Boomer Esiason Talks His NFL Draft Experience in the 1980s
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - How was in the early 1980s going through
00:05 that draft process for you
00:07 before getting drafted in the NFL?
00:09 - You know, it wasn't a lot of fun.
00:11 I actually got hurt in my last bowl game against Tennessee.
00:13 Reggie White separated my left shoulder,
00:16 which is obviously my throwing shoulder.
00:17 So when I went to the combine,
00:20 it was down in New Orleans at that time.
00:22 And I actually threw at the combine.
00:25 I don't know why I threw at the combine,
00:26 but I was throwing it all over the place at the Superdome.
00:29 It was not a great experience for me.
00:31 And then we had another combine out in Seattle.
00:34 I didn't have a great combine out there as well.
00:36 And I think that year, the Cincinnati Bengals,
00:39 going into the draft, had the number one overall pick.
00:42 And I think they had settled on Steve Young
00:44 to be their quarterback.
00:45 When Steve signed with the USFL LA Express,
00:48 I then held a press conference saying,
00:51 I didn't grow up rooting for the LA Express
00:54 or the Memphis Showboats.
00:56 I wanted to be an NFL quarterback
00:58 just to make sure everybody in the NFL knew
01:00 that I wasn't gonna try to get them into a bidding war
01:02 and hopefully be a top 10 pick.
01:05 And as you pointed out, I fell to the second round.
01:07 I was the first quarterback taken.
01:09 And it was a very, very distressing day for me.
01:11 The good news was that Mel Kiper
01:13 was singing my praises on ESPN that day.
01:16 However, I was not at the draft.
01:18 I was at my dorm room at the University of Maryland.
01:21 And two of my University of Maryland teammates,
01:23 Ron Solt and Pete Koch, both got drafted before me.
01:27 Both got drafted in the first round.
01:29 And they wouldn't start their press conference
01:31 at the University of Maryland until I was drafted,
01:34 which was right before noon on draft day.
01:37 So the three of us had our press conference together.
01:40 Then Pete and I ended up taking off for Cincinnati
01:43 because he was drafted by the Bengals number 16 overall.
01:46 Because the Bengals ended up trading
01:48 the overall number one pick to the New England Patriots,
01:51 they selected Irving Fryer
01:53 because I guess they felt like I was not worthy
01:55 of a number one pick.
01:57 Hence the reason why I lasted to number 38.
02:00 I'll never forget that phone call from Sam Weiss.
02:02 She goes, "Hey, Boom, you want to be a Bengal?"
02:04 I'm like, "What the F, man?
02:05 I thought you guys forgot about me."
02:08 So they got me with the 10th pick in the second round.
02:12 And it was not a great memory to say the least.
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