I hadn't watched Undrafted on NFL Network until this week. Dan Hanzus has been handling the site's sweet recaps, and I've had it saved on the DVR until there's a little more time in the offseason. Life with kids is like that.
After watching Tuesday night's show, I'm locked in for the final two episodes of the season. This sounds like a shill job, but it's exactly the kind of show true football fans will devour.
The fourth episode focused on four of the Undrafted players as they prepared for the Super Regional Combine in Detroit. You realize that each player at the lesser known combines have a story and have overcome so much just to get that far.
Nnamdi Obukwelu is one of three brothers to play at Harvard, and the reverence with which he treats his father's sacrifices make you pull for him. The same is true for Akeem Davis, whose emotions get the best of him when speaking about his mother.
We also get a look at one of the most difficult times in any athlete's lives. Harvey Unga and Elijah Anderson struggle with whether to give up the sport when they don't make it to the Super Regional.
"Football is all that I know," Anderson said. "If I didn't play NFL football, I would feel like a failure at the end of the day. I don't have a Plan B."
Unga admits that he started to play "mind games" with himself, wondering if he's good enough. There is a powerful contrast between the players chasing the long odds of their dream and the two players unsure if their dream is over.
"Undrafted" is a six-part series that airs each Tuesday through Dec. 9, with special advance premieres each week after "Thursday Night Football." Digitally, "Undrafted" will be made available on NFL NOW through the service's premium tier, NFL NOW Plus.
