It was 10:57 and David Trout was watching ESPN’s Sports Center. Just as it ended and he was about to go to sleep, Sara Walsh announced that coming up next was a new 30 for 30 about the Legion of Boom. David knew that his destiny was to watch it.
“No matter what your team is, no matter what your sport is, no matter what your situation is, even if you never even heard of the sport of football, you have to love Kam Chancellor, Richard Sherman, and Earl Thomas III. Sherman is tied in first for interception yards along with Ha Ha Clinton-Dix in the preseason. And in 2013 he lead the NFL in interceptions with nine!”
The narrator’s words got David into it. All of a sudden, he knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to be an NFL player!
The very next day, David woke up to the sound of his alarm clock.
Now to get back to my dream! he thought. Nothing ever worked! He tried to be a zookeeper, and he really enjoyed it until the zoo moved to Hawaii! Then he was drafted as an MLB player for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and had time to become friends with Mike Trout, who he shared the same last name with. But in a game against the Yankees he was hit with a 100 miles per hour pitch by Dellin Betances and his career was over. After that he had decided he was cursed now that he had two really nice jobs that had ended for reasons that he wasn’t even responsible for! He decided that at exactly 11:07 PM when it was 24 hours ago that he wanted to be an NFL player, he would share his dream with the public on Twitter.
@dezbryant @calvinjohnsonjr guess what?! I want to be an NFL wide receiver! You two are surely the best in the game, so could you give me some tips?
He double checked it for words that he might have mispelled, and finally posted it onto the web. He decided to go for a walk in the park and when he came back, he would see the comments he got. The walk was inspirational. He saw a blue jay egg hatch, and a cardinal had flew onto his shoulder. But when he got home what he saw was unpleasant.
“Come on man! Be real here! Don’t try to push yourself to something that you know you are never going to accomplish. You are 57 years old!” some guy had commented. Many other comments were rude and uninspiring. The only comments that had hope in them were Dez Bryant’s, the one written by Calvin Johnson Jr, and Mike Trout.
Dez Bryant wrote, “Go for it!”
Calvin Johnson Jr wrote, “You’ve got this!”
And Mike Trout commented, “Best of luck!” It wasn’t time to give up just yet!
David Trout opened the doors to the dream that nearly nobody gave into. He was at the NFL Draft tryouts!
100 drills! You can do that! a voice inside his head told him.
Ahhh, but there are no breaks allowed! his doubtful side came back.
If he spent the tryout in doubt, he would never succeed because he would never try! But if he believed what his good side told him and then he failed, it would lead him to doubt himself all the time! What was he going to do?
He looked at his crowd. Calvin had come to watch, while Dez and Mike couldn’t make it.
“Since it’s a wide receiver you want to be, we have a selection of quarterbacks for you to choose from, and defenders for you to pick out,” explained the man at the draft tryouts.
He decided that because Calvin Johnson Jr. had taken time out of his day to come and support him, picking Matthew Stafford was the nicest thing he could do. The middle linebacker was going to be Luke Kuechly, the defensive end would be Rob Ninkovich, the center would be Eric Wood, and guarding him would be the one and only Calvin Pryor. He wanted to make it hard on himself so that they didn’t assume that he needed to make it easy.
Luke was playing at his hardest, so David couldn’t be surprised when Eric was picked up and thrown to the floor. Next, now that Luke had gotten through the defense, he stormed his way up to Mr. Stafford. He picked him up and the crowd roared. Wait a second, thought David. Matthew Stafford isn’t on the ground so what Luke is doing isn’t helping! But that’s when David realized that he had said all this out loud. So there was a second down and Matthew Stafford had passed out.
After that, David found himself hit in the head with a can of soup and being booed by nearly everyone in the crowd because they wanted to see action. Russell Wilson was picked by David as his backup, so he entered. Calvin came down to give him some wide receiver tips, and after Russell gave him his encouragement, the tryouts resumed. Russell and David decided that they would go for the Hail Mary play, and his heart stopped beating when Calvin Pryor intercepted it. But that was when he dropped the ball, and David Trout went for the amazing play and dove for the ball and actually caught it!! Russell Wilson also had something to be proud of because he had to jump over Luke Kuechly in order to make that play happen! They were both exhausted and needed a commercial break.
After hearing about the Convenient Stores of Speedway 2 times in a row, and then listening to how you can get chicken, fries, and a biscuit for $3.99 at Popeyes, the pressure resumed. Maybe I am NFL material after all!! thought David, 30 yards away from completion of the first drill. He met up with Russell Wilson again.
“I would like to use you as a halfback for this play,” Russell suggested.
“Okay. You have much more of a football mind than anyone in the draft so that’s fine by me!”
He also knew that if this play was successful, his draft chances would increase, because teams do like players that (Like Brandon Marshall and Julian Edelman!) can be used at different positions. That was when David Trout had a great idea! He told it to Russell who approved, and then launched the plan.
“CATCH IT!” yelled Calvin Johnson Jr, which made everyone assume that it was a rushing play.
Wilson pretended to throw while Trout came from behind, the ball was handed off to him. He rushed to the endzone while crossing up Ninkovich AND Calvin Pryor!! Touchdown! 99 more drills and David Trout was in the NFL Draft!
It was rough and hard and he collapsed after it all, but David Trout had climbed 400 foot rock walls and lifted 500 pound weights just to get into the NFL. Lying on the ground with the crowd shrieking, Calvin Johnson Jr and Russell Wilson came over and gave him a Gatorade bath.
PART 2:
NOT DRAFT NIGHT, BUT DRAFT FIGHT
Sitting at the NFL Draft, David Trout knew that any team could be his. Phil Simms had said after the tryouts, “This is a man that teams would want to trade for.”
He was positive that he would go somewhere, the question being “WHERE?”
“Welcome to the 2015 NFL Draft! With the first pick in the draft, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers select… Jameis Winston!”
Oh well, I never did expect to be 1st pick! David said to himself, while also feeling happy for Winston.
“What team would you like to be drafted by?” asked Mike Trout, while it was announced that the Tennessee Titans had drafted Marcus Mariota.
“I’ll take anything!” David responded, as Marcus went up to receive his jersey and hat. David saw Dez and Calvin walk into the room together and they sat down next to him.
The Jaguars drafted Dante Fowler Jr, and the Raiders went along with Amari Cooper, while David was starting to get a tiny bit nervous.
“Ahhhh…. #2! That was my pick!!” Calvin yelled out.
“Oh come on!!” Whispered Russell Wilson, who had just gotten to the draft. “I was the 75th pick!”
“I’m not nervous!” lied David, but Russell wasn’t fooled for a split second.
Soon though, David had a reason to be nervous. Luke Kuechly had told him that after 60 picks, if nobody had picked him, it was reasonable to be nervous. 60 picks had happened that he was not involved in. Just then it was announced that the Buccaneers had drafted Ali Marpet, and that made it 61.
“Your pick should be any minute now…” Dez Bryant encouraged.
David was pretty sure that the Packers were his team, but they drafted Quinten Rollins. The Seahawks were picking for the first time now, and David wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but he saw Russell Wilson wink at BEASTMODE, who was sitting right next to Wilson.
“With the 63rd pick in the NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks select…” Suddenly the moment paused and David Trout realized something. He wanted to go to the Seahawks!! Time resumed, besides for the fact that announcing the pick had started again. “With the 63rd pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks select… David Trout!”
As he walked up to the stage, David Trout realized something new. Just two weeks ago, the dream had started by a 30 for 30 on the Seahawks!! And then who did he get drafted by? The Seahawks! Just then, Martin Mayhew, the GM of the Detroit Lions came over to him along with Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson who were on top of him.
“I have a deal for you! David Trout for Matthew Stafford!” John Schneider, the Seahawks GM got onto the stage.
“I am forced to say never!!” screamed John.
“Okay,” said Martin.
That’s when Pete Carroll got onto the stage. “John!” barked Pete. “How could you possibly be so rude!”
“I’m not sure that listening to you is the greatest idea after that Malcolm Butler interception!” John came back with.
T om Brady stood up and screamed something in laughter, but it didn’t stop their quarrelling. Suddenly, the words of flame escaped the mouth of Pete. “You are fired!”
“Good luck losing all your games!!” shouted John.
“Ooooh,” interrupted the crowd.
“Get wrecked!” Pete came back with. A typical draft fight.
Kam Chancellor whispered to David Trout, now a wide receiver for the Seahawks, “Welcome to the Seahaws!”
PART 3: NOT FINISHED YET
“Wake up!” David was waken up by his roommate, Jimmy Graham.
“What happened!?” asked David.
“Coach hired a new GM, and we’re having a meeting about it.”
“Oh. Is he nice?”
“He’s the best guy in the world!” yelled Doug Baldwin rushing in, which burst the whole team into laughter.
“And we will be hearing a lot more of that when you guys here the deal he made!” erupted Marshawn Lynch, bursting into the room.
“How come you know!?” they all asked, as Kam Chancellor started practicing interceptions.
“Cause I’m one of the team captains!” responded Lynch.
“Come on guys, Russell Wilson is already here!” said Pete.
We all gathered around the meeting table. “Why aren’t Jermaine Kearse or Kevin Norwood at this table?” the whole team asked.
“And Kevin Norwoods’ jersey is hanging there!”
“You’ll find out!” Pete said. “It isn’t anything big at all.”
“Well okay!!”
“The big thing is that, as you probably heard, we got a new GM.”
“JOHN IS SERVING AS AN ADVISOR!” Steven Hauschka bursted out
“STEVEN!” Pete screamed. “Just because you are a captain, doesn’t mean you need to burst out every bit of news you find out.”
“Sorry,” Steven muttered.
“Anyway,” Pete continued, “He made his first trade with the Detroit Lions, who he loves. It’s no major trade, and you probably never heard of the person that we acquired. That is why Jermaine and Kevin aren’t here.”
“But how come Kevin’s jersey is still here!!?” questioned Richard Sherman.
“All will be explained!” answered Jon Ryan.
“So who did we get?” asked D’anthony Smith.
“A new number 81!!”
Everyone was silent for all of one second until one scream became a million. “We got Calvin Johnson Jr.!” screamed the Seattle Seahawks.
“This new GM will be great!” Malcolm Smith yelled.
Calvin entered the room. “I had to be on David Trout’s team!!” And David Trout had to be on Calvin Johnson Jr.’s team!
TO BE CONTINUED!