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Jamie Nkiah entered the draft last night with no hype, and deservedly so. He was on rock bottom of more or less every teams draft list because he quite simply hadn’t shown up all season. He hadn’t developed at all during his time in the DSFL and looked by all accounts to be a stale, stagnant career junior league player at best. He had no anger or bad will to teams who thought this way because he knew it was exactly how they should feel. He’d let himself down, not delivered on his talent and allowed himself to sit back and watch others pass him by.
Nkiah grew up a quiet kid in Atlanta, in the kind of area where it’s hard to steer clear of the bad stuff. His route out had come through football, and he’d shown enough promise at high school to be recruited to Penn State as a promising cornerback out of high school. A position change in college soon saw him lining up as a strong safety and it looked as if his game really began to elevate with the change in position, as he developed the kind of versatile game that saw him just as disruptive to passing and rushing offenses. He was optimistic going into his rookie season in the DSFL that he could show enough talent to be picked up by a team early on in the NSFL draft that was to come, and he even had a wild ambition of being established as a first round draft pick by the time the day come.
Of course, things didn’t work out quite like that. Nkiah allowed bad habits to creep in; not showing up for practices, partying a little too much, losing his focus on the sport. He noticed his performance on the field was nowhere near where it should’ve been, yet he did nothing to try and turn things around. The weeks ticked by and the draft grew closer and closer, and when draft day came a dejected Jamie sat watching at home with just his parents, brothers and sisters. They had wanted to make it more of an occasion but Jamie feared the embarrassment of potentially going undrafted front of any sort of a crowd might be too much to deal with. And so he sat waiting and watching, seeing teammates and positional rivals taken off the board as the draft went ahead. He didn’t really have any ill feelings toward them; he recognised the hard work the other safeties in his class had put in to earn their draft rank, and had seen first hand the effort his team mates had made to get to where they were and he felt happy that he was able to share in their success in some small sense.
At the end of the second round, Jamie became convinced it was over. He hadn’t heard from any GMs, scouts or coaches in the run up to the draft and felt like this was it; his worst fear of going undrafted had come true. Jamie stood up and walked outside, before staring deeply into the night sky. Thoughts swirled in his head, most of them based around the same question; “how did I fuck things up this badly?” It was in this moment he realised there was only himself to blame. He had grown complacent but no longer would he sit still and watch his dream pass him by. It was time to make a change. It was as he began to work out a plan of action that his mom stepped out to tell him his phone was buzzing. There was a missed call from the GM of the Arizona Outlaws; turns out Jamie wasn’t going undrafted after all.
After a whirlwind 24 hours, Jamie finally took stock of the situation on a flight to Phoenix to meet his new team. He realised how lucky he’d been to be taken in by a team with the history and reputation of Arizona, and that he had the most important opportunity of his career to date to develop and grow in a well managed and experienced system. If he was going to make his situation right, this was his chance. It was at this point he set his mind firmly on what he wanted to achieve. He wanted the full package; helping the Outlaws to winning multiple Ultimi, learning from those around him, coaching those to come, but most importantly to him, he wanted to push himself to do what none had done before. He googled some stats as soon as he landed and wrote down the Outlaws’ career records for interceptions, as well as the record for tackles by a safety on the team. Those were his goals, the benchmark he would measure his contribution against. Arizona had put their faith in him and now it was on him to pay it back. To make a success of his career and play a role on a future powerhouse team. For now, he heads back to Myrtle Beach. There in SC, he hopes to make the first steps towards realising his goals as he looks to help lead his team to an Ultimini to set him up for the big show.
He’s promised Arizona he can deliver something special, and now it’s firmly on Jamie to do so. In the last 24 hours he’s shown more in terms of development or grit than he has all season, and it looks as if he may just be able to get his NSFL career off to the start he wants to. Although his NSFL dreams will have to wait a season, the lessons he hopes to learn over the next 12 months should set him up very nicely for the ultimate goal. A firm believer in the notion that iron sharpens iron, pushing himself to surpass his competition and learn important lessons from his teammates could lead to the Jamie Nkiah he always thought existed making an appearance that very few expected.
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Jamie Nkiah entered the draft last night with no hype, and deservedly so. He was on rock bottom of more or less every teams draft list because he quite simply hadn’t shown up all season. He hadn’t developed at all during his time in the DSFL and looked by all accounts to be a stale, stagnant career junior league player at best. He had no anger or bad will to teams who thought this way because he knew it was exactly how they should feel. He’d let himself down, not delivered on his talent and allowed himself to sit back and watch others pass him by.
Nkiah grew up a quiet kid in Atlanta, in the kind of area where it’s hard to steer clear of the bad stuff. His route out had come through football, and he’d shown enough promise at high school to be recruited to Penn State as a promising cornerback out of high school. A position change in college soon saw him lining up as a strong safety and it looked as if his game really began to elevate with the change in position, as he developed the kind of versatile game that saw him just as disruptive to passing and rushing offenses. He was optimistic going into his rookie season in the DSFL that he could show enough talent to be picked up by a team early on in the NSFL draft that was to come, and he even had a wild ambition of being established as a first round draft pick by the time the day come.
Of course, things didn’t work out quite like that. Nkiah allowed bad habits to creep in; not showing up for practices, partying a little too much, losing his focus on the sport. He noticed his performance on the field was nowhere near where it should’ve been, yet he did nothing to try and turn things around. The weeks ticked by and the draft grew closer and closer, and when draft day came a dejected Jamie sat watching at home with just his parents, brothers and sisters. They had wanted to make it more of an occasion but Jamie feared the embarrassment of potentially going undrafted front of any sort of a crowd might be too much to deal with. And so he sat waiting and watching, seeing teammates and positional rivals taken off the board as the draft went ahead. He didn’t really have any ill feelings toward them; he recognised the hard work the other safeties in his class had put in to earn their draft rank, and had seen first hand the effort his team mates had made to get to where they were and he felt happy that he was able to share in their success in some small sense.
At the end of the second round, Jamie became convinced it was over. He hadn’t heard from any GMs, scouts or coaches in the run up to the draft and felt like this was it; his worst fear of going undrafted had come true. Jamie stood up and walked outside, before staring deeply into the night sky. Thoughts swirled in his head, most of them based around the same question; “how did I fuck things up this badly?” It was in this moment he realised there was only himself to blame. He had grown complacent but no longer would he sit still and watch his dream pass him by. It was time to make a change. It was as he began to work out a plan of action that his mom stepped out to tell him his phone was buzzing. There was a missed call from the GM of the Arizona Outlaws; turns out Jamie wasn’t going undrafted after all.
After a whirlwind 24 hours, Jamie finally took stock of the situation on a flight to Phoenix to meet his new team. He realised how lucky he’d been to be taken in by a team with the history and reputation of Arizona, and that he had the most important opportunity of his career to date to develop and grow in a well managed and experienced system. If he was going to make his situation right, this was his chance. It was at this point he set his mind firmly on what he wanted to achieve. He wanted the full package; helping the Outlaws to winning multiple Ultimi, learning from those around him, coaching those to come, but most importantly to him, he wanted to push himself to do what none had done before. He googled some stats as soon as he landed and wrote down the Outlaws’ career records for interceptions, as well as the record for tackles by a safety on the team. Those were his goals, the benchmark he would measure his contribution against. Arizona had put their faith in him and now it was on him to pay it back. To make a success of his career and play a role on a future powerhouse team. For now, he heads back to Myrtle Beach. There in SC, he hopes to make the first steps towards realising his goals as he looks to help lead his team to an Ultimini to set him up for the big show.
He’s promised Arizona he can deliver something special, and now it’s firmly on Jamie to do so. In the last 24 hours he’s shown more in terms of development or grit than he has all season, and it looks as if he may just be able to get his NSFL career off to the start he wants to. Although his NSFL dreams will have to wait a season, the lessons he hopes to learn over the next 12 months should set him up very nicely for the ultimate goal. A firm believer in the notion that iron sharpens iron, pushing himself to surpass his competition and learn important lessons from his teammates could lead to the Jamie Nkiah he always thought existed making an appearance that very few expected.
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1007 words