MVN - Most Valuable Network

MYNC: Jamey Richard

This is the final installment in a nine-part series concerning the Colts’ draft picks.

Buffalo’s Jamey Richard is a trailblazer for athletes from Weston (Conn.) High School.

Except, he’s not.

Amusingly, when Richard earned a Division-I scholarship to play at Buffalo, he was hailed as the first student-athlete in the school’s history to do it. However, as reported in the Westport Minuteman (December 1, 2005), there was a slight problem with Richard’s accompishment.

It wasn’t his to claim. Instead, Steve Bogan holds the distinction. He earned a D-I scholarship at Northwestern to play football and baseball.

Don’t blame Richard; it’s not his fault some reporter didn’t fully do his or her homework. But you have to admit, it’s kind of amusing. As if a media entity would ever get something wrong…

Ahem.

You can chalk that up to hometown heroism. Westport, Conn., is mighty proud of Jamey Richard.

Of course, you never know. It seems Richard is pretty good at promoting things. He worked during his football career to improve the atmosphere at Buffalo home games. Part of the effort included organizing tailgate parties…which students thought were against the rules. Richard made it his mission to correct the misconception while interning for the athletics department. He also sold ads for the team’s gameday program and helped drive the push for season ticket sales.

Of course, he was doing all this while preparing for his senior season of football. His persistence caught the eye of Ben Vucic, student relations coordinator for the athletic department (and Richard’s “boss” during his internship):

“You will not meet a more driven young man than Jamey Richard. The amount of work that kid did this summer, between lifting and getting ready for the season and putting time into his internship — it’s inspirational.”

Lockport Union Sun & Sentinel, Sept. 21, 2007

Richard redshirted his first year at Buffalo. He was a full-time starter by his sophomore year and never relinquished the position. He played with fire. His quarterback, Drew Willy (I did not make that name up) roomed with Richard on road trips. He pointed out that Richard always took control on the field:

“Jamey is really the anchor on that O-line. He takes care of his guys while I kind of take care of the skill guys. He is real tough. Every single play, at the end you see him getting one last push in, or one last block. He goes all out to the whistle.”

Lockport Union Sun & Sentinel, Sept. 21, 2007

Projected by some as a fifth-rounder, draft day was excruciating for Richard. He estimates that “75 percent” of NFL teams called him on draft day and said they were interested. Yet, round after round and team after team, Richard remained undrafted. Then Colts President Bill Polian dialed him up.

Richard tried not to get too excited. After all, the Colts had already invested higher draft picks on the center position; Richard doubted the team would pick a third one. He was stressed out. But his luck was just about to change:

“After talking to Colts president Bill Polian for about a minute, he told me to stop stressing because they were taking me right now. I thought it was impossible knowing that only five centers had been drafted, two by the Colts already. But sure enough, I wasn’t dreaming, and I was the 6th and final center selected in the draft.

I was on the phone with Coach Dungy when my name scrolled across the screen. My family started going crazy and I had to walk away so that I could hear what coach was actually saying to me.

While I was on the phone with the Colts, I got about 45 text messages, and within 10 minutes of it being shown on ESPN that I had been drafted, I got at least 100 calls from friends and family.

It was easily the best moment of my life.”

The Columbian, April 28, 2008

This entry was posted on Friday, May 16th, 2008 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Jamey Richard, Colts, NFL, NFL Draft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.