Steve Largent’s words of wisdom to players entering 2023 NFL Draft
NFL
Published on : 4/26/2023
By Steve Largent
Special to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
I remember when I thought I was going to be a Houston Oiler.
Sometimes, it almost seems like it was yesterday, although it was nearly 50 years ago. Just like this week, it was NFL Draft Week. Except things were different back then.
These days, the NFL Draft is a major event. It’s on TV, with thousands of people watching. However, back in my draft year in 1976, I wasn’t planning on what I was going to wear or talking to the media or anything.
Back then, you simply got a call if you got picked. I was a senior at the University of Tulsa and was about two weeks away from graduating when the draft took place. So, I was focused on studying for my biology finals.
Don’t get me wrong; I absolutely knew the draft was occurring. But I had no idea when (or if) the call would be coming.
When I finally got the news that I had been drafted by the Houston Oilers in the fourth round (117th overall), it was on an afternoon where I was hanging out around our stadium at the University of Tulsa. I was watching spring ball, in which I didn’t have to participate because I was a senior.
There were no cellphones back then, so the Oilers called the University of Tulsa football coach or AD or someone. I got called in and was told I was going to the Oilers.
I was so excited!
Little did I realize, my stay with the Oilers would be short.
You might not believe this, but when I was drafted by the Oilers, I had never seen the team play.
In 1976, you couldn’t just watch any NFL games you wanted or go on the internet to follow what was going on in the League. I didn’t know anything about Houston’s football team at that time, other than that Dan Pastorini was the quarterback. I also knew Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, but that was more because I remembered his nickname.
So before I got down to Houston for training, I did all the homework I could to familiarize myself with the team.
After all, this was going to be my team, so I wanted to be ready.
My stay with the Oilers lasted all of six weeks.
It’s hard for me to pinpoint one or two things that happened with the Oilers that led me to being cut six weeks after I started training camp. But now I’m thankful it happened. So, for all of you players in this year’s draft, I recommend you focus on the things you can control, not the things you can’t.
In the NFL, there are no excuses. I’ve been around football for a long time and believe that a key to a successful career is taking personal responsibility and being accountable for your performance. What you can’t do is think of yourself as God’s greatest gift to football. Instead, you have to think that you’re at the highest level, you’re going to act like it, you’re going to train like it and you’re studying everything you can about the game to earn your place on the team. You have to earn everything in the NFL.
The other thing I would say is: Don’t get into the game of comparing yourself with somebody else. It can be hard on draft night, when you see your teammates or friends getting picked ahead of you. But comparing is a losing battle. I’ve seen guys play that game, and it gets you nowhere.
Besides, where you’re drafted doesn’t guarantee your place on an NFL roster. Sure, it’s great to be the top pick. You’ll probably get paid more to start.
But nobody is gifted a position in the NFL. Once you get to the team’s facility, everybody is in the same spot. Everyone has to be prepared to put it all on the line and do the work.
When I went to Houston, I believed I was going to make the team, for sure. So just based on statistics, I was confident that I would make this team. I do not think that confidence affected my work ethic, but maybe it did. But what I do know is that unexpectedly Bum Phillips’ (Oilers head coach) called me to his office and told me to bring my playbook!
Although he was kind and gentle about it, he was also straightforward.
The Oilers didn’t feel they needed my talents.
It was a hard blow.
I am not saying you shouldn’t be excited when you get drafted this week. It’s one of the most special times of your life, and you should enjoy it. You’ve worked hard for this moment, so savor it.
I am saying that being drafted isn’t an invitation to rest on your laurels. It’s not a finish line. If anything, it’s the starting point. Throughout your career, there will be curveballs.
You will experience disappointment, many of you will be traded and even more of you will be cut. While there are many examples of players who spend their entire careers with the teams that draft them, it’s not a given.
Sometimes you’ll have to wait for the right opportunity to come at the right time.
For me, the Seahawks were the right opportunity at the right time.
As soon as I got to their facility in Kirkland, Wash., I felt like I had been part of their team the entire training camp. They had hired our assistant coach at the University of Tulsa, Jerry Rhome, as their Quarterbacks & Wide Receivers coach. Jerry had advocated for the Seahawks to pick me up.
A huge advantage for me was that Jerry had implemented the same offense we used in Tulsa.
If they said, “Line up I-Right 79,” I knew exactly where to line up, how deep to run the route, when to make the cut and when the quarterback should deliver the ball.
I had been doing that for three years at the University of Tulsa, and it was very familiar to me. I knew how to run all the routes.
Even after I dropped one of the first passes thrown to me in the first practice, Jerry calmed me down. He told me to relax and that I was going to make that team. He said all I had to do was exactly what I had been doing the previous three years.
Having someone special like Jerry in my corner meant so much. You’ll need people like that in your corner throughout your career.
I made that team, all right. I spent the next 14 seasons – my entire career – with the Seahawks.
I am proud that I went into the Hall of Fame as a Seahawk in 1995.
The NFL Draft has changed so much since I was picked in 1976.
We did not have the same media scrutiny that you have now. On my draft day, I was on campus at the University of Tulsa, trying to keep busy. I did not have a camera in my face analyzing every move I made as I waited for one of the most important calls.
But the heart of what it takes to play in the NFL is still the same as it’s always been.
You just have to focus on using your God-given abilities and developing them to their greatest potential. Put in the work with a teachable attitude of always trying to improve your skills. I know you’re already a good player (or you wouldn’t be sitting here about to get drafted into the NFL), but there’s always room to get even better.
Not everybody will believe in you, either. I know not everyone believed in me. Whether they said I was too small or too slow, I had plenty of people who didn’t believe I’d make it.
Many of my fellow Hall of Famers can say the same thing.
But if you believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who believe in you, you can succeed in the NFL.
For now, savor this moment. You get drafted only once.
Special to the Pro Football Hall of Fame
I remember when I thought I was going to be a Houston Oiler.
Sometimes, it almost seems like it was yesterday, although it was nearly 50 years ago. Just like this week, it was NFL Draft Week. Except things were different back then.
These days, the NFL Draft is a major event. It’s on TV, with thousands of people watching. However, back in my draft year in 1976, I wasn’t planning on what I was going to wear or talking to the media or anything.
Back then, you simply got a call if you got picked. I was a senior at the University of Tulsa and was about two weeks away from graduating when the draft took place. So, I was focused on studying for my biology finals.
Don’t get me wrong; I absolutely knew the draft was occurring. But I had no idea when (or if) the call would be coming.
When I finally got the news that I had been drafted by the Houston Oilers in the fourth round (117th overall), it was on an afternoon where I was hanging out around our stadium at the University of Tulsa. I was watching spring ball, in which I didn’t have to participate because I was a senior.
There were no cellphones back then, so the Oilers called the University of Tulsa football coach or AD or someone. I got called in and was told I was going to the Oilers.
I was so excited!
Little did I realize, my stay with the Oilers would be short.
Striking oil … or so I thought
You might not believe this, but when I was drafted by the Oilers, I had never seen the team play.
In 1976, you couldn’t just watch any NFL games you wanted or go on the internet to follow what was going on in the League. I didn’t know anything about Houston’s football team at that time, other than that Dan Pastorini was the quarterback. I also knew Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, but that was more because I remembered his nickname.
So before I got down to Houston for training, I did all the homework I could to familiarize myself with the team.
After all, this was going to be my team, so I wanted to be ready.
My stay with the Oilers lasted all of six weeks.
Houston, we have a problem
It’s hard for me to pinpoint one or two things that happened with the Oilers that led me to being cut six weeks after I started training camp. But now I’m thankful it happened. So, for all of you players in this year’s draft, I recommend you focus on the things you can control, not the things you can’t.
In the NFL, there are no excuses. I’ve been around football for a long time and believe that a key to a successful career is taking personal responsibility and being accountable for your performance. What you can’t do is think of yourself as God’s greatest gift to football. Instead, you have to think that you’re at the highest level, you’re going to act like it, you’re going to train like it and you’re studying everything you can about the game to earn your place on the team. You have to earn everything in the NFL.
The other thing I would say is: Don’t get into the game of comparing yourself with somebody else. It can be hard on draft night, when you see your teammates or friends getting picked ahead of you. But comparing is a losing battle. I’ve seen guys play that game, and it gets you nowhere.
Besides, where you’re drafted doesn’t guarantee your place on an NFL roster. Sure, it’s great to be the top pick. You’ll probably get paid more to start.
But nobody is gifted a position in the NFL. Once you get to the team’s facility, everybody is in the same spot. Everyone has to be prepared to put it all on the line and do the work.
When I went to Houston, I believed I was going to make the team, for sure. So just based on statistics, I was confident that I would make this team. I do not think that confidence affected my work ethic, but maybe it did. But what I do know is that unexpectedly Bum Phillips’ (Oilers head coach) called me to his office and told me to bring my playbook!
Although he was kind and gentle about it, he was also straightforward.
The Oilers didn’t feel they needed my talents.
It was a hard blow.
Seattle gives me a second chance
After I was given the news that the Oilers were moving on from me, I immediately went back to where I was staying to pack my bags. By that afternoon – Monday – I was on the road back to Oklahoma City, where my wife was staying with her family.
While the Oilers told me they were going to see if there were any other teams that wanted me, there were no guarantees. Just weeks after doing all this homework on the Houston Oilers and how I was going to fit into the team, I was really happy to have gotten my degree in biology. It seemed like I was going to have to put it to work a lot earlier than I planned.
However, within a day or so of getting back to my wife, Terry, at her family’s house, I got a call that the Seattle Seahawks wanted me. I think it was an eighth-round pick (after I was a fourth-round pick) that they sent to Houston to get me.
The Seahawks were an expansion team, so there wasn’t as much homework to do in studying the roster as when I was drafted by the Oilers.
It was a clean slate for both the franchise and me.
I was told to get to the airport as quickly as possible. There was a plane ticket waiting for me.
This was my second chance.
Finding my place in the NFL
I am not saying you shouldn’t be excited when you get drafted this week. It’s one of the most special times of your life, and you should enjoy it. You’ve worked hard for this moment, so savor it.
I am saying that being drafted isn’t an invitation to rest on your laurels. It’s not a finish line. If anything, it’s the starting point. Throughout your career, there will be curveballs.
You will experience disappointment, many of you will be traded and even more of you will be cut. While there are many examples of players who spend their entire careers with the teams that draft them, it’s not a given.
Sometimes you’ll have to wait for the right opportunity to come at the right time.
For me, the Seahawks were the right opportunity at the right time.
As soon as I got to their facility in Kirkland, Wash., I felt like I had been part of their team the entire training camp. They had hired our assistant coach at the University of Tulsa, Jerry Rhome, as their Quarterbacks & Wide Receivers coach. Jerry had advocated for the Seahawks to pick me up.
A huge advantage for me was that Jerry had implemented the same offense we used in Tulsa.
If they said, “Line up I-Right 79,” I knew exactly where to line up, how deep to run the route, when to make the cut and when the quarterback should deliver the ball.
I had been doing that for three years at the University of Tulsa, and it was very familiar to me. I knew how to run all the routes.
Even after I dropped one of the first passes thrown to me in the first practice, Jerry calmed me down. He told me to relax and that I was going to make that team. He said all I had to do was exactly what I had been doing the previous three years.
Having someone special like Jerry in my corner meant so much. You’ll need people like that in your corner throughout your career.
I made that team, all right. I spent the next 14 seasons – my entire career – with the Seahawks.
I am proud that I went into the Hall of Fame as a Seahawk in 1995.
Parting words
The NFL Draft has changed so much since I was picked in 1976.
We did not have the same media scrutiny that you have now. On my draft day, I was on campus at the University of Tulsa, trying to keep busy. I did not have a camera in my face analyzing every move I made as I waited for one of the most important calls.
But the heart of what it takes to play in the NFL is still the same as it’s always been.
You just have to focus on using your God-given abilities and developing them to their greatest potential. Put in the work with a teachable attitude of always trying to improve your skills. I know you’re already a good player (or you wouldn’t be sitting here about to get drafted into the NFL), but there’s always room to get even better.
Not everybody will believe in you, either. I know not everyone believed in me. Whether they said I was too small or too slow, I had plenty of people who didn’t believe I’d make it.
Many of my fellow Hall of Famers can say the same thing.
But if you believe in yourself and surround yourself with people who believe in you, you can succeed in the NFL.
For now, savor this moment. You get drafted only once.
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