By the looks of it on YouTube, Mr. Irrelevant, Chandler Harnish, had a party Sunday to celebrate his name finally being called in the 2012 NFL Draft. The Colts, as you know, selected the quarterback from Northern Illinois 253rd.
We're not interested in the party itself. What caught our attention, though, about the video was Harnish's detailed explanation to family and friends on how the final moments of the draft went down for him.
Apparently, the Colts snatched Harnish away from the San Diego Chargers at the last minute.
“Late in the seventh round I'm very depressed. ... I was getting calls from like the Kansas City Chiefs, the Tennessee Titans, St. Louis Rams, Oakland Raiders, just a bunch of teams were (calling) -- and I’m talking to my agent every three minutes,” Harnish explains. “It looked like we were about ready to set up a free agency deal. I was ready to go to San Diego. ...
“They wanted the decision 10 minutes after they could put the deal on the table, and this was still at pick 240,” Harnish says. “So there were still 13 picks to go. And they put the deal on the table that they wanted me to be a free agent and I had to say ‘yes’ to it. ... We tell San Diego we want that deal. Well, my agent tells the Colts, ‘Hey, he’s going to San Diego if you guys don’t draft him with your last pick.’ So, because of that, the Colts were like, ‘We want him. We want to take him before he goes to free agency, and then he goes to San Diego.’”
There are two things to take from this. First, were the Chargers negotiating with a prospect before the draft ended? While we don't know the nature of those conversations, Harnish's explanation was pretty telling.
Secondly, and what we really love about this video, is Harnish peeling back the curtain on the draft experience for little-known prospects holding out hope of hearing their names called. Now we know how stressful it must be.
Unfortunately, Harnish didn't update us on if he'll cash in on Mrs. Irrelevant's offer.