015: NFL Draft - Big Dreams, Big Money, and Rookie Salaries

The NFL Draft is more than just names called on a stage—it's about money, strategy, and dreams. On this episode, we break down how the rookie salary cap works, what the Combine actually measures, and why going in the first round can change your life. We also dig into late-round success stories like Tom Brady and Brock Purdy. Whether you’re a seasoned fan or just getting into football, this is your go-to guide for understanding draft strategy and the business behind the league. 

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Chapters

• 01:21 – Binge-Worthy Shows
• 09:01 – NFL Draft 101
• 17:00 – Combine, Pro Days, and Draft Dreams
• 21:20 – Inside the Combine
• 28:17 – Draft Moments That Hit Hard
• 33:39 – The Weight of Pick Number One
• 38:00 – Women Breaking Barriers in Football

Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01.12)
The Combine, an annual event where top players go, similar to Pro Days, there's a standard set of tests. Teryn, can you name any of the tests at the Combine? Yeah.

The 40 yard dash. The sit and reach. Negative. I'm kidding.

Gym class teacher. Hamstring flexibility, one of the top requirements on my sheet for my players.

Speaker 2 (00:31.256)
Have you ever wondered why people get so hyped about their favorite sports teams? Well, it turns out it's not just about the game. It's about the community. My name is Teryn.

And I'm Ambre. Welcome to Almost Fans, the sports podcast that's fun, a little bit educational, and will give you plenty to say when you're trying to keep up with those diehard sports fans in your life.

Speaker 2 (00:55.704)
Welcome everyone to this week's episode of Almost Fans. And of course, we start out all of our episodes with the hat trick. And today we're putting the binge in Bingeworthy. We're talking TV shows that have stolen our hearts, wrecked our sleep schedules, and made us emotionally dependent on fictional characters. These are our top three shows we'd cancel plans for. No shame, just good taste. And don't worry.

If football's more your thing, we'll be getting into the nitty gritty of the NFL draft a little later in the show. For now, like I always do, I'm gonna kick it over to Ambre for her number three.

It's Bridgerton. It's gotta be.

That's also my number three.

It's so good. Okay, can we just talk about the outfits and the colors? you know I'm obsessed with accents, but maybe most of all the instrumental covers of pop that I listen to on repeat. There's like hours and hours worth on YouTube and it's all my cool down music. The Bridgerton is just, It's so good.

Speaker 2 (02:00.238)
Also, one of the most aesthetically pleasing viewing experiences ever.

Yeah. Like the colors, they did something artistic in the outfits and there's always flowers.

The most amount of flowers you've ever seen in your life. And boobs. So much cleavage.

Ever possibly. Yes.

Yep. It's like snotty and there's drama, but also still love and there's this wholesome undertone to the Bridgerton family despite being dragged through the mud here and there despite some very bad inscriptions. exactly. I love So they were your number three?

Speaker 2 (02:39.33)
That was also my number three. Go ahead and go back to you.

I wonder if we're going to match on this next one. It's Ted Lasso. We have Ted. Well, let's just talk about it now. If you could be, I have an important question because I have a follow up question because I knew that you were going to have this. If you had to pick a Ted Lasso character to be, who would it be and why?

No, because that's my- didn't- Okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (03:02.328)
Not even a question, Keely. Yeah.

I knew you were going to say that. Mine's Rebecca.

Yeah, of course. You, that would fit our personalities. Yeah. I'm like the friend that comes in to make you make some bad decisions every once in a while and support me and my bad decisions the whole time. No matter what you're like, yes. And you're a powerful woman. So you keep booing you.

Honestly, I thought through all the character and I was like, well, Ted's like really positive, but just, no. was like, Rebecca, she's made some bad choices, but she can see the error of her ways and really cares about the people around her. I just, yeah, Ted, laugh.

It's like way more put together and I'm way more like a hot mess like Keely.

Speaker 1 (03:54.882)
love once a month to rock a power suit and heels like she does.

Yeah. No, it's a no for me, but yes for you.

What is Keela? She has a high pony lipstick. Something fuzzy. There's always something fuzzy and bright colored.

I mean,

Speaker 2 (04:13.292)
Yeah, something crazy, shoes, really tall shoes, which is also not me, but it's fun.

Yeah, in essence, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Okay, should I go back to my number one then?

Well, no, I haven't done my number two. So my number two, this just really shows like my depth of range and what I like to watch because it's the Handmaid's Tale.

yeah, you keep talking about that. I need to watch that. Give it 30 seconds.

Yeah, it's like, it's a terrifyingly realistic future. the show follows a woman trying to survive and fight back under like this oppressive regime. It's all about, basically the women in that time, I mean, it's set in the United States and there's like a infertility issue. children are not coming fast enough, basically. So this oppressive, basically group of men who are the rich, powerful men decide that they are going to

Speaker 2 (05:06.872)
take over as the heads of the country and they are going to use the women that are fertile as their handmaids. So they basically, you know, our word these women and then take their children from them and those children become their children, the rich people's children. So it's all about these women trying to take back, you know, their power basically. And it feels a little, it might be just a little bit too realistic for today's day and age.

Yeah. Okay. I'm going to sit on that and decide whether or not I want to watch that.

Yeah, it's great though and Elizabeth Moss is insane. Like her facial expressions on the show are so, good. It's intense, it's emotional and yeah, like it's just so, good. But also we'll give you nightmares. Close to home.

Yeah, that's fair. I've been warned. My number one, you know what this is. It's a great British baking show. Honestly, I wrote that down first and I was like, don't really feel like I should put anything else on this list. I don't like using the word obsessed because I think that it's being overused in our culture these days. However, I'm capital O obsessed with a great British baking show whenever I'm stressed feeling, which is most of the time these days.

It's my happy place. It's like a comfort food. just need it on. reasons why I love it. Literally. Yes, literally. Literally. The reasons why I need it, need it is yes, because of the accents. Also because they're so nice. All of the US baking shows, they're just really cutthroat and mean. They're like, I'm going to get that person and make a better tart than her.

Speaker 1 (06:49.03)
and but the British baking show they're so nice and they make really beautiful things and it's all a lot of like historical context with different. I just it's my happy place like truly truly.

But people should know that it's woven into this podcast because I always turn it on while I'm editing the podcast.

my gosh. It's like the soundtrack if our podcast had, and I listen to it every morning while I'm thinking about the podcast and eating breakfast. So there we are. Some epic shows. Ted Lasso, next season comes out when?

There are so many good ones.

Speaker 2 (07:28.247)
I don't know.

It comes out though. It's a fourth season.

I don't know if they have a date yet, but there is another season coming out season four

Yeah, I'm so excited. There's another Bridgerton surely coming out. Okay. Who is it? Do you know which Bridgerton? Is it, it's not Francesca?

That's coming out soon.

Speaker 2 (07:43.468)
I can't remember. think it's the, it's either Francesca, no Francesca just had one. It's either the next younger sister or the second oldest brother.

the one who had the thing with all the art. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Cool. I'm excited for that too. Somebody good shows so little time.

Speaker 1 (08:07.97)
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Speaker 1 (09:01.614)
All right, it is NFL draft season and we are breaking down how it all works, why it's total chaos and what really happens when your name gets called. The money, the fashion, the pressure, all of it. So to start off, we've got draft day 101. What actually is the NFL draft? Rapid fire, it's seven rounds, 32 teams.

and one dream, which is hearing your name. So 32 teams, that's a total number of teams in the NFL. Seven rounds is how many times each of those teams picks. So all 32 teams picks. And there's a couple of extras in there based on a couple other things, perhaps. Trading, et cetera. Yeah. The draft order. So who gets to go first is based on how much you sucked last year.

stuff.

Speaker 1 (10:00.098)
So if you had the worst standings in the league last year, then you get to go numero uno this year, which is a really interesting way the NFL has of lightly trying to kind of equalize the teams. So yeah, so reverse standings. So in the first round, this is a big freaking deal to be chosen in the first round. It means that you are one of the top

32 most awesome players that year. It also means you make more money. Teryn, did you have more info on exactly why it's awesome to go in the first round?

I do, I did some research on the first round and why it is so, so important. So I will tell you, so when it comes to the NFL draft, going in the first round is more than just bragging rights. I mean, like you've mentioned, it is a major financial win for these players. So first off, you might already have planned to say this, but all rookies get a four year contract when they sign in.

any of the rounds, right? So all rookies get a four-year contract. But thanks to a rookie wage scale negotiation in the NFL's collective bargaining agreement, how high you're drafted also determines how much you get paid. So take this example. A number one pick, Kyler Murray in 2019, landed him a deal with the Arizona Cardinals for $35.2 million over four years. But by pick 15, that same year,

Dwayne Haskins deal with the Washington commanders, both are quarterbacks by the way, for those listening, his deal dropped to just 14 and a half million, which is, I mean, obviously less than half Tyler's amount. So that's a massive difference and that's still within the first round. So there's so much more to that. So first rounders also get a fifth year team option.

Speaker 1 (11:46.21)
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:52.312)
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:00.384)
added to their deal. So if the team picks it up, that fifth year pays out significantly more. Yeah. Especially for those first top 10 people who get picked in the draft. So I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a second, but while teams love the flexibility, players can either cash in and use the leverage of that fifth year to negotiate a second contract or negotiate to with another team, basically.

So that fifth year is really nice.

Do they have to do all that negotiating, you know, like right up front or can they wait until later in their four-year deal?

that I wasn't totally clear on, I would imagine that you can negotiate your contract anytime. So let get back to this fifth year option, which I think is really interesting. So there's another set of rules that apply to just the salary in that fifth year. It's not the entire contract. It's just that one year that you get for being in the first round. And here's how it works. So for players drafted in the top 10, so first 10 players to be picked, that fifth year option salary is equal to the

average of the top 10 salaries at that player's position. So across the entire NFL, the top 10 salaries in that position, they get the average of that number.

Speaker 1 (13:24.908)
And that includes dudes who have been in the league for a really long time and are being paid a bunch of money. Correct.

But it's interesting because right, if you think about it, mostly quarterbacks a lot of times go in the first round, not always, but you just kind of hear about that a lot. you're like compared to the Patrick Mahomes and the Aaron Rodgers of the world, right? So super interesting. Um, and then for players drafted outside of the top 10, so picks 11 through 32, their fifth year option is based on the average of the third to the 25th highest salaries at their position. Interesting, right?

more you know.

Yeah, the option here is usually a little bit more lucrative than any of the first four years and can serve as a bridge to that massive second contract. So people are using that fifth year as leverage for their next contract a lot of times. And then it's a reason for players to renegotiate their contract with the team, even potentially a little bit earlier. So yeah, they can renegotiate. sounds like anytime. Yeah. It's one of those little sneaky details that I thought was interesting that makes like a

big difference in the players earning potential, especially when there's an agent maybe trying to strategize for like a long-term payday. Then really quick, so the second rounders, they miss out on that fifth year bump entirely. and they're typically signing anywhere from like six to $10 million for their four years. So like from 14, 35, big drop and a lot less long-term guarantees as well. So they're

Speaker 1 (14:37.966)
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:54.231)
You drop.

Speaker 2 (15:00.332)
just getting less guarantees in their contract. Bottom line, where you go in the draft is less about ego than it is about your entire NFL career financially.

your entire career trajectory.

Yeah, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you can't make a lot of money because for example, two people that went late in the draft, Tom Brady. So Tom Brady went 199th overall in the sixth round. His contract, his rookie year was $865,000.

my gosh. With the Patriots, right?

Yeah, with the Patriots. yeah, obviously initial earnings tiny compared to what a first rounder would get, but didn't necessarily affect him long-term. I mean, you

Speaker 1 (15:44.854)
No.

That's a fantastic story, but probably not the norm.

No, second person that I wanted to bring up was Brock Purdy. He was drafted what they call Mr. Irrelevant. Very, very last pick in the draft. Two hundred and sixty second pick and basically immediately went on to start at the 49ers. He has so his rookie contract was worth three point seven million dollars over four years. He had no signing bonus above the league minimum. And then so for context, that's less than half of what a second round quarterback.

might earn and nowhere near first rounder money. even though he became the starting quarterback and a playoff performer, he's remains one of the lowest paid starting quarterbacks in the league just because they don't have to pay him more. got drafted 262nd. So, but he'll have a really good negotiation. He'll be able to negotiate.

When his contract comes back up, yeah. He'll make up for lost time, perhaps. Totally.

Speaker 2 (16:47.502)
So that's it. That's the moral of the story is those late round picks, they can still make it big, but financially it definitely pays to go early.

So go early. Yeah, that's awesome.

I want to talk to you a little bit today about, we're going to come back to some more draft stories and info in a moment, but some of the things that lead up to the draft. Okay. So you're a college player and you crush it on your college football team. Great big plays, you know, in the media, doing some awesome stuff, but between crushing it on your college team and making it into the NFL, there's a couple of other things too. So I want to talk about.

pro days and the combine. think the combine probably everybody has heard of. Have you ever heard of pro days? Yeah. So basically it's like a team, a college team organizes a showcase for their players and they invite coaches, scouts, recruiting personnel to come and witness the players at the school doing awesome stuff, almost like a combine warmup.

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (17:57.166)
and interviews and meet the players and shake hands. You know, it's usually a more intimate gathering. Fun story. I got to go to a pro day when I was at the University of Arkansas. It's where I did grad school and I interned in the athletic department's strength and conditioning program with a strength and conditioning coach named Casey. She's fantastic. And I didn't work with the football team, but I worked with almost every other team. But Casey said, Hey, do you want to come to this pro day? It's going to be awesome. So I went.

One of the things that struck me is how quiet it was. didn't play any music. There was always music on. Practices, training sessions. Yeah, but it was just like very quiet and professional. And the players were running drills and the coaches were kind of putting them through different things. And I remember, this is one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, my phone rang. no. In this place where I was only supposed to be a fly on the wall. Okay, maybe it's not.

Dad, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree.

like high stakes sports environments. I screwed it up. Okay, so maybe it's not like one of the most embarrassing things in all of my life, but I was at this NFL pro day, basically. I was at a college football pro day and my red razor flip phone, that's what it was, rings in this quiet environment where these professional scouts are interviewing players and they're going through their paces and things.

And everybody looked at me and I'm sure I turned the same color as my red Razer flip phone. I was so embarrassed and Casey Glare just like, are you doing? know, silent. No, we didn't have any like. I don't think so. It was just loud and obnoxious and it was a phone and I just wanted to like die. I just wanted to just absorb myself into the wall. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:31.698)
crazy ringtone

or something.

Speaker 1 (19:47.702)
Anyway, but it was really interesting to be there and just kind of like watch the interactions from a distance. Okay, the Combine, an annual event where top players go, similar to Pro Days showcase, right? There's a standard set of tests and not everybody gets to go to the Combine. You have to be invited. Teryn, can you name any of the tests at the Combine? Yeah.

The 40 yard dash. The sit and reach. Negative. I'm kidding.

King gym class teacher. Hamstring flexibility. One of the top requirements on my sheet for my players. Chest strength.

yeah, yeah, they do a bench press.

Bench press, Vertical jump, which is up high. Broad jump, which is forward. The three-cone drill, which is like an L-shaped, and they're not very far apart, and you run from one forward to the other one, back again to the first one, back to the second one, till anyway. It's just like an agility drill, but kind of like in close quarters. 20-yard shuttle. So it's like touching lines back and forth, basically. Sure.

Speaker 1 (20:58.41)
lateral speed and agility and then a 60 yard shuttle as well. Not to mention an injury eval, a movement screen, I think kind of related to injury eval and a drug test. Teryn, which of these tests do you think you would excel at among your peers, we'll say?

among my peers, like people who are similar to me. Like against a, not against.

Yeah, so 40 yard. Not against an NFL player. No, negative.

I think I could do like a sprint back and forth pretty well, know, like a forward-backward shuffle type of situation. don't get going fast. So, 40 yard dash probably not my thing, but I guess I would like other 32 year old women, I'd probably crush it. Like the average 32 year old woman. Yeah, I think I could crush them. I think I crush them all a bit.

Probably, yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:48.942)
Hey, and you do volleyball. How about vertical jump?

no, no, could barely slide a credit card under there.

That's really visual. can picture how high you're getting with that description. Okay. So there's all sorts of tests, of course. And when you have all these top prospects and coaches and scouts and recruiting personnel in one place, you also do interviews. Each NFL recruiting team, right? The scouts, the coaches, et cetera, at a given combine each year can interview a total of 45 players each for up to 18 minutes.

Very specific. So specific. don't know. 18 minutes. Okay. So I looked up some of the questions that teams ask and this is super important, right? Because you're basically interviewing to hire a staff member who's going to be with you for four years. So if you hire somebody who is screwed up and totally going to mess with the vibes in the locker room, that's going to suck for four years. So they're also just asking questions, trying to figure out what kind of a person each of these players is. So I'm going to interview you as though you are an NFL

draft prospect. This is really common thing that happens in these interviews. You watch film together. It might be film of you, player Teryn, having done something in a game scenario or it might be a different game film. Who knows? And then they're going to ask questions about your perspective on the various field positions. They might ask you're a running back prospect. What would you have done in this position?

Speaker 1 (23:20.974)
what did the quarterback do incorrectly or correctly. So you're basically breaking down film. They want to get to know how well you know the game and the various positions and roles, et cetera. They also want to see if you're watching some game film of your own performance, whether or not you throw people under the bus. Like, yeah, I dropped that pass because the quarterback, da, da, da, da, da. All those things are ways to of suss out a person's character. Okay, so we've already done that.

Teryn, what will you buy with your signing bonus check?

Well, thank you for asking that question Ambre. I am so grateful to be here today. Thank you again. My first purchase is going to be a home. I would love to have a home for myself and for my child and for my dog. We have been living in apartments for a long time and it just feels nice to put down some roots. And I really love your area that you're at right now.

Wherever you're coming at me from. Oh, I love Cleveland. I couldn't love Cleveland anymore. Have you seen Cleveland? No offense. I'm just kidding. I'm not. I'm from Michigan. I quit. I quit. I can't do it.

You love Cleveland.

Speaker 1 (24:43.214)
That was a great answer. The only way it could have been better is if you would have talked about buying groceries for your grandma. That was like an interview answer that one of the scouts had said was one of their favorites. Okay, next question. Who's the toughest person you've ever worked with?

This girl, her name is Ambre, she is incredibly insanely tough to work with, but that's just because we're so much alike in so many ways and it's hard to work with yourself.

I don't think you would have gotten many points for that answer. also like the scouts are trying to suss out, know, like did she, did she truly deflect credit or did she take it all?

I'm probably the hardest person I could work with if I'm being honest.

All right. Not selected in first round. Teryn, would you rather be a cat or a dog? Easy.

Speaker 2 (25:27.854)
dog, the man's best friend.

Yep. Okay. Last question in 2022. Dear listeners, this is a fake question. Teryn Player in 2022, you were arrested for driving while intoxicated. What did you learn from that situation?

Wow, thank you for asking this question. I've been really wanting to share this with you. So I was in a tough time, you know, I don't know if you heard, but my mom and my dad and my brother died all in the same car accident. And I was going through a lot. And so I really learned that I needed to find help in a different way, not through alcohol.

Nailed it. Okay, so these players are coming from college, right? Where they're super famous and well known. So there's going to be some transgressions in their past and these scouts want to find out, had they moved on from that or are they still partying hard five nights a week? That was a great answer.

Thank you. Not true also.

Speaker 1 (26:27.756)
Also not true. Teryn has never driven intoxicated.

No, and my family is alive.

Yes. scenario. Okay. Rapid fire again. Okay. I'm going to list off the number one overall draft picks from the last five years and you need to tell me if they were a goat or nope. I know Tom Brady is a goat. You know what I mean.

Is this part of my interview still?

Go, go, go, go!

Speaker 1 (26:58.638)
What am I supposed to say? Tested. Okay. 2024, Caleb Williams with the Bears.

Gonna be goat.

2023, Bryce Young with the Panthers. 2022, Trevon Walker to the Jaguars.

Nope.

Speaker 2 (27:14.904)
Trayvon. Do not know.

Okay. 2021 Trevor Lawrence also to the Jaguars.

Vote!

Speaker 2 (27:27.47)
He is... I'm gonna go...

2020 Joe Burrow to the Bengals. All right. Yeah. I figured you said that. So super interesting. mean, you know, a couple of quarterbacks here, but really interesting of the top five, number one. I mean, so they've been scattered the combine. They've been watched on film. They make it to the NFL and some really crush it. But some of these names I just listed off.

GO!

time.

Speaker 1 (27:58.222)
I'm not as much into football as Erin is, but I didn't recognize some of these when I was writing them down. So not everybody fulfills that prophecy.

Also, some of them are still very new.

Really? Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 2 (28:17.304)
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Now let's talk about some heartfelt moments connected to the draft. I've got one really feel good story and then just some sort of observations about draft night and you know how people kind of react when they hear their name, you know, called and drafted, whether the first round or any round sometimes. So I just want to take a quick moment to hit a couple of heartfelt stories, starting off with Michael Orr, most notably from the blind side, of course. So

came from poverty and homelessness in Memphis adopted by a wealthy family, goes on to get drafted in the NFL. He was chosen 23rd overall in 2009. So really cool story. And when you dig into some of these draft picks, you hear a lot of this, these young guys who came from tough backgrounds and worked really hard, and then

Draft day almost symbolizes kind of the culmination of all of those years of hard work. They've made it into the NFL. So you see a lot of these really touching moments played out on draft day, specifically in the reactions from the players and their families. I watched some montages of some of the best reactions to draft night. And I saw a lot of the player on the phone, probably with the team that's

Speaker 1 (30:20.29)
you know, calling their name at, you know, as they're being pictured on the camera. There's a lot of crying, they're hugging loved ones. If they're there live at wherever the draft is happening, because some people are at home, you know, right, watching it. If they're there at the actual draft, they might come up on stage with their kids. One dude carried up a framed picture of his grandma, which was really, I know, he just hauled it up. It was everywhere. It was really big, but he had told his grandma before she passed away that...

This is, you know, he was going to do this. He was going to get to the NFL and live out his dream. I also thought to myself as I was watching some of these players react to hearing their name being called that Roger Goodell needs to wear some football pads himself.

Cause he's getting attacked.

dudes are coming up and they're so jazzed and hyped and they're hugging him, lifting him. One dude went to do kind of like a jump and shoulder thing and kind of landed on Roger Goodell, who's the commissioner of the NFL and usually is up at the podium as players are coming up and their names are being called. So that was one other thought I had. Let's also talk about fashion. my gosh, so great. Teryn, if you were a dude at the NFL draft,

getting chosen in the first round, we'll say, right? Cause like a first rounder is gonna wear something different than a seventh rounder. What would you wear?

Speaker 2 (31:38.75)
Ooh, that's a great question. I like simple style, but I think like a really nicely tailored suit, maybe a nice color, like, so not just like black or gray or maybe like a color that you like. and like just a nice t-shirt underneath to like keep it simple, but then like maybe add in some accessories.

like the guys like the chains or some sunglasses. I mean, I'm probably not gonna do that. Well, probably wouldn't, but I think that's cool. I love that. sunglasses inside.

You just nailed like a bunch of the fashion trends, but you missed one and well, you sort of get it. The sweet shoes. But the chain a lot of times says something. So if you were going to wear a blingy chain, what one word would be on your blingy chain on NFL Draft Day?

issues.

Speaker 2 (32:33.038)
Maybe something like faith.

Mmm, I like that.

Yeah, just like Tress, everything's gonna be okay.

Yeah, I like that. But yeah, so you can pretty much hit it. Like usually there's a really sharp tailored suit, maybe a turtleneck, definitely some bling, definitely some really amazing sneakers, probably bedazzled and or in a bright color. But this is a cool thing I didn't know. A lot of these dudes have something on the insides of their blazers that's meaningful. yeah.

That's always fun. Like that's where you can put your real craziness. You get to put it on the inside where it's not like out for everyone to see.

Speaker 1 (33:09.622)
Yeah. And I think that there's also a level of meaning to that, right? Like you keep like the people and the words and the things that are important to you, kind of like keep them close to your chest sort of thing. Yeah. So I thought that was really interesting as well. hooray. You just got chosen as a top 10 draft pick and you looked good doing it. Maybe you tackled Roger Goodell on the stage. Totally fine. Okay. So

Now draft day is over and it's time to get to work. It's not actually all sunshine and butterflies. There's a couple of really scary dangers that can befall a top draft pick afterward. I've got six here. The first one is the savior complex. You get drafted, you're number one, two, three, something, you get a bunch of money, you're chosen, you're really close to the beginning of the draft.

And the teams and the fans and the coaches and everybody expects you to fix everything. The offense, the defense, the losing streak, the crappy hot dogs. I don't even know. The culture, you know, I mean, they just expect you because you're making all this money because you came with all this hype that you're going to do some really great things. And that is a lot of pressure to put on a 21 year old dude. The second out of six sort of pitfalls here.

you might've just been drafted into chaos. If you were chosen early on, you were chosen by a team that was sucking last year and they were probably sucking for a reasonable reason. So bad teams are the ones that are picking high and you're not just joining an NFL team. You might be joining a dysfunctional family team. Yeah, maybe even a brand new coach. You have no idea.

and maybe even a brand new coach.

Speaker 1 (35:02.008)
You have no idea what is happening in that environment that you're joining and you're locked in for four years probably. Number three, you're expected to be a CEO at 21 years old because that's probably the age that most of these dudes are. So there's media, there's fans, there's teammates, maybe you got an agent, maybe your family's trying to help you and you don't even know how to sort your own laundry, really.

You know, you have all this money and all these expectations. You're expected to kind of manage a business, you know, that is yourself really, really young. Number four, when talent lacks support. We hear and we talk on this podcast a lot about the mental health struggles that high level athletes face. And these NFL players are maybe at the top of that pyramid. So, you know, a lot of mental health struggles, social media never sleeps.

everything you say, every reaction on the field, every move, every outfit, you know, can be tossed on social media. And if you're really watching it closely, it's an easy place to kind of get out of control. Speaking of out of control, there's substance abuse, there's partying. Again, you're really young and you just left college. So when a really talented player doesn't have a lot of support from coaching staff, from friends, family, et cetera, that can be a really dangerous pitfall as well. Number five.

Your learning curve doesn't matter. Fans, they're not going to give you a building season. you don't get a grace period to really get good at whatever system the team runs that you just got drafted into. If you're not really good really soon, you're labeled pretty quickly as a failure. That's super hard to face right off the bat that early in your career.

you

Speaker 1 (36:55.406)
Finally, you're always supposed to be, in quotes, good. If you succeed, if you do a really great job, everybody's like, well, duh, we gave him all this money, he was chosen early. If you struggle, everybody says you're a bust, you're a failure. Again, those are really high expectations. No, they just expect it at this level.

Nobody praises you for being good.

But draft day, woo woo woo, so awesome. But the next day it's time to really get to work and deliver on those expectations that everybody has of you. That's a lot of pressure on the shoulders of a brand new professional straight out of college. So just a little bit of the other side of draft day.

Speaker 1 (37:43.918)
Alright, now we are on to our final segment of the episode and that's our She's Got Game Spotlight. Today, I am so excited to talk about Coach Jennifer King. Have you heard of her? fantastic. Okay. Yeah, she is the first ever black woman full-time NFL coach.

No.

when I get to learn about someone new.

Speaker 1 (38:13.43)
She's an assistant coach and she coaches the running backs currently at the Chicago Bears, but she made history when the Washington commanders hired her to be the first ever black woman, first full-time coach that was back in 2021. Okay. Jennifer King, coach King. She's 40 currently. She's from small town, North Carolina, total trailblazer. And when you ask, she says that she's just getting started. She's super humble.

She is a woman of very few words. I watched interview after interview with her and she said, I don't even know, maybe 20 words, but then I watched a video of her mic'd up, you know, like at practice and she said, a hundred X, that number of words. You can tell she just, the spotlight is like, you know, she's doing her job and she's loving her job. So the spotlight's like, whatever, but when she's on the field.

She's just crushing it. She can tell she's having a blast and you can tell her players absolutely love working with her. So how did she get here? She played basketball and she's in high school because her mom didn't want her to get hurt playing football. But then after she left high school, she was like, darn it all if I don't want to play football. And she did play football and she played football hard. She played women's tackle football. She was in the WFN.

and the WNFC, so two women's tackle football leagues in the US. She talks about how these leagues are rising really fast along with women's flag football. We've talked about that a couple of times, but she didn't just play women's tackle football. She crushed it. She was a seven time All-American. She played quarterback and wide receiver for the Carolina Phoenix. So having that

background really goes a long way in getting her that credibility with the NFL players that she trains now. But she didn't initially start out coaching football. She played it, yes, but she also played basketball. So she loved coaching. She coached basketball initially because when she looked at NFL teams, she didn't see anyone who looked like her. Again, representation is so important. So she found herself coaching a basketball team in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Speaker 1 (40:26.894)
and the arena, her office window was literally separated from the Carolina Panthers training facility by a fence. So she would sometimes look out and see them practicing. She could just feel that that is really where her heart was despite being a really stellar basketball coach. It was risky. It was really risky leaving this basketball coaching career and shifting over to be coaching interested in football. So she decided one day that she was going to email the

This woman named Sam who was in charge of diversity of the NFL and she got a response back from Sam in five minutes. She got an invitation to go just shadow a practice with the Atlanta Falcons NFL team. And she said she stepped foot on the field and two minutes later knew that was it. Coaching football was her thing. So she got an internship and then eventually got hired with the Washington commanders as the first ever.

black woman, first full-time NFL coach. So super awesome. Now she has transitioned over and she does that same job with the Chicago Bears. Boo bears, but yay. still suck, I think. Okay. Good. Validated. So I had questions about what all goes into being a running backs coach for people like me who don't know much about football. I think that they hold onto the football and they run with it.

Thank

Speaker 1 (41:53.74)
I was right about that. They do run with the ball. I did not know this. They also catch short passes and they also block defenders. I did not know about that. They help protect the quarterback. Lots of learning here. Other things that Ms. King does on a daily basis as a running back coach, she teaches ball handling. So once you hand it to the dude, you want to make sure he doesn't drop it. She teaches tackling avoidance. Hand over.

hand over hand and then fingers go around the nipples of the ball.

Yes, hold the nipples

Teryn's making a cradling motion and talking about holding nipples. That's great. I did. And blocking techniques. She also helps to design offensive game plans. You know, so how are we going to score? She's also part of scouting, recruiting. You've got to have, as any NFL coach, really deep football knowledge. So

You started it.

Speaker 1 (42:50.894)
really fantastic that she crushed it when she played in those women's leagues when she was younger. She's got to have the ability to explain complex plays simply, meetings, press conferences, community events, other duties as assigned. I was just kind of interested to hear more about what she does on a day-to-day basis. As she is crushing it at this job, she's also bringing other people with her. She's involved with the NFL's

women's careers and football forum. She does just like a lot of really cool leadership summits. She talks about how women really need to go after what they want, even if they feel like they might not be qualified right off the bat. She's been asked several times, how do players react to her? And she just answers it with basically this. She says, culture starts from the top. So she kind of implies that she hasn't really experienced a lot of issues from the players because she knows her stuff.

She talks about how the players, they don't really care who you are as long as you can help them be better. That's all that's important to them. So I thought that was really fascinating and really nice to hear. She was asked what's next, you know, so she's got this amazing job. She's crushing it with the Bears and she just talks about being focused on her team and the next season and what she can do to make them better.

still there right like currently because they just got a new coach right like they got someone from the Lions one of their coordinators

To my knowledge, she's still with the Bears. She was hired there, or at it was announced in February 2024. So unless that's changed, I do believe she's still with the Bears. Yeah. I'm gonna leave you with this. She has an Instagram page. Yes, Teryn, I do know where to find Instagram. I'm so impressed. The description at the top of her bio, I'm sure there's a more legitimate name for that. Her quote there is a first.

Speaker 1 (44:49.122)
but not the last. So that was really cool. She talks often about wanting to make sure that other little girls who look like her see the great stuff that she's doing and that those other little girls understand that they can do the same thing that she is or they can do other exciting things, other goals that they want to try and achieve. So super awesome lady coaching in the NFL.

coach Jennifer King. is our She's Got Game spotlight of the day for all these awesome reasons and more is why we've chosen to highlight her today.

you

And that's the NFL Draft, Where picks are wild, the stories are inspiring, and the suits are straight up iconic. We're so grateful that you're along for the ride. If you want to help our podcast grow, please take a moment to rate, review, and follow us on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It truly means the world. Join us next week for more laps and definitely some surprising moments. Until then, catch you next time, AlmostFans.