0:30 Watch the NFL Draft on Sky Sports!
Lights, camera, action. The draft gets underway and the show begins casting its next ensemble.
If time in that Indianapolis restaurant felt like it was flying by, it likely felt the extreme opposite as Crawford sat beside his phone waiting for the call.
He recalls sharing the experience with the D’Andrea family, who had taken him in when he moved from London to New Jersey as a high school student in 2005. They had seen him begin his US adventure, and they were about to see him reach the NFL.
“I was at their house watching TV, waiting as names were getting called by, I was thinking ‘I’m not going to get drafted, I’m not going to get drafted’ and eventually in the fifth round they called my name to Oakland,” he explained.
“I would say the closest thing I could relate it to would be like after a close game that’s a win, your adrenaline and emotions are running so high that you kind of experience what is an adrenaline dump. You almost feel exhausted and emotionally drained.”
Relief, elation, pride, inspiration – all of the above. Not to mention an influx of texts, Twitter notifications and Facebook messages from friends and family both in America and back home in London.
Such was the flood of well-wishers that Crawford found himself with a queue of callers.
“The first person to call me was the Oakland Raiders general manager [Reggie McKenzie at the time],” he explained.
“They called me exactly as my name was being announced so everything hit simultaneously and everyone’s cheering in the background while I’m just trying to speak to the general manager.
“I spoke to him and I remember there was another call coming through from a coach so I had to screen those calls, that was another thing I remember about it. It was a situation where I had to turn off all my notifications to try and call my family back in London.”
0:58 Jimmy Burrow reveals how his son Joe has always hated losing
It can sometimes get lost that beyond the draft extravaganza and the scouting profiles and the fanfare that there is a job to be won on the practice field.
In Crawford’s case, life in the NFL and the task of asserting himself did not take long to sink in.
“Every player in their head has a dream and they want to make the most of it, they want to become the next biggest in whatever position they’re playing,” he explained.
“Then when you report to the facility you’ll meet all the coaches and the rookies who you’ve been drafted with. When you report with all the other rookies who are in the same position you still have a feeling of let’s say confidence.
“Then the rest of the team come back and that’s when you realise you’re at the bottom of the pecking order and you are not that special.
“It hits you and then reality slowly sets in once you go through spring training and training camp. There’s a lot of people who I remember coming in with felt like ‘this is now what we signed up for’. Your opinion doesn’t really matter.”
1:26 The NFL Draft takes place tonight, with all of the picks being made remotely due to the coronavirus outbreak. Here’s how it will work…
Crawford featured as a backup in his rookie season and appeared in 15 games the following year before being waived by the Raiders in August 2014.
He has since spent time with the Dallas Cowboys as well as the Atlanta Falcons, and in April 2020 signed with Mike Vrabel’s Tennessee Titans.
By now he carries the experience to vouch for the value of an unfaltering work ethic and commitment behind the scenes, along with the knowledge the draft is far from the be-all and end-all.
“Just before the draft happens I would say to every rookie to not get too pent up on the draft, don’t get too anxious,” he said. “A lot of people I’ve played with and know who have gone on to be extremely successful in the NFL were undrafted and come from small schools that a lot of people haven’t heard of.
“It’s a team sport but the nature of the business is individual. A lot of it is how much extra work you put in, in the NFL the margin is so small that a lot of people who have had long-careers, it’s because of the extra work they put in off the field.”
Watch all three days of the 2020 NFL Draft unfold on Sky Sports, April 23-25 – starting with live build-up to day one from 10pm on Thursday, April 23 with the first picks expected to be made at 1am
Sourse: skysports.com
