Do you keep in mind the primary time you noticed her?
Perhaps you pulled off I-435 and took a proper on Stadium Drive. All of the sudden, she was there: the attractive purple bowl with the long-lasting oval scoreboard.
Or perhaps you had been driving down I-70 in your means residence from work while you noticed her peeking out from behind Kauffman Stadium, with the dying mild of an extended day glittering on her white exterior.
Do you keep in mind that feeling?
Picture by Kara Durrette/Getty Pictures
It’s one thing that the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs’ fifth-round draft decide — inside offensive lineman Hunter Nourzad — will always remember.
“It’s fairly surreal,” he mentioned of his arrival on the Truman Sports activities Complicated for the primary time. “I imply, you sort of attempt to put together your self as finest as potential throughout the course of — however you actually do not know the place you’re going to go.
“However as soon as the bus rolled up the street and we noticed the stadium and the power, it was actually… it was actually breathtaking. It’s actually an unbelievable expertise that I really feel really blessed to have the ability to expertise.
“It was simply… unbelievable.”
Popping out of The Walker College, a prestigious non-public faculty in suburban Atlanta, Nourzad wasn’t extremely recruited. So when he began faculty at Cornell, he didn’t know what he would do along with his life.
“I didn’t actually have a plan,” he admitted to reporters earlier than the staff’s first rookie minicamp session on Saturday. “To go to highschool, I assume — that was [the] large factor. Go to highschool, get an training — after which, like lots of people my age — simply see what I can pull off out in the actual world.”
However throughout his junior 12 months, issues began to vary. NFL scouts began displaying up at apply.
“Nobody [had] actually mentioned this was a chance for me,” he recalled. “However that was sort of the primary second after I thought, ‘You already know, if I put sufficient work into this, I could make it come true.’”
So after finishing his mechanical engineering diploma at Cornell, Nourzad went to Penn State with two objectives: to get a grasp’s diploma in enterprise administration — and get observed by enjoying for the Massive 10’s Nittany Lions throughout his remaining 12 months of eligibility. He achieved each objectives — however intentionally set no expectations about what might occur within the NFL Draft.
“I imply, there’s by no means actually certainty in any of these items,” he defined. “I attempted to keep away from the Web articles and all of the rating and stuff like that — simply because I didn’t assume it might be a constructive impact on me whether or not it was a superb rating or a low rating.
“And so I actually didn’t know. I figured that I’d be a Day 3 man — and so I sort of went into it simply with that mindset.”
Nonetheless, nothing is promised — even while you’re picked within the draft. Nourzad understands he has work to do. However he’s prepared to do regardless of the staff wants him to do — and after the draft course of, he’s able to return to the routine.
“Soccer is the one factor I actually love,” he mentioned. “So having the ability to return to that? Being fully targeted on studying my playbook, getting to fulfill my teammates, you already know? Getting out and doing drills — and getting higher?
“It’s actually relieving.”
