{"id":9373,"date":"2014-05-08T18:53:24","date_gmt":"2014-05-08T10:53:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=9373"},"modified":"2025-01-18T00:42:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-18T05:42:30","slug":"nfl-draft-prospects-remember-their-old-lives-and-also-look-forward-to-making-dreams-come-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/08\/nfl-draft-prospects-remember-their-old-lives-and-also-look-forward-to-making-dreams-come-true\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL draft prospects remember their old lives and also look forward to making dreams come true"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo from waitingfornextyear.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK\u2014Wearing diamond studs and pressing a cellphone to his ear, Missouri defensive end Kony Ealy saunters into a gift suite, compliments of Diddy, and closes his eyes as he slides into a barber chair for a trim.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s looking serious and busy like the pro he may soon be when the NFL draft is over.<\/p>\n

Ealy, the swag swirling around him, from luggage to Ciroc, is among dozens of prospects on the verge of big time, hopefully leaving old lives behind and heading to the circus of media, big money and a shot at stardom.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

The NFL\u2019s annual draft begins Thursday night at Radio City Music Hall. Ealy is projected to go late in the first round. Does he worry about where he\u2019ll land, considering he never left his home state for college?<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t matter, \u2018cause now it\u2019s a business. You have to treat it like a business,\u201d the straight-faced Ealy said Tuesday between his visit to the Old Spice grooming station and a round of interviews at Diddy\u2019s Sean John headquarters, just a few blocks from where the draft will be held and one of his many stops during a crazy week of appearances.<\/p>\n

Ealy wasn\u2019t much interested in the gift tables, and he shrugged off the pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m handling it like I\u2019ve been there before and that\u2019s what I\u2019ll keep doing. That\u2019s something my high school coach told me and I never forgot it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fellow draft prospect Sammy Watkins, a wide receiver from Clemson, picked up a Hawaiian shirt and a leather bracelet, his Beats headphones on his head as he prepared for another jump outside his comfort zone.<\/p>\n

The Florida boy gave up offers from three schools there to head for college in South Carolina, so unlike Ealy, he already knows what it feels like to live far from family and old friends.<\/p>\n

Watkins\u2019 head was spinning. This is his first trip to New York City. He had just stepped off the plane and went straight into a few days of crazy, touring the 9-11 Memorial Site, handling phone calls and waiting on his family to arrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna have some fun,\u201d he laughed. \u201cI\u2019m gonna go out a little bit with the fam. We\u2019re gonna party it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the first thing he\u2019ll buy if a big contract comes his way? \u201cI gotta get my mom whatever she wants,\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever she needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watkins has a good idea how his life would change, on and off the field, if he makes the pros. At college, he said, there was always a party: \u201cWe lived it up. I\u2019ll miss the team the most. My brothers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the NFL, \u201cYou\u2019ve got to push yourself. The game is quicker, faster. Some of these guys have families, kids and just want to do the job.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m ready for that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ealy\u2019s already a little bit Hollywood in long leather pockets on his sweats and a matching leather zip shirt.<\/p>\n

But, like Watkins, his dreams haven\u2019t changed that much since he played ball in high school. He wants to help his dad make ends meet back in the St. Louis area.<\/p>\n

Growing up playing both basketball and football, he can feel his big moment: \u201cBeing able to provide for my family, you know what I\u2019m sayin\u2019? That was the dream then and that\u2019s it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morgan Moses, an offensive tackle at Virginia, may also go late in the first round. He, too, had never been to New York and has never lived away from his home state. He had one foot in the Sean John green room, scooping up a few gift bags, and another back on campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it\u2019s crazy. I\u2019m finishing up with school and I\u2019m here, but I\u2019m working on my last 20-page paper,\u201d he smiled.<\/p>\n

Moses, at 6-6 and more than 300 pounds, plans to rely on his years at Fork Union Military Academy back home in Virginia to navigate the pros. It\u2019s where he straightened himself out after a rough patch in high school.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were uniforms and everything,\u201d he said. \u201cI had to cut the dreads off, but it was that discipline, you know? There were a lot of obstacles coming forward. You just want to be the next big thing growing up and it\u2019s time to be here and to be that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t sweating bad money management, faux friends turning up for free tickets and jerseys or any of the other things the league\u2019s family engagement program warned about at a breakfast for the relatives of draft prospects, held at the same time some of the players sat down to breakfast with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I\u2019m going to buy? I\u2019m pretty frugal with my money so probably a home to live in. I\u2019m going to let everything else take care of itself,\u201d Moses said.<\/p>\n

Calvin Pryor, a free safety out of Louisville, had a balancing act on his mind: How could he keep trusted friends and, with any luck, manage a high-profile career? He plans to carry this philosophy into the pros:<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople change,\u201d Pryor explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK\u2014Wearing diamond studs and pressing a cellphone to his ear, Missouri defensive end Kony Ealy saunters into a gift …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":9374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","mauthors-leanne-italie","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9373"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285148,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9373\/revisions\/285148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}