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There are certain phone calls you never forget. Sometimes when the phone rings a chapter begins. Sometimes when the phone rings your wife is explaining that $200 charge to Kohl's on the credit card bill. As an athlete, I can only imagine getting a call to say you made the N.F.L.. It would be the greatest call ever. It's the bouncer unhooking the velvet rope to let you in the league. It is years of hard work and sacrifice paying off. It's being able to pay your parents back for all the sacrifices they made to give you the best opportunity. So when you are Laurence Gibson sitting at a tractor supply store with your mom, imagine getting this call:
Pretty sweet phone call indeed. Laurence's life changed immediately. I managed to snag Laurence away from the mini camps, the workouts, and the general hysteria to ask him a few questions. He told me that his favorite team growing up was the Cowboys. The guy hit the lottery twice! His description of "The Call" really kind of let us into the backstage drama that is purely the N.F.L. draft. I asked him where he was and who called and he described it thusly:
"I was in the parking lot of tractor supply with my mom and I was on the phone with my agent. I had just committed to go the Broncos as free agent when he cut me off and said, "Oh S*&^, you just got drafted by the Cowboys, answer your phone!" He hung up, and immediately Jerry Jones called me."
So just like there are two sides to every situation, there are two sides to every phone call. I asked Laurence to look back on his most special memory at Virginia Tech, and the answer was not surprising. "My favorite Tech moment was when we went to Ohio State and beat the Buckeyes in front of the largest crowd they have ever had. Oh, and in front of Lebron James."
Meyer says #LebronJames Should Be In Town For Virginia Tech; Talks Hokies ... - Eleven Warriors http://t.co/wz2mfClGPr
— Bball News and Swag (@BestBballSwag) November 15, 2014
Gibson should do well in "Big D". There aren't any other franchises in the N.F.L. with literal star power like the Cowboys.
Follow me on twitter @roybhatfield, and judging by the followers, I need all the help I can get.