Kevin Payne's NFL Draft Day: 'Where'd Y'all Come From!?!' (Pt. 1) - @Kevin_Payne

I don't think there's an NFL athlete on the planet who doesn't vividly remember the day they were drafted.  I know mine will never be forgotten - that's for sure.  It was crazy -- even though it wasn't supposed to be.

I told my parents I didn't want to have a party, because I didn't want anyone hanging around while I was watching the broadcast of the draft.  Of course, I was cool with my parents and siblings being there;  you know, we could throw some meat on the grill, do some barbeque'n, and just privately enjoy what we all hoped would be a very momentous occasion for my family.  So after I asked Mom to keep it simple, she said "okay" and I then felt at ease knowing that the draft would be a chill affair.

As it turned out, the draft wasn't chill at all.  When day one came around, so did my cousins, my friends, and just about everyone else who knew me.  We had a packed house and not even an ounce of peace.

I was like... "What are all these people doing here!?  I told everyone I didn't want to have a party!" 

No matter what I wanted, more and more people kept showing up. 

I know I probably sounded a bit uptight, but I really did appreciate everyone coming over to show me love.  They just wanted to let me know that no matter what happened in the draft, they were going to be happy for me.  You can't be mad at your loved ones for that, can ya?  I was just paranoid about potentially getting embarrassed in front of everyone, because I had no idea when I was going to get drafted, or if at all.  That's why I wanted so badly just chill with my family.  They wouldn't hate on me.

Even though having my friends and family over turned out to be pretty fun, I gotta admit that they still managed to get my nerves going.  For instance... Because I was HOPEFULLY going to hear from a team, I had my cell phone setup to where if it rang it would re-route to my home phone that had a better connection. 

Well, guess what?

If a team had called me, they wouldn't have been able to get through, because everyone who came over - for some reason or another - felt like they needed to use our phone to make call, after call, after call!  So, to get everyone to lay off the line, I was screaming all day...

"Get off the phone!  Stay off the phone!  I'm expecting a call!  I'm expecting a call from a team!"

You'd of thought they would have been able to figure that one out on their own.  Nope.

Thankfully, they listened.  But, despite them staying off the phone, I still wasn't hearing from any teams.  All day I stared at that TV waiting to see my name pop up on the screen, while everyone else spent half their time visiting with others outside and the other half watching the broadcast.  Our house was out of control; and because I was tired of worrying about how wild things were, I just forced myself to zone out and continue my waiting game.

So yeah... What I feared happening - me not getting picked in front of a packed house - happened.  I got shut out, and all I could think was... "THIS is why I didn't want to have a draft party!"  But everyone was cool about it.  They said things to me like... "You're gonna be alright"..."You'll get drafted tomorrow"..."Keep your head up"..."Just pray about it, or whatever."

So I took their advice, stayed optimistic about day two, and headed to bed...

Part two's coming 'atcha tomorrow.  And yes... I had even MORE phone issues.

Update: Here's part two... "Get Off The Phone!"

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