RIDICULOUSLY COMMITTED
It’s NFL Draft week, which serves as the culmination of months worth of work by each pro football team’s front office. Every team’s "experts" has been watching film, conducting interviews, and digging deep to uncover which players are worthy of their selection, and which ones should be avoided.
This process is of course far from flawless. Every year there are highly talented and highly touted prospects who never pan out. At the same time, there are always players who are overlooked or ignored on draft night that go on to have long and productive careers. Wes Welker is one of the best examples. Welker became one of the best wide receivers in football - a five-time Pro Bowler who was named 1st team All-Pro twice. He led the league in receptions three different times, and became one of the best receivers of his era. But at the 2004 NFL Draft, 255 players had their names called, and Wes Welker wasn’t one of them. At only 5’9”, the "experts" thought he was too little.
Welker joined the San Diego Chargers practice squad as an undrafted free agent, and immediately found himself right where you’d expect. Last on the depth chart, watching from the sidelines as those higher profile players got the bulk of the practice reps. Desperate to prove himself, Welker committed to doing whatever he could, from right where he was, to make the team. He started listening in on the play calls, and then - while the starters ran through the plays together - Welker retreated 20 or so yards behind the group, and proceeded to run the routes assigned to his position on his own. So there was the team practicing the plays. And then, back there, there was Wes Welker, running them on his own. He must have looked ridiculous.
“I was looking like an idiot,” Welker later admitted. “But whatever could help me in making the team? I was gonna do it.” Not surprisingly, Welker’s ridiculous commitment got him noticed. Soon, he found himself getting a few real reps - you know, with actual teammates and a real football. He earned his way onto the Chargers’ opening day roster. He was cut soon after, but had done enough to earn a contract with the Miami Dolphins and eventually the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos. Twelve years after that first training camp, Welker retired from a long and productive NFL career. Longer and more productive, I’d guess, than most of those 255 players who were drafted ahead of him years earlier.
I share that story with you today because Wes Welker provides us with a blueprint for success in those situations where success seems unlikely. Sometimes we need people who are so ridiculously committed to achieving their goals that they challenge us to examine our own level of commitment. Wes Welker was willing to look foolish because what he wanted - to make that NFL roster - was more important to him than how he looked or what other people thought. I have to wonder how many of those other training camp prospects stood there chuckling at the little guy as he ran routes back there by himself. I also wonder how many of them ended up out of the league long before that guy back there looking ridiculous.
This week, more than 250 players will be selected in this year’s NFL draft. You can bet that teams have been watching film, conducting interviews, and digging deep to uncover which players are worthy of their selection, and which ones should be avoided. But Wes Welker proves that that process is far from flawless. You can measure someone’s height and weight, their vertical leap and their bench press max. But it’s hard to measure someone’s commitment, and that might just be the most important metric of all. There’s a lesson each of us can learn from Wes Welker. A lesson we can apply to our own winning pursuit, and a lesson we can use to find success in those places where success seems unlikely.
