Mellinger: Fisher, Joeckel walk and talk like a No. 1 NFL Draft pick should

[Tribal Warfare]

Fisher, Joeckel walk and talk like a No. 1 NFL Draft pick should
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star
A car will pull up in front of a Manhattan hotel before the sun is up here on Friday. The city that doesn’t sleep will at least be groggy, but the big, strong, soon-to-be-very-rich college kid selected with the first pick in Thursday’s NFL Draft will hop in this car.

He will be tired, but happy, because there will be a flight to catch for Kansas City. The ticket is already booked. First class. The young man will need to meet his new team, and he’ll do it in style. Right now, the ticket has a Chiefs staffer’s name on it. At some point on Thursday, the Chiefs will pay a small change fee to put their new draft pick on that plane.

It’s just that they don’t know who it will be quite yet. Or, at least, nobody is saying which of two equally qualified left tackles will be in that car and on that plane.

“I don’t really have any idea what’s going on,” says Luke Joeckel, the Texas A&M lineman you’ve probably heard about.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” says Eric Fisher, the Central Michigan lineman you should get to know as well.

So instead of certainty, Fisher and Joeckel and everyone else here who wants to be the first pick went through a full day of league-approved photo ops on Wednesday.

In the morning, they played football with kids. In the afternoon, they went to Radio City Music Hall — site of the draft — and then to the stock exchange. Fisher hit the button to end trading for the day. Florida lineman Sharrif Floyd took the mallet home with him. He had permission, but this was apparently a first.

This bridge between college scholarship and life-changing paycheck is a strange one seen mostly in staged appearances, and heard mostly in coached answers.

The interesting stuff comes in bits and pieces. Fisher talks about football as his life’s best vehicle. He likes measuring himself against others, and takes special pride in his winding path to fame’s doorstep. He learned his work ethic from the single mother who raised him — 33 years in Volkswagen’s warranty department. Football has given Fisher a way to pay her back. He thinks she’ll retire soon. They filmed a jewelry commercial together that will run around Mother’s Day.

Nobody predicted this life for Fisher. He says that 10 years ago, he was “probably a fourth-string middle linebacker” on some suburban Detroit youth team. As a ninth grader, he played quarterback. Then two years as an outside linebacker. Wasn’t until his senior year that he blocked anyone, which helps explain why he went to Central Michigan instead of, well, Michigan.

Joeckel talks about football a bit like science. Technique is everything to him. He can talk for hours about footwork and where his hands need to be and the importance of perfecting that first step after the snap. Joeckel can still tell you exactly what happened the day former Aggies linebacker Von Miller put him on his back in practice as a freshman.

He told his third-grade teacher he would play in the NFL someday. Started watching tape of his games with his father a year later. He is a Texas minister’s grandson who talks often about his parents, and his morals, and being an example for younger kids.

These are different guys. One from a powerhouse program, the other a mid-major. One blocked for the Heisman Trophy winner, the other played in the Little Caesars Bowl. One is a technical savant who excelled in a spread offense, the other a supremely gifted athlete better at run blocking. In some ways, the Chiefs are likely choosing between a young man raised for this moment, and one grew into it.

The similarities lie mostly in the physical (same height and arm length) and their answer to whether they’d be open to playing right tackle if the Chiefs don’t trade Branden Albert.

Fisher: “I’m trying to win some games and play some football, so whatever it takes I’ll do it.”

Joeckel: “I’ll play whatever they need me to play. I’m a guy who believes in helping my team win. That’s all that matters.”

That’s basically what the Chiefs want to hear, you know. Both players want to be left tackles, but are willing to adjust. This shows team-centric priorities. Good work ethic. The right kind of ambition.

Or, it could also show they’ve been coached to say the right things. This is a league-approved peak into the transition from scholarship to paycheck, after all — and both of these guys want to be in that car early Friday morning.

[Deberg_1990]

What exactly does "Walk and talk like a #1 draft pick should" mean?

A big, handsome, well spoken, boy next door, white guy?

[durtyrute]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

What exactly does "Walk and talk like a #1 draft pick should" mean?

A big, handsome, well spoken, boy next door, white guy?

[ptlyon]

What a mother****ing, goat dick sucking, absolute disgusting abortion.

Picking a tackle 1.1 due to media pressure.

There is no god.

**** these assholes.

[DJ's left nut]

The goddamn title alone was too much for me to read the article.

Really Sam, you silly **** - how does a No. 1 pick walk and talk? Do they walk like Willie Roaf? Do they talk like Warren Sapp?

Kill yourself, you vapid, cliche-spewing ****.

[RealSNR]

The newspaper industry is going down the tubes?

YOU DON'T SAY!