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To be drafted into the National Football League is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Thousands of players have experienced that joyful moment since the college draft was instituted by the NFL in 1936. However, only a select number of these drafted players excelled on the NFL gridiron to the point that earned them a bust in Canton. Over the years, Profootballhof.com has sat down and asked some Hall of Famers to relive their draft day.
"Who's the Rams' Coach?"
In 1971, Jack Youngblood was a senior at the University of Florida and was preparing to go into the banking business.
"I had no clue that I was going to be drafted as I high as I was," the Class of 2001 inductee recently shared with profootballhof.com.
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| Jack Youngblood |
The scouting techniques weren't nearly as sophisticated as today. Scouts often times went on the recommendations of the college coaches. Youngblood remembers how his coaches gave a rather average review of his abilities to the scouts. Then one day, a scout from the Rams by the name of Harley Sewell came to take a look at the Gators' football players.
Sewell would have fun with the collegiate stars by slighting their physical measurements. He would yell out their height a half-inch shorter or their weight five pounds lighter. "He would mess with you," Youngblood vividly recalled how he thought the scout was testing them to see their fight and spirit. Sewell wanted to see if the player would challenge him on his inaccurate measurements.
Because he still was thinking that he was going to be a middle-round pick, Youngblood didn't give much thought to the draft. Then, he was invited to the Gainesville Sun offices for a piece that the newspaper was doing on the draft. There, Jack watched the Teletype spit out the results of the draft.
"I watched Plunkett come off, then Pastorini off, and John Brockington," Youngblood recalled. "Then someone yelled, 'Jack, there's a telephone call for you. It's the head coach of the L.A. Rams!"
Youngblood covered the phone with his hand and asked someone, 'who's the head coach of the Rams?' Jack quickly learned that Tommy Protho was the coach and that Los Angeles was going to draft him and wanted to know if he'd like to be a Ram. "The furthest west I had been was Jackson, Mississippi," Youngblood related.
He didn't know anything about the Rams but he was absolutely astonished to be the 20th pick of the draft that year.
Hall of Famers Taken in the 1971 NFL Draft
John Riggins, RB, New York Jets - 1st round (6th overall)
Jack Ham, LB, Pittsburgh Steelers - 2nd round (34th overall
Dan Dierdorf, T, St. Louis Cardinals - 2nd round (43rd overall)
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