football for
Speaker 1: now everything stopped. Your whole life changed. Just still trying
Speaker 1: to encourage him to just keep pushing forward even though
Speaker 1: he's not playing. So it was a rest time. And
Speaker 1: then for your brother to be there, and then he's
Speaker 1: no longer there, and the first first time I ever
Speaker 1: leaving home and our households had changed completely. So we
Speaker 1: just had to keep encouraging him and until you can
Speaker 1: figure this part out. Once again, her son faced a
Speaker 1: daunting period in his life. No matter where he looked,
Speaker 1: he didn't see a clear road to better times ahead.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back. Despite all the challenges, Hamaca's mom, Misha,
Speaker 1: never lost faith. She explains, I said I would do
Speaker 1: what I have to do to fixes and I'm would
Speaker 1: support you guys, regardless of what we just went through.
Speaker 1: I said, I need you guys to do your job too,
Speaker 1: So you expect to me the hand of my business.
Speaker 1: I need to do hand of yours, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: get there regardless. Yeah, even if we had that was
Speaker 1: Hammaca's stepdad Chris Acklamore in the background talking about driving.
Speaker 1: He came out eighteen how okay came home. It was
Speaker 1: like spring breaker with I don't know what it was,
Speaker 1: but he came home and we had got him a
Speaker 1: plane ticket to go back to Oregon. So we got
Speaker 1: to the airport drop hammca off after flying home to
Speaker 1: Arizona for spring break. Hamaka is now returning to campus
Speaker 1: for the rest of the semester at Oregon State. Drop
Speaker 1: him off at the airport. He calls, we weren't even
Speaker 1: back dead to the apartment yet. Mom, the plane left me.
Speaker 1: What do you mean the plane left year? What do
Speaker 1: you mean? What do you mean? And so trying to
Speaker 1: faire out, Okay, he has to be back to school
Speaker 1: the next day or so. He's like, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: figure out how to buy another plane ticket. Everything was
Speaker 1: like two dollars one way. Looks at Chris, he said,
Speaker 1: we drive there? What did you mean? We went and
Speaker 1: picked that to go back up from the airport. Twenty
Speaker 1: two hours we drove him back to Oregon. Just not
Speaker 1: time to get to practice. When I say driving off
Speaker 1: to you were attack team and have a go to
Speaker 1: sleep there in the back of the Seguoya. We were
Speaker 1: just driving twenty twenty two hours. Twenty two hours of driving,
Speaker 1: two years without playing, his brother transferring from Oregon State.
Speaker 1: Throughout it all, hammock As simply tried to persevere. Research
Speaker 1: shows the most predictive traits for success are persistence and grit,
Speaker 1: showing up for practice and tutoring day after day, dragging
Speaker 1: yourself to the public library, having a family who picks
Speaker 1: you back up metaphorically off the ground and literally from
Speaker 1: the airport and get you back on your way. This
Speaker 1: is what Hammaca and his parents did, and suddenly one
Speaker 1: day it paid off. Going into Hammoca's red shirt sophomore year,
Speaker 1: the Oregon State Beavers hired a new head coach, Jonathan Smith,
Speaker 1: and just like that, everything in Corvallis oregan changed. Third
Speaker 1: year and I got a new coach of staff and
Speaker 1: finally got to play football, like three years. I was
Speaker 1: just thinking this whole time, like you might not see
Speaker 1: it now, but I'm gonna make someone pay. And I
Speaker 1: was honestly wanted to play that old coaching staff and
Speaker 1: just go crazy on that on their team and just
Speaker 1: showed them like this is the guy you had on
Speaker 1: the bench the whole time, you know, and you didn't
Speaker 1: even give him the shot to even try. You know.
Speaker 1: He got like twelve tackles, twelve two typles Watson and
Speaker 1: some sids. And I was just like, wow, this football
Speaker 1: feels like a year. I haven't played so long since
Speaker 1: high school. But after that, you know, the sky was
Speaker 1: a lament his red shirt junior year in all the
Speaker 1: pieces came together, the joy was back, and football became
Speaker 1: fun again. So fun it was. It's so much fun,
Speaker 1: you know, thinking about like, oh, I'm out here getting
Speaker 1: respect from other teams and everyone was like, yeah, you're
Speaker 1: a great player doing this. I remember Vivily like issue
Speaker 1: like tackles. He was just like me a game. I
Speaker 1: ran past him and I got like another tiger for loss.
Speaker 1: He was like, bro, you're killing me. He was like, bro,
Speaker 1: I really can't stop to me. I end up trying
Speaker 1: to like be like a one arm staff and he
Speaker 1: like knocked my hand down and I fell to the
Speaker 1: ground and he was like, yes, I got him. You
Speaker 1: finally got him. And I was just like this is funny.
Speaker 1: It's like really crazy, Like he finally got me. On one,
Speaker 1: I'm killing the whole game. So I feel like overall,
Speaker 1: it's just it was a great year. So I was
Speaker 1: just just me just getting back to football and being
Speaker 1: out there being destructive and making plays the biggest difference,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just out there being free, letting me
Speaker 1: go over as you left me play football. Hammka registered
Speaker 1: fourteen sacks that year along with the twenty two and
Speaker 1: a half tackles for loss. He catapulted into the national
Speaker 1: spotlight and became a first team All American and then
Speaker 1: surprisingly he decided to return for his senior season. It
Speaker 1: was tough to think about right now, but um, yeah,
Speaker 1: I broke my thumb has curgery at the end of
Speaker 1: the year for you know, tween ninety year. So you know,
Speaker 1: my big reason why I was gonna go to draft
Speaker 1: was that I couldn't do the benches and combine stuff.
Speaker 1: So that really affected me. And I think I was
Speaker 1: like projected top thirty or something around there, and I
Speaker 1: felt like I could definitely improve and do another great
Speaker 1: year and go up and become a you know, top
Speaker 1: ten pick. That's always been my dream, you know, always
Speaker 1: want to be a top ten pick. And that's why
Speaker 1: I really that's really motivated me, and I felt confident
Speaker 1: what I had and what my coach has prepared me
Speaker 1: for and the people around me. I feel like we're
Speaker 1: gonna have a way better here, not knowing you know,
Speaker 1: COVID and all stuff is gonna happen. His goal for
Speaker 1: a senior year is to become a top ten pick,
Speaker 1: and he's feeling as optimistic as ever. I'll still recovering
Speaker 1: from pins in my hands, from broken down, and COVID
Speaker 1: here comes. They're like, yeah, I just go home and
Speaker 1: we just did one to two practices and they're like,
Speaker 1: I'm just getting started, and I'm like, wow, we gotta
Speaker 1: go home now. COVID hit campuses across the country and
Speaker 1: Hammakah had to return home after justice first few practices.
Speaker 1: We're I'm going home for four or five months. I'm
Speaker 1: training my it off at home, working out with two coaches,
Speaker 1: going to two places just to be stayed, and I
Speaker 1: want to stay. After that delay, they canceled it. They
Speaker 1: counsel our season. The PAC twelve conference initially calls off
Speaker 1: the entire year, then as the pandemic situation becomes clearer,
Speaker 1: they eventually decided to play an abbreviated season all the
Speaker 1: players returned for fall camp with new COVID protocols, including
Speaker 1: a test every single morning. I woke up at six
Speaker 1: a five am to get tested at or the state,
Speaker 1: and the trainer came in and talk to me. I
Speaker 1: was in the meeting room, he was about to start
Speaker 1: doing meetings and he came in and he was like, heym,
Speaker 1: I need you. He talked to you, and I'm like, hey,
Speaker 1: can you need to talk to me about right? And
Speaker 1: end up going downstairs with the trainer. He's like, you
Speaker 1: just power for COVID. You test positive, And I was
Speaker 1: like what. He's like, yeah, you need to go home
Speaker 1: right now, like right now, and walking home and didn't
Speaker 1: leave my house since then for four ten day and
Speaker 1: probably was the most terrible time every fourteen days ever
Speaker 1: And I'm like, what the heck? How right? And I'm
Speaker 1: like all I did was stay home and went to
Speaker 1: go judge Mikes. So, so when we were at that time,
Speaker 1: from going to get some food and from back to
Speaker 1: practice or whatever, I got COVID. Somehow. He spent four
Speaker 1: straight months training at home and finally recovered from his
Speaker 1: broken thumb and then COVID. So I missed two weeks
Speaker 1: of all camp, then have to come back after COVID
Speaker 1: and play. You know, I felt like COVID pretty much
Speaker 1: hit me, and the hardest I would say, you know,
Speaker 1: I just have legs. You know you need you need legs.
Speaker 1: You need legs to do everything you're doing for the wall,
Speaker 1: your legs over eight from a sack to her. You know,
Speaker 1: I feel like all that stuff matters, and it definitely mattered.
Speaker 1: Hammica's COVID recovery was slow and drawn out. He didn't
Speaker 1: have his usual first but once again he persevered. I
Speaker 1: didn't have to come back after COVID and play. Then
Speaker 1: got hurt her my ankle pretty bad. Didn't try to
Speaker 1: just get ready for the season and rehabbing a lot
Speaker 1: of it and played a couple of games, just tore
Speaker 1: up and you know, I'm just do whatever it thinks.
Speaker 1: You're not trying to survive these couple of games. And
Speaker 1: it just wasn't great. And obviously I didn't get a
Speaker 1: lot of stats, as you know a lot of people
Speaker 1: wanted me to have and obviously hurt me. You know,
Speaker 1: this is the one and only topic NFL teams focused
Speaker 1: on whenever Hammakah talks to them. What happened. They all
Speaker 1: want to know what happened to Hammaka. What happened was
Speaker 1: a string of injuries and illnesses. He wasn't able to
Speaker 1: play his best football. To his high school mentor coach Scott,
Speaker 1: it was also a case of game plan when he
Speaker 1: came back. You know, teams that already you know, understood
Speaker 1: if if this kid is back around us, what we
Speaker 1: have to do. He's way too strong, way too way
Speaker 1: too fast for a single coverage. And so what the
Speaker 1: teams started doing is they started double teaming to keep
Speaker 1: him away from quarterbacks. So that was the biggest thing,
Speaker 1: was the adjustments that teams made against him. It wasn't
Speaker 1: anything that he did wrong because that that wasn't the case.
Speaker 1: But you know, your better teams aren't going to allow
Speaker 1: that to happen. You know, they learned about him and
Speaker 1: they learned how to slow him down. So the question
Speaker 1: of what happened depends on who you ask and how
Speaker 1: much they know about the last six years of Hammaker's life.
Speaker 1: And when it comes to NFL scouts and executives, they
Speaker 1: want to know absolutely everything. A lot of meetings, but
Speaker 1: you know, every meeting, and I had two teams were
Speaker 1: talking about, how did I drove from fourteen stacks zero?
Speaker 1: That's pretty much where I had answered his whole drive time.
Speaker 1: And that's probably the jig question now, I mean I
Speaker 1: asked injuries, double teams, COVID. Those are all part of
Speaker 1: what happened this past season, though the real answer goes
Speaker 1: all the way back to the little kid playing football
Speaker 1: in the streets of Phoenix, the one chasing down his
Speaker 1: older brothers, having the most fun as he crashes into
Speaker 1: kids all over the neighborhood. What happened this past season
Speaker 1: is something that's happened many times before. He had a
Speaker 1: very tough year. Football stopped being fun for a little while.
Speaker 1: But the recurring story of Hammocka's life is that no
Speaker 1: matter what gets thrown at him, he always fights his
Speaker 1: way back. He's been through ups and downs like this
Speaker 1: many times before. Expectations were definitely high. Now I played
Speaker 1: my worst football ness last year because love injuries, not
Speaker 1: because no, I can't play great football. Next I'm drafted.
Speaker 1: It was to me it was like a death and
Speaker 1: I had the baby at the same time, Like, what
Speaker 1: in the world just happening? I know, I just took
Speaker 1: my mic off and when I'm staring and I was hot.
Speaker 1: I'm just mad, come on, call my phone with somebody.
Speaker 1: Somebody called my phone. But originally when I saw him
Speaker 1: looking at his phone, like no, he's joking on my
Speaker 1: phone into that this is the movie, It's like, this
Speaker 1: doesn't happen, this isn't regular. So that's my that's my
Speaker 1: little catchphrase do for the movie. Packers hit me and
Speaker 1: turned to hit me. I'm like, what I'm trying. That's
Speaker 1: when you have to push the motion to the side
Speaker 1: and say what are we gonna do best for him?
Speaker 1: From seeing people get drafted with like no names and
Speaker 1: like it's just it's just irritating. So I just broke down.
Speaker 1: He didn't hear me crying on my side of the phone, bro,
Speaker 1: but it was so unreal. Drafted is a production of
Speaker 1: tree Ford Media, Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: The executive producers are Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Eric Slott,
Speaker 1: Eric Weiner, and Sewn t Toone. The series is produced
Speaker 1: and written by Eric Winer. Garme Mamalu is our coordinating producer.
Speaker 1: Coral Silverberg is our associate producer. Tom Monahan is our
Speaker 1: senior audio engineer. The show is mixed, edited, and hosted
Speaker 1: by me Steven Johnson, additional production help from Tim Shower
Speaker 1: and Haley Mandelberg. For transcripts of the show and more information,
Speaker 1: undrafted quot to Tree for dot fm and for more
Speaker 1: podcasts for My Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.