Alabama safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix is widely projected as a first-round pick and could well be the first safety chosen in the NFL draft next week, but his hometown is too excited to wait for the honor. As such, a billboard has gone up in Clinton-Dix's old Central Florida stomping grounds, celebrating his draft selection just a bit early:
No need to pull out your glasses -- the phrase "1st-rounder" appears in the upper left corner, with "Eatonville's own" above Clinton-Dix's name. Eatonville is on the outskirts of Orlando, where Clinton-Dix played his high school ball at Dr. Phillips High.
Jinx? Nah -- the two-year starter figures to be safely gone by the end of Round 1. The St. Louis Rams' latter first-round pick (No. 13 overall) and the Dallas Cowboys (No. 16) are possibilities. Another is the Chicago Bears at No. 14, where NFL Media analyst Charles Davis projects Clinton-Dix to land. If he were to even slip into the 20s, alarm bells would be ringing for late-picking clubs who didn't expect him to fall.
Still, a billboard like this needs an NFL team on it to be definitive.
By the end of next week, the update could be on the way.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread.*
