What do Warren Moon, Kurt Warner, Tony Romo, Wes Welker and Adam Vinatieri all have in common? They all went undrafted.
Although the road for an undrafted rookie to NFL stardom is far from easy, there are more than a few who have traveled it successfully and gone on to make an impact in the NFL.
This year, former University of New Hampshire tight end Scott Sicko will not be one of them.
That’s because Sicko decided to walk away from football after not being drafted despite the fact that the Dallas Cowboys, Jacksonville Jaguars and New York Jets all came calling after the draft, according to the Albany Times Union.
"Some people will think I’m absolutely out of [my] mind, and I understand it," Sicko told the paper. "I completely see where they’re coming from."
But Sicko’s simply thinking about what’s best for his future. As the draft wound down and his name wasn’t called, he decided that pursuing a post-graduate degree in history was better for him than signing an NFL contract.
"If I were to be drafted I would have had more confidence of a much longer career in the NFL," Sicko said. "I have to look at my life and decide what will make me the happiest. And the thing that will make me the happiest now and in the long run is to pursue my education."
That decision shocked both his agent and NFL teams. Ray Brownell, his agent, got a call from the Cowboys during the seventh round saying they’d be interested in signing him if he wasn’t drafted, according to the article.
When Brownell called Sicko, though, the 6-foot-4 native of Albany told him that he wasn’t going to play if he wasn’t drafted.
"He would have been a Cowboy," Brownell said. "I’m certain he would have made the roster."
Brownell had to explain Sicko’s decision to the Jaguars and Jets, too.
"They were very surprised," he told the paper. "They all felt he had a great opportunity to play in the NFL for years to come."
Will Sicko regret not trying to capitalize on that opportunity?
He told the paper he won’t, adding that it was not an emotional or irrational decision.
"I’m definitely going to say 'What if?'" Sicko said. "It’s not the asking of the question that’s the important thing. It’s the answering of the question that is the important thing."
