The 2% Way by Dr. Myron L. Rolle

Author:Dr. Myron L. Rolle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2022-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

WITH THE 207TH PICK . . .

School was out: I was now in the football business. The NFL is an entirely different animal than the college game. I needed people on my team who had expertise wrangling the cagiest parts of that animal. As soon as my feet touched American soil, I hired Leigh Steinberg, the sports agent who had been the inspiration for Tom Cruise’s character in Jerry Maguire.

Steinberg had brokered monster deals for Ben Roethlisberger, John Elway, and Troy Aikman. He’d represented the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft a record eight times, most famously guiding the early days of Steve Young’s career. If anyone could get my name back in the mix, it was Steinberg.

Cory and I flew to Steinberg’s sparkling office in Newport Beach, California. My new agent told me that he too was an outsider trying to get back into the upper echelons of the sports world. He’d taken risks, faced down some demons, but had battled back to the top.

“You’re saying the NFL views me as an outsider?” I asked.

“I’ll put it this way,” Steinberg said. “I’m aware of what they’re writing about you in the press. I hear things in NFL insider circles. Some teams keep questioning your commitment. They think you abandoned your teammates in college.”

A false narrative with a real impact. I couldn’t erase that damage. I could destroy unfounded perceptions through my play. I had an uphill climb ahead of me if I was to hear my name called in the first round. I would have to grab 2 percent from every moment from now until draft day.

“Let’s smash that story and tell a new one,” I said to Steinberg.

“What’s that story going to be?” he asked, tenting his hands on a gleaming desk.

“Myron Rolle is back like he never left.”

First step: The Senior Bowl. On January 30, the best seniors in the nation would descend on Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Alabama, to prove themselves one last time as student-athletes. The North faces off against the South in a game with BCS Bowl intensity and Pro Bowl talent. The game would be my reintroduction to the NFL—general managers and head coaches from every single team would have their eyes trained on the field. It was the ideal venue to showcase that I could still compete at the highest level. If I played well, I’d earn an invite to the NFL Combine.

On the first day of the Senior Bowl, every player had to walk onstage at the stadium’s amphitheater to be weighed and measured wearing nothing but a pair of spandex. The announcer called, “Myron Rolle, Florida State, safety,” and I stepped onstage, hearing rumblings, murmurs. The scouts were gabbing, but I kept my eyes trained dead ahead and stepped onto the scale: 217, my fighting weight. I silently thanked Cory for pulling up in the Peugeot every morning in England.

The following day, I went online to check on those rumblings. The first article I saw talked about how GMs were saying I was the showstopper of the day.

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