November 30, 2021 • 37 mins
Oregon State Linebacker Hamilcar Rashed Jr. and his family nervously watch the 2021 NFL Draft, struggling to make sense of his complicated draft ranking after his tumultuous senior season and personal battle with COVID. Meanwhile, Cal Defensive Back Camryn Bynum hosts his draft party in a mountain cabin in Big Bear, California, while team executives question which position he'll be best suited for in the NFL.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Drafted is a production of tree Fork Media, Clutch Sports Group,
and I Heart Radio m M. Most people have that
are getting drafted, they're always the guys since freshman year,
(00:20):
always the best, one of the same. But for me,
that wasn't the case. Sophomore year of high school, I
was trash and football fist sting on JV. So, like
now that it's like literally less than a day away,
it's kind of starting to get surreal. I'm I'm a
cry I'm an emotional person, so I'll be tearing up
thinking about my process. I was talking to my mom's
(00:41):
instagram from like six years ago, watching all my high
school videos and all my old workouts and all that.
So it's finally starting to get real for me. Welcome
back to Drafted. I'm Steven Johnson and this is episode
nine of season three. In this episode, we'll meet our
sixth and final player of this season, Oregon State linebacker
(01:04):
Hammaka Rashid Jr. We'll be joining Hammacah and his family
in Phoenix, Arizona for their draft party, but first we're
returning to the mountains of Big Bear, California for cornerback
Cameron Bonham's big day and now it's finally here. Cam explains,
all right, so it's the morning of the draft April.
(01:29):
We're about to late breakfast. But today I'm not gonna
tell people, well unless it's just talking crazy, but from
my immediate family, I'm not telling him. I'm Mike, So
I'm gonna keep it as authentic as possible for you.
All good content. All right, I'll be back. Cam joins
his family in the living room, where they all wait
for the first round to begin. Shortly. All right, Kevin,
(01:55):
give me some wisdom you Yeah, I want to be
quiet on all of a sudden, come on, give me something.
All his normally talkative siblings are suddenly quiet, maybe finally
succumbing to the weight of what's at stake. So to
(02:15):
lighten the mood, Cam shows off his newest skill. I
just want to Cam talked himself how to play the
piano while recovering from a knee injury last season. He
did this by following his same routine from football. Here.
(02:37):
He explains, physically, I just had to sit back and
do nothing for a little So that's the first time
I've ever done that. So that was the biggest challenge.
I was sitting in the garage doing curls, sitting with
my legs straight on the bench, and I wasn't allowed
to sweat, so I make it really put the fan
on me, sit there, do a set of curls. I
have to rest for like five minutes so I don't
(02:57):
get sweating and get it affective. But I was any
any little way to still get working. So that was
that was the biggest challenge for me, to to actually
sit back and rest. And I knew that I still
find a way to do something productive. Let me challenge
myself mentally in a different way. So that's when I
started playing piano and fell in love with music. Ever since,
Cam assumed his process for football would directly translate. He
(03:20):
substitute finger drills on the keys for footwork on the field,
as if tackling a running back or covering a wide
receiver are the same as combining notes and timing the pedals.
If always wanted to play the piano, and this is
super tough, super big challenge, And I was like, okay,
this does memic football. I gotta learn something. I gotta
(03:40):
drill it and then make a big picture and we
able to make music. Same thing with football. Gotta learned
to playbook. You gotta do drills to try and get
the movements down. Then you put it together and that's
a full play. So let me challenge myself and start
learning this instrument that I love and have loved my
whole life. That never played it. Uh, that was like
the best thing I've done so far. Going into the draft,
(04:05):
NFL scouts thought Cam might make a better safety than
a cornerback. However, it's a big risk moving a player
to another position at the pro level. Many athletes aren't
open to the idea or the amount of work required,
and the early struggles can shatter their confidence or overwhelm
them completely. So almost every team asked Cam how he
(04:25):
felt about trying to change positions. Would he be all
right getting outside his comfort zone and learning a new
role on defense? Could he handle the mental challenges that
come with initially struggling, And what about the amount of
time and commitment it takes to master these new skills. Now,
I'm pretty good now to the point where I can
(04:45):
play almost anything once I learn it. I can read
all the music, so it's just a matter of memorization. NASA.
Now I'm branching out to now I'm obsess of the
baskits are along with pianissa um, just trying to branch
out of the music and just keep learning. It was
this exact approach that got him here to draft day.
(05:11):
Throughout the week, it was before school there we're start
workout starts at five, and then right after school another
practice on the field at the high school, and then
right back at five o'clock we're back up with the
facility doing our speed work, doing our lifting, and one
more DV workout. So it was it was at least
with fourteen hours a day of from the time you
(05:34):
wake up at five am and I'm not getting home
until seven at night after my last workout, and then
I had to do homework and then right back and
now that was basically my whole routine even when I
got to college, still doing those crazy hours, still putting
it in extra hours. When a whole year without missing
a dave doing extra work. So that's that's really been
the whole story of my entire career. In addition to
(05:55):
the fourteen hour work days, Cam added another layer once
he started playing in college. I talked to the quarterbacks,
to the receiver coach, and the offensive coordinator after games
just say what what did you see him my game
that made you do this this or that? And after
games I'm d M and receivers like, okay, what was
going through the film room that week? And how are
(06:16):
you guys planning to beat me? After games, Cam questioned
opposing quarterbacks and coaches about his weaknesses. Then he continued
texting opposing receivers for days, desperately seeking any edge to
improve and any new area to work on. So maybe
when of those NFL teams asked Cam if he'd be
open to learning a new position like safety, instead of
(06:38):
answering their questions, maybe he should have just played them
a song or two. Meet hammaca Rashid Jr. Linebacker from
(07:09):
Oregon State University. I had a lot of meetings, play
I every meeten and I had to play two teams.
We're talking about, um, how did I drop from you know,
fourteen sacks zero? And that's pretty much where I'd answered
his whole drive time. And that's probably the biggest question.
Now I've been asked arguably no prospect and the entire
(07:30):
draft has a wider range of possible outcomes than Hammoca.
He's projected to be picked anywhere from late in Round
one too late in the seventh round. In other words,
at almost any point in the entire draft. This is
because Hamaca had possibly the two craziest back to back
seasons out of anyone in college football. Two years ago,
(07:50):
he had fourteen sacks, barely trailing last year's number two pick,
an NFL defensive Rookie of the Year, Chase Young. Then
he decided to come back for his senior season. Here's
Hammokah elaborating, Yeah, I wanted to come back and be
a top teen. You know what they're saying, I'm top thirty.
(08:12):
You know thirty people are better me. I wanted to
come back, and so I'm like, no, these thirty people
are not betting me. All these sixty people are not
betting me. That's really motivated me to go back. He
returned to Oregon State and only recorded two tackles for
a loss and zero sacks. So naturally everyone wants to
know how and why that happened. And this is why
(08:32):
he has a nearly unprecedented draft range and why he
and his family are feeling a little nervous right now.
As the final few pre draft minutes take away his mother,
Misha McLamore especially, begins to struggle with the tension. Yeah,
I'm sitting down there. Yeah, I like down and we're
(09:00):
not getting Mischia takes a seat on the couch to
try to calm herself. She's struggling with a similar question
and the fel executive's face. What's next for Hannock's career?
Is he the player from two seasons ago or the
one from last year? Which player is the real hammockaver
Sheet Jr. To answer that question, you have to go
(09:20):
all the way back to his childhood where he grew
up playing sports with his three brothers in South Phoenix, Arizona.
Growing on yesterday. You know, I had a lot of
people going outside playing basketball and football, and I feel
(09:41):
like that's when it started my football career, you know,
talking all the people in the streets, so you know,
hot deserts, scrapes and bruises and all types of stuff.
Now that was you know, no fun times. For sure,
football was fun. Hannaka played in the youth leagues along
with the pickup games in the neighborhood. He'd go crashing
into anyone and everyone, no matter the age or size
(10:03):
or whether he was on the field or a paved street.
The tackling and chasing and collisions all felt natural. I
think I'm just born like this. You know, I'll never
back down, you know. Sorry early age. I think I
want to say, probably my older brothers they made me tougher.
You know, I'm always fighting man, I'm fighting your friend
(10:25):
or something like that, and I'm not backing down. The
probably started from my brother and my dad. You know,
they're always tough on me and working me being fearless.
I'm fearless and I'm not scaring. You know. It's the
heart and how tough you are. Like DeVante Smith getting
pushed her ounto the basketball court. As a younger kid,
Cammica grew up always playing against older siblings and bigger
(10:46):
kids in the neighborhood. Here's his older brother DeAndre on
those intense childhood games, like any other big brother. For me,
you're gonna you're gonna pick on the little ones. It's
my to make sure you're coming you tough. Most things
about happen. Like I said, we all was rough. So
even though my mom trying to protect you, to keep
us clean, we're just like any other kids. We're bad
(11:09):
we're playing, you know, picking on each other, that type
of ordeal. So as Hammer came along, the one visual
thing I got about ham He usually had his arch
little hockey stick like he's probably like I want to say,
the water too, and he probably had like a pull
up ball. He ran to the house chasing as little
a little as he was chasing us, you feel me,
So I feel like that could have been another thing
(11:30):
where he was. He was crazy and the football he
already had it even as a toddler him I would
chase his older brothers to the house with a hockey stick,
already playing like a future linebacker looking for someone to hit.
But like I started at the early age, I know
I was gonna be a for all players because I
was just tough as a one, ain't I'm fighting, I'm
(11:52):
picking on kids three times bigger than me. You know,
I'm not backing down out there, just putting my head
and hitting arry kid out there. So I feel like
I learned that. I think I learned that us like
probably seven nine years old, and and I didn't look
back to Sinderstand. Despite some success, Hammaka wasn't heavily recruited
(12:14):
or getting much publicity during his first two seasons of
high school. Then everything changed his junior year. It wasn't
really recruited. Um, I end up had to get like
ten sacks in one game, and that's what I'm everything like,
offers started trying to come. You know, I blew up
my last two years. But nobody knew me until. But
(12:34):
that's that. That's that line of having twenty sacks in
my jail year. In case you think you misheard those
cartoonists sounding statistics, Hammaca recorded ten sacks in one game
his junior year of high school and twenty for the season.
I'll just pinned dn and honest f ls, I was
just running past the kids the whole time and just unstoppable.
(12:57):
I feel like, you know, I was just pretty easy,
just getting off the bar, just honestly. I don't even
say it counted, but you know, tis saxs tis sacks,
you know, so you can do that in the video game. Then,
following the best performance of his football career, everything in
the himcas like quickly turned once again. I had twenty sacks,
(13:23):
a lot of tiger for losses. You know, I was
glowing up. I had a great year, but into my
senior year, my parents end up breaking up and he
broke up, and that led to me moving in with
my mom, Me and my little brother. We end up
having to live with my my oldest brother for a
couple of months, and I wasn't sure where I was
gonna go. Uh. I was um sharing rooms from my
(13:48):
nephew and my little brother, So you know, it was
tough time. Hammaco and his younger brother, along with her mom,
moved into his older brother's apartment in a new school district.
That meant Cammica would now be attending a new high
school for his senior year. His mom, Misha, recounts those
(14:11):
traumatic days. It was a trying time for all of us.
We had just went through our family breakup and then
you know, he would just had to be strong. It
was his senior year that everything happened before we got
to Chandler, and the whole life just changed. And I
(14:33):
just said, okay, we'll have a goa. We got to
figure this out. So I said, whatever I gotta do,
whatever I have to do, we're gonna get through this.
And with the grace of God and my my dad's
deceased now, but he was there and then my grandmother,
she stepped in and my other grandma, who just passed
away two months ago. My family came together and helped
(14:54):
me to make sure that me and my boys would
be fine. And it was a child Mischa and her
parents and grandparents all came together to care for the
boys and work with the coaches at Hammonka's new high school, Chandler.
My name is Russell Scott. I am I'm assistant football
coach at Chandler High School. I am also a teacher
(15:17):
on campus as well, and I know him by way
of football. Of course, we knew of him and we
did hear about this tensack game that he had, and
we knew he was special. But my relationship with with
him was more after practice. He also, you know, he
had a hip injury at the beginning, and so I
(15:39):
would take him to physical therapy, so he and I
would ride along, you know, So we had twenty minutes
therapy and twenty minutes back from therapy, and you know,
I do leadership here at Chandler, and so much of
our conversation was, you know, about life, because we knew
he had the physical tools to make something happen for himself.
But we also want to know about his mentor background.
(16:00):
He want to know his goals and his aspirations as well.
You know, so much of of my conversation with him
came from being off the field. Coach Scott and Hammaca
began to bond, and because Hamaca didn't know a single
person at his new high school, this relationship provided him
with someone to turn to for help during this dark period.
(16:23):
He did have some things going on family wise. He
also had some academic things going on as well. Uh.
And so when he came over to Chandler, we let
him know. So if a kid has the utmost the
potential to play at the next level Division one, two three, uh,
we we delve into him and we do transcript research.
(16:44):
And so we put together a plan for for him.
And it took him getting all a's and beats both
semesters in order for him to to really have a
shot to go anywhere. Hamaca's living situation is unsettled. His
parents are recently divorced, and he has to start over
at a new high school with a new football program
(17:04):
where he doesn't know anyone. Then he discovers that he
has to get all a's and b's both semesters to
academically qualify to play college football. His senior year quickly
turns into the greatest challenge of his young life, and
his decorated twenty season disappeared into the background as everyone
wonders whether he will be able to rise to the
(17:26):
occasion on and off the field. We'll be right back like.
(17:53):
Coach Scott and the staff at Chandler High School called
a meeting with Hannukah and his mom to deliver the
tough news about his respects my high school coaches. They
sent me down. He was like, listen, there you have
I want to say. I had like a two four
two three g p A. And they were like, you
have all these schools coming up to us talking about
you know, you're a great athlete. You you can do
(18:14):
all this stuff. You have talk of production and stuff
like that. But it was like, you're having no grades.
You gotta do the S A T. S uh. I
think it's S A T or the other one. And
they pretty much tled me down. And I believe Coach Eric,
who was the guy that he sent me down, he
told me he's planning this whole map out. He was like, listening,
(18:36):
I need you to buckle down and get straight a's
to qualify, And he's like, I know you're doing, and
I believe all your Harvard will pay off. If you
buy into this, buy into what I'm saying right now,
you'll be in college. Hamaka needed to excel in the
classroom and on the football field, and he needed to
do that amid the turbulence and emotional challenges with his
(18:56):
life at home. She's sick because she's out of she's hurt.
You know, it's tough, you know, watching her come home
from work and just go straight to the room, and
I really, you know, obviously all that stuff is just
tough to see. So I feel like that's probably the
toughest party. You know. He wasn't sure if she was
(19:18):
physically ill, suffering emotionally, or both. Under these conditions, his
life seemed to be facing acrossroads. He could use these
challenges to focus and further commit to his goals, or
he could understandably wilt under the intense pressure bearing down
on every part of his life and give up. So
(19:40):
I feel like for me, it was just being there
and you know, being strong for her mom because she's
having a tough time just having her not worry about
me because she already has so much stuff to worry about,
you know, and I don't have my mom stressed about me.
And see where I'm at. And I just took it
as I go to show my mom like I can
help her. And you know, doing everything right helped me.
(20:02):
See Claire, I wanted to get to college and now
you know the NFL. Hammock A committed himself to these
goals in a new way, throwing himself into his schoolwork
and football. Here's Coach Scott on what he saw from
Hammoca during this period. He had to go to tutoring
and so he had to get with his teachers. He
had to sit in there and and and study for
(20:24):
another hour or so before practice, you know. And then
he once he made out the practice, he gotta study
out there on the field too, so you know, he
was putting in time. Then after school and he did
go to the public library, which is down the street
from this house. He went to the public library in
order to get some homework done because I don't believe
they had an internet connection in the apartment that he
(20:44):
was staying in with his mom and brother while he
was going to school. Here's Hammocka again on these compounding challenges.
I pretty much bought it and worked my butt off
to go to a library for like three or four
hours and study with an S A T guy. You know,
obviously math and stuff was hard. To end up getting
(21:05):
straight a's probably for my first time in my life
and kind up qualified and I was just so happy.
He qualifies for Division one football and follows up his
twenty SA junior year with thirteen more sacks as a senior.
This leads to hammaca committee to Oregon State, planning to
(21:27):
join his older brother there who plays on the basketball team. Finally,
the dark days are behind him, until what seemed like
the perfect situation in college quickly turns into another bad dream.
Our freshman year, end up traveling every game thinking I
was gonna play, you know, the coach telling me to
(21:49):
get ready, stretch and stuff like that, and I'm never
going me in. At the last like two games, he
was like, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm your ash, saying that
he is like seeing you to do elemental lived and
that was that, and it was pretty tough. I was
working my butt off, you know, I was probably just
(22:09):
stronger than just starting linebacker and faster than him. And
I'm working my butt off from doing everything right, and
I just didn't get that chance. And second year comes
around the same thing. I end up playing this special
team my second year, um doing everything right out there,
smacking people, smacking people around on kickoff and punt and
stuff like that, with the hopes of, you know, playing
(22:31):
on defense. And I think I want to say, I
probably got eleven plays that whole second year on defense.
He wasn't getting to play, and he certainly wasn't having
the same fun he used to when he was younger.
It was a tough time and I couldn't do nothing
(22:52):
about that. You know. Everyone went around me was like,
I can't believe you're not playing. So I feel like
that's probably what this motivated me. Even are those years,
those past years, I'm just like, they don't believe me.
They don't see what I see, and they are not
even gonna give me the chance to even try to show.
That's what probably the hardest part was anger, you know,
(23:13):
just not playing. You know, you're not playing football. You
just YEA, obviously you can lose yourself. Because mom Misha
tried to stay positive despite the difficult years adding up
and Hammka's brother transferring to another university. We just try
(23:34):
to do is just encourage him and still hanging there
for him, never playing, from him always playing football for
now everything stopped. Your whole life changed. Just still trying
to encourage him to just keep pushing forward even though
he's not playing. So it was a rest time. And
then for your brother to be there, and then he's
no longer there, and the first first time I ever
leaving home and our households had changed completely. So we
(23:57):
just had to keep encouraging him and until you can
figure this part out. Once again, her son faced a
daunting period in his life. No matter where he looked,
he didn't see a clear road to better times ahead.
(24:21):
We'll be right back. Despite all the challenges, Hamaca's mom, Misha,
never lost faith. She explains, I said I would do
what I have to do to fixes and I'm would
(24:42):
support you guys, regardless of what we just went through.
I said, I need you guys to do your job too,
So you expect to me the hand of my business.
I need to do hand of yours, and you're gonna
get there regardless. Yeah, even if we had that was
Hammaca's stepdad Chris Acklamore in the background talking about driving.
(25:03):
He came out eighteen how okay came home. It was
like spring breaker with I don't know what it was,
but he came home and we had got him a
plane ticket to go back to Oregon. So we got
to the airport drop hammca off after flying home to
Arizona for spring break. Hamaka is now returning to campus
for the rest of the semester at Oregon State. Drop
(25:31):
him off at the airport. He calls, we weren't even
back dead to the apartment yet. Mom, the plane left me.
What do you mean the plane left year? What do
you mean? What do you mean? And so trying to
faire out, Okay, he has to be back to school
the next day or so. He's like, I'm trying to
figure out how to buy another plane ticket. Everything was
(25:51):
like two dollars one way. Looks at Chris, he said,
we drive there? What did you mean? We went and
picked that to go back up from the airport. Twenty
two hours we drove him back to Oregon. Just not
time to get to practice. When I say driving off
(26:14):
to you were attack team and have a go to
sleep there in the back of the Seguoya. We were
just driving twenty twenty two hours. Twenty two hours of driving,
two years without playing, his brother transferring from Oregon State.
(26:36):
Throughout it all, hammock As simply tried to persevere. Research
shows the most predictive traits for success are persistence and grit,
showing up for practice and tutoring day after day, dragging
yourself to the public library, having a family who picks
you back up metaphorically off the ground and literally from
(26:57):
the airport and get you back on your way. This
is what Hammaca and his parents did, and suddenly one
day it paid off. Going into Hammoca's red shirt sophomore year,
the Oregon State Beavers hired a new head coach, Jonathan Smith,
and just like that, everything in Corvallis oregan changed. Third
(27:18):
year and I got a new coach of staff and
finally got to play football, like three years. I was
just thinking this whole time, like you might not see
it now, but I'm gonna make someone pay. And I
was honestly wanted to play that old coaching staff and
just go crazy on that on their team and just
showed them like this is the guy you had on
the bench the whole time, you know, and you didn't
(27:40):
even give him the shot to even try. You know.
He got like twelve tackles, twelve two typles Watson and
some sids. And I was just like, wow, this football
feels like a year. I haven't played so long since
high school. But after that, you know, the sky was
a lament his red shirt junior year in all the
(28:02):
pieces came together, the joy was back, and football became
fun again. So fun it was. It's so much fun,
you know, thinking about like, oh, I'm out here getting
(28:25):
respect from other teams and everyone was like, yeah, you're
a great player doing this. I remember Vivily like issue
like tackles. He was just like me a game. I
ran past him and I got like another tiger for loss.
He was like, bro, you're killing me. He was like, bro,
I really can't stop to me. I end up trying
to like be like a one arm staff and he
like knocked my hand down and I fell to the
(28:46):
ground and he was like, yes, I got him. You
finally got him. And I was just like this is funny.
It's like really crazy, Like he finally got me. On one,
I'm killing the whole game. So I feel like overall,
it's just it was a great year. So I was
just just me just getting back to football and being
out there being destructive and making plays the biggest difference,
(29:12):
you know, I'm just out there being free, letting me
go over as you left me play football. Hammka registered
fourteen sacks that year along with the twenty two and
a half tackles for loss. He catapulted into the national
spotlight and became a first team All American and then
surprisingly he decided to return for his senior season. It
(29:35):
was tough to think about right now, but um, yeah,
I broke my thumb has curgery at the end of
the year for you know, tween ninety year. So you know,
my big reason why I was gonna go to draft
was that I couldn't do the benches and combine stuff.
So that really affected me. And I think I was
like projected top thirty or something around there, and I
(29:57):
felt like I could definitely improve and do another great
year and go up and become a you know, top
ten pick. That's always been my dream, you know, always
want to be a top ten pick. And that's why
I really that's really motivated me, and I felt confident
what I had and what my coach has prepared me
for and the people around me. I feel like we're
(30:17):
gonna have a way better here, not knowing you know,
COVID and all stuff is gonna happen. His goal for
a senior year is to become a top ten pick,
and he's feeling as optimistic as ever. I'll still recovering
from pins in my hands, from broken down, and COVID
(30:38):
here comes. They're like, yeah, I just go home and
we just did one to two practices and they're like,
I'm just getting started, and I'm like, wow, we gotta
go home now. COVID hit campuses across the country and
Hammakah had to return home after justice first few practices.
We're I'm going home for four or five months. I'm
(30:59):
training my it off at home, working out with two coaches,
going to two places just to be stayed, and I
want to stay. After that delay, they canceled it. They
counsel our season. The PAC twelve conference initially calls off
the entire year, then as the pandemic situation becomes clearer,
they eventually decided to play an abbreviated season all the
(31:22):
players returned for fall camp with new COVID protocols, including
a test every single morning. I woke up at six
a five am to get tested at or the state,
and the trainer came in and talk to me. I
was in the meeting room, he was about to start
doing meetings and he came in and he was like, heym,
I need you. He talked to you, and I'm like, hey,
can you need to talk to me about right? And
(31:44):
end up going downstairs with the trainer. He's like, you
just power for COVID. You test positive, And I was
like what. He's like, yeah, you need to go home
right now, like right now, and walking home and didn't
leave my house since then for four ten day and
probably was the most terrible time every fourteen days ever
(32:05):
And I'm like, what the heck? How right? And I'm
like all I did was stay home and went to
go judge Mikes. So, so when we were at that time,
from going to get some food and from back to
practice or whatever, I got COVID. Somehow. He spent four
(32:27):
straight months training at home and finally recovered from his
broken thumb and then COVID. So I missed two weeks
of all camp, then have to come back after COVID
and play. You know, I felt like COVID pretty much
hit me, and the hardest I would say, you know,
I just have legs. You know you need you need legs.
You need legs to do everything you're doing for the wall,
(32:48):
your legs over eight from a sack to her. You know,
I feel like all that stuff matters, and it definitely mattered.
Hammica's COVID recovery was slow and drawn out. He didn't
have his usual first but once again he persevered. I
didn't have to come back after COVID and play. Then
(33:08):
got hurt her my ankle pretty bad. Didn't try to
just get ready for the season and rehabbing a lot
of it and played a couple of games, just tore
up and you know, I'm just do whatever it thinks.
You're not trying to survive these couple of games. And
it just wasn't great. And obviously I didn't get a
(33:31):
lot of stats, as you know a lot of people
wanted me to have and obviously hurt me. You know,
this is the one and only topic NFL teams focused
on whenever Hammakah talks to them. What happened. They all
want to know what happened to Hammaka. What happened was
(33:51):
a string of injuries and illnesses. He wasn't able to
play his best football. To his high school mentor coach Scott,
it was also a case of game plan when he
came back. You know, teams that already you know, understood
if if this kid is back around us, what we
have to do. He's way too strong, way too way
too fast for a single coverage. And so what the
(34:12):
teams started doing is they started double teaming to keep
him away from quarterbacks. So that was the biggest thing,
was the adjustments that teams made against him. It wasn't
anything that he did wrong because that that wasn't the case.
But you know, your better teams aren't going to allow
that to happen. You know, they learned about him and
they learned how to slow him down. So the question
(34:36):
of what happened depends on who you ask and how
much they know about the last six years of Hammaker's life.
And when it comes to NFL scouts and executives, they
want to know absolutely everything. A lot of meetings, but
you know, every meeting, and I had two teams were
talking about, how did I drove from fourteen stacks zero?
(34:57):
That's pretty much where I had answered his whole drive time.
And that's probably the jig question now, I mean I
asked injuries, double teams, COVID. Those are all part of
what happened this past season, though the real answer goes
all the way back to the little kid playing football
(35:18):
in the streets of Phoenix, the one chasing down his
older brothers, having the most fun as he crashes into
kids all over the neighborhood. What happened this past season
is something that's happened many times before. He had a
very tough year. Football stopped being fun for a little while.
But the recurring story of Hammocka's life is that no
(35:38):
matter what gets thrown at him, he always fights his
way back. He's been through ups and downs like this
many times before. Expectations were definitely high. Now I played
my worst football ness last year because love injuries, not
because no, I can't play great football. Next I'm drafted.
(36:08):
It was to me it was like a death and
I had the baby at the same time, Like, what
in the world just happening? I know, I just took
my mic off and when I'm staring and I was hot.
I'm just mad, come on, call my phone with somebody.
Somebody called my phone. But originally when I saw him
looking at his phone, like no, he's joking on my
phone into that this is the movie, It's like, this
doesn't happen, this isn't regular. So that's my that's my
(36:30):
little catchphrase do for the movie. Packers hit me and
turned to hit me. I'm like, what I'm trying. That's
when you have to push the motion to the side
and say what are we gonna do best for him?
From seeing people get drafted with like no names and
like it's just it's just irritating. So I just broke down.
He didn't hear me crying on my side of the phone, bro,
but it was so unreal. Drafted is a production of
(36:59):
tree Ford Media, Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio.
The executive producers are Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Eric Slott,
Eric Weiner, and Sewn t Toone. The series is produced
and written by Eric Winer. Garme Mamalu is our coordinating producer.
Coral Silverberg is our associate producer. Tom Monahan is our
senior audio engineer. The show is mixed, edited, and hosted
(37:22):
by me Steven Johnson, additional production help from Tim Shower
and Haley Mandelberg. For transcripts of the show and more information,
undrafted quot to Tree for dot fm and for more
podcasts for My Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Drafted is a production of tree Fork Media, Clutch Sports Group,
and I Heart Radio m M. Most people have that
are getting drafted, they're always the guys since freshman year,
(00:20):
always the best, one of the same. But for me,
that wasn't the case. Sophomore year of high school, I
was trash and football fist sting on JV. So, like
now that it's like literally less than a day away,
it's kind of starting to get surreal. I'm I'm a
cry I'm an emotional person, so I'll be tearing up
thinking about my process. I was talking to my mom's
(00:41):
instagram from like six years ago, watching all my high
school videos and all my old workouts and all that.
So it's finally starting to get real for me. Welcome
back to Drafted. I'm Steven Johnson and this is episode
nine of season three. In this episode, we'll meet our
sixth and final player of this season, Oregon State linebacker
(01:04):
Hammaka Rashid Jr. We'll be joining Hammacah and his family
in Phoenix, Arizona for their draft party, but first we're
returning to the mountains of Big Bear, California for cornerback
Cameron Bonham's big day and now it's finally here. Cam explains,
all right, so it's the morning of the draft April.
(01:29):
We're about to late breakfast. But today I'm not gonna
tell people, well unless it's just talking crazy, but from
my immediate family, I'm not telling him. I'm Mike, So
I'm gonna keep it as authentic as possible for you.
All good content. All right, I'll be back. Cam joins
his family in the living room, where they all wait
for the first round to begin. Shortly. All right, Kevin,
(01:55):
give me some wisdom you Yeah, I want to be
quiet on all of a sudden, come on, give me something.
All his normally talkative siblings are suddenly quiet, maybe finally
succumbing to the weight of what's at stake. So to
(02:15):
lighten the mood, Cam shows off his newest skill. I
just want to Cam talked himself how to play the
piano while recovering from a knee injury last season. He
did this by following his same routine from football. Here.
(02:37):
He explains, physically, I just had to sit back and
do nothing for a little So that's the first time
I've ever done that. So that was the biggest challenge.
I was sitting in the garage doing curls, sitting with
my legs straight on the bench, and I wasn't allowed
to sweat, so I make it really put the fan
on me, sit there, do a set of curls. I
have to rest for like five minutes so I don't
(02:57):
get sweating and get it affective. But I was any
any little way to still get working. So that was
that was the biggest challenge for me, to to actually
sit back and rest. And I knew that I still
find a way to do something productive. Let me challenge
myself mentally in a different way. So that's when I
started playing piano and fell in love with music. Ever since,
Cam assumed his process for football would directly translate. He
(03:20):
substitute finger drills on the keys for footwork on the field,
as if tackling a running back or covering a wide
receiver are the same as combining notes and timing the pedals.
If always wanted to play the piano, and this is
super tough, super big challenge, And I was like, okay,
this does memic football. I gotta learn something. I gotta
(03:40):
drill it and then make a big picture and we
able to make music. Same thing with football. Gotta learned
to playbook. You gotta do drills to try and get
the movements down. Then you put it together and that's
a full play. So let me challenge myself and start
learning this instrument that I love and have loved my
whole life. That never played it. Uh, that was like
the best thing I've done so far. Going into the draft,
(04:05):
NFL scouts thought Cam might make a better safety than
a cornerback. However, it's a big risk moving a player
to another position at the pro level. Many athletes aren't
open to the idea or the amount of work required,
and the early struggles can shatter their confidence or overwhelm
them completely. So almost every team asked Cam how he
(04:25):
felt about trying to change positions. Would he be all
right getting outside his comfort zone and learning a new
role on defense? Could he handle the mental challenges that
come with initially struggling, And what about the amount of
time and commitment it takes to master these new skills. Now,
I'm pretty good now to the point where I can
(04:45):
play almost anything once I learn it. I can read
all the music, so it's just a matter of memorization. NASA.
Now I'm branching out to now I'm obsess of the
baskits are along with pianissa um, just trying to branch
out of the music and just keep learning. It was
this exact approach that got him here to draft day.
(05:11):
Throughout the week, it was before school there we're start
workout starts at five, and then right after school another
practice on the field at the high school, and then
right back at five o'clock we're back up with the
facility doing our speed work, doing our lifting, and one
more DV workout. So it was it was at least
with fourteen hours a day of from the time you
(05:34):
wake up at five am and I'm not getting home
until seven at night after my last workout, and then
I had to do homework and then right back and
now that was basically my whole routine even when I
got to college, still doing those crazy hours, still putting
it in extra hours. When a whole year without missing
a dave doing extra work. So that's that's really been
the whole story of my entire career. In addition to
(05:55):
the fourteen hour work days, Cam added another layer once
he started playing in college. I talked to the quarterbacks,
to the receiver coach, and the offensive coordinator after games
just say what what did you see him my game
that made you do this this or that? And after
games I'm d M and receivers like, okay, what was
going through the film room that week? And how are
(06:16):
you guys planning to beat me? After games, Cam questioned
opposing quarterbacks and coaches about his weaknesses. Then he continued
texting opposing receivers for days, desperately seeking any edge to
improve and any new area to work on. So maybe
when of those NFL teams asked Cam if he'd be
open to learning a new position like safety, instead of
(06:38):
answering their questions, maybe he should have just played them
a song or two. Meet hammaca Rashid Jr. Linebacker from
(07:09):
Oregon State University. I had a lot of meetings, play
I every meeten and I had to play two teams.
We're talking about, um, how did I drop from you know,
fourteen sacks zero? And that's pretty much where I'd answered
his whole drive time. And that's probably the biggest question.
Now I've been asked arguably no prospect and the entire
(07:30):
draft has a wider range of possible outcomes than Hammoca.
He's projected to be picked anywhere from late in Round
one too late in the seventh round. In other words,
at almost any point in the entire draft. This is
because Hamaca had possibly the two craziest back to back
seasons out of anyone in college football. Two years ago,
(07:50):
he had fourteen sacks, barely trailing last year's number two pick,
an NFL defensive Rookie of the Year, Chase Young. Then
he decided to come back for his senior season. Here's
Hammokah elaborating, Yeah, I wanted to come back and be
a top teen. You know what they're saying, I'm top thirty.
(08:12):
You know thirty people are better me. I wanted to
come back, and so I'm like, no, these thirty people
are not betting me. All these sixty people are not
betting me. That's really motivated me to go back. He
returned to Oregon State and only recorded two tackles for
a loss and zero sacks. So naturally everyone wants to
know how and why that happened. And this is why
(08:32):
he has a nearly unprecedented draft range and why he
and his family are feeling a little nervous right now.
As the final few pre draft minutes take away his mother,
Misha McLamore especially, begins to struggle with the tension. Yeah,
I'm sitting down there. Yeah, I like down and we're
(09:00):
not getting Mischia takes a seat on the couch to
try to calm herself. She's struggling with a similar question
and the fel executive's face. What's next for Hannock's career?
Is he the player from two seasons ago or the
one from last year? Which player is the real hammockaver
Sheet Jr. To answer that question, you have to go
(09:20):
all the way back to his childhood where he grew
up playing sports with his three brothers in South Phoenix, Arizona.
Growing on yesterday. You know, I had a lot of
people going outside playing basketball and football, and I feel
(09:41):
like that's when it started my football career, you know,
talking all the people in the streets, so you know,
hot deserts, scrapes and bruises and all types of stuff.
Now that was you know, no fun times. For sure,
football was fun. Hannaka played in the youth leagues along
with the pickup games in the neighborhood. He'd go crashing
into anyone and everyone, no matter the age or size
(10:03):
or whether he was on the field or a paved street.
The tackling and chasing and collisions all felt natural. I
think I'm just born like this. You know, I'll never
back down, you know. Sorry early age. I think I
want to say, probably my older brothers they made me tougher.
You know, I'm always fighting man, I'm fighting your friend
(10:25):
or something like that, and I'm not backing down. The
probably started from my brother and my dad. You know,
they're always tough on me and working me being fearless.
I'm fearless and I'm not scaring. You know. It's the
heart and how tough you are. Like DeVante Smith getting
pushed her ounto the basketball court. As a younger kid,
Cammica grew up always playing against older siblings and bigger
(10:46):
kids in the neighborhood. Here's his older brother DeAndre on
those intense childhood games, like any other big brother. For me,
you're gonna you're gonna pick on the little ones. It's
my to make sure you're coming you tough. Most things
about happen. Like I said, we all was rough. So
even though my mom trying to protect you, to keep
us clean, we're just like any other kids. We're bad
(11:09):
we're playing, you know, picking on each other, that type
of ordeal. So as Hammer came along, the one visual
thing I got about ham He usually had his arch
little hockey stick like he's probably like I want to say,
the water too, and he probably had like a pull
up ball. He ran to the house chasing as little
a little as he was chasing us, you feel me,
So I feel like that could have been another thing
(11:30):
where he was. He was crazy and the football he
already had it even as a toddler him I would
chase his older brothers to the house with a hockey stick,
already playing like a future linebacker looking for someone to hit.
But like I started at the early age, I know
I was gonna be a for all players because I
was just tough as a one, ain't I'm fighting, I'm
(11:52):
picking on kids three times bigger than me. You know,
I'm not backing down out there, just putting my head
and hitting arry kid out there. So I feel like
I learned that. I think I learned that us like
probably seven nine years old, and and I didn't look
back to Sinderstand. Despite some success, Hammaka wasn't heavily recruited
(12:14):
or getting much publicity during his first two seasons of
high school. Then everything changed his junior year. It wasn't
really recruited. Um, I end up had to get like
ten sacks in one game, and that's what I'm everything like,
offers started trying to come. You know, I blew up
my last two years. But nobody knew me until. But
(12:34):
that's that. That's that line of having twenty sacks in
my jail year. In case you think you misheard those
cartoonists sounding statistics, Hammaca recorded ten sacks in one game
his junior year of high school and twenty for the season.
I'll just pinned dn and honest f ls, I was
just running past the kids the whole time and just unstoppable.
(12:57):
I feel like, you know, I was just pretty easy,
just getting off the bar, just honestly. I don't even
say it counted, but you know, tis saxs tis sacks,
you know, so you can do that in the video game. Then,
following the best performance of his football career, everything in
the himcas like quickly turned once again. I had twenty sacks,
(13:23):
a lot of tiger for losses. You know, I was
glowing up. I had a great year, but into my
senior year, my parents end up breaking up and he
broke up, and that led to me moving in with
my mom, Me and my little brother. We end up
having to live with my my oldest brother for a
couple of months, and I wasn't sure where I was
gonna go. Uh. I was um sharing rooms from my
(13:48):
nephew and my little brother, So you know, it was
tough time. Hammaco and his younger brother, along with her mom,
moved into his older brother's apartment in a new school district.
That meant Cammica would now be attending a new high
school for his senior year. His mom, Misha, recounts those
(14:11):
traumatic days. It was a trying time for all of us.
We had just went through our family breakup and then
you know, he would just had to be strong. It
was his senior year that everything happened before we got
to Chandler, and the whole life just changed. And I
(14:33):
just said, okay, we'll have a goa. We got to
figure this out. So I said, whatever I gotta do,
whatever I have to do, we're gonna get through this.
And with the grace of God and my my dad's
deceased now, but he was there and then my grandmother,
she stepped in and my other grandma, who just passed
away two months ago. My family came together and helped
(14:54):
me to make sure that me and my boys would
be fine. And it was a child Mischa and her
parents and grandparents all came together to care for the
boys and work with the coaches at Hammonka's new high school, Chandler.
My name is Russell Scott. I am I'm assistant football
coach at Chandler High School. I am also a teacher
(15:17):
on campus as well, and I know him by way
of football. Of course, we knew of him and we
did hear about this tensack game that he had, and
we knew he was special. But my relationship with with
him was more after practice. He also, you know, he
had a hip injury at the beginning, and so I
(15:39):
would take him to physical therapy, so he and I
would ride along, you know, So we had twenty minutes
therapy and twenty minutes back from therapy, and you know,
I do leadership here at Chandler, and so much of
our conversation was, you know, about life, because we knew
he had the physical tools to make something happen for himself.
But we also want to know about his mentor background.
(16:00):
He want to know his goals and his aspirations as well.
You know, so much of of my conversation with him
came from being off the field. Coach Scott and Hammaca
began to bond, and because Hamaca didn't know a single
person at his new high school, this relationship provided him
with someone to turn to for help during this dark period.
(16:23):
He did have some things going on family wise. He
also had some academic things going on as well. Uh.
And so when he came over to Chandler, we let
him know. So if a kid has the utmost the
potential to play at the next level Division one, two three, uh,
we we delve into him and we do transcript research.
(16:44):
And so we put together a plan for for him.
And it took him getting all a's and beats both
semesters in order for him to to really have a
shot to go anywhere. Hamaca's living situation is unsettled. His
parents are recently divorced, and he has to start over
at a new high school with a new football program
(17:04):
where he doesn't know anyone. Then he discovers that he
has to get all a's and b's both semesters to
academically qualify to play college football. His senior year quickly
turns into the greatest challenge of his young life, and
his decorated twenty season disappeared into the background as everyone
wonders whether he will be able to rise to the
(17:26):
occasion on and off the field. We'll be right back like.
(17:53):
Coach Scott and the staff at Chandler High School called
a meeting with Hannukah and his mom to deliver the
tough news about his respects my high school coaches. They
sent me down. He was like, listen, there you have
I want to say. I had like a two four
two three g p A. And they were like, you
have all these schools coming up to us talking about
you know, you're a great athlete. You you can do
(18:14):
all this stuff. You have talk of production and stuff
like that. But it was like, you're having no grades.
You gotta do the S A T. S uh. I
think it's S A T or the other one. And
they pretty much tled me down. And I believe Coach Eric,
who was the guy that he sent me down, he
told me he's planning this whole map out. He was like, listening,
(18:36):
I need you to buckle down and get straight a's
to qualify, And he's like, I know you're doing, and
I believe all your Harvard will pay off. If you
buy into this, buy into what I'm saying right now,
you'll be in college. Hamaka needed to excel in the
classroom and on the football field, and he needed to
do that amid the turbulence and emotional challenges with his
(18:56):
life at home. She's sick because she's out of she's hurt.
You know, it's tough, you know, watching her come home
from work and just go straight to the room, and
I really, you know, obviously all that stuff is just
tough to see. So I feel like that's probably the
toughest party. You know. He wasn't sure if she was
(19:18):
physically ill, suffering emotionally, or both. Under these conditions, his
life seemed to be facing acrossroads. He could use these
challenges to focus and further commit to his goals, or
he could understandably wilt under the intense pressure bearing down
on every part of his life and give up. So
(19:40):
I feel like for me, it was just being there
and you know, being strong for her mom because she's
having a tough time just having her not worry about
me because she already has so much stuff to worry about,
you know, and I don't have my mom stressed about me.
And see where I'm at. And I just took it
as I go to show my mom like I can
help her. And you know, doing everything right helped me.
(20:02):
See Claire, I wanted to get to college and now
you know the NFL. Hammock A committed himself to these
goals in a new way, throwing himself into his schoolwork
and football. Here's Coach Scott on what he saw from
Hammoca during this period. He had to go to tutoring
and so he had to get with his teachers. He
had to sit in there and and and study for
(20:24):
another hour or so before practice, you know. And then
he once he made out the practice, he gotta study
out there on the field too, so you know, he
was putting in time. Then after school and he did
go to the public library, which is down the street
from this house. He went to the public library in
order to get some homework done because I don't believe
they had an internet connection in the apartment that he
(20:44):
was staying in with his mom and brother while he
was going to school. Here's Hammocka again on these compounding challenges.
I pretty much bought it and worked my butt off
to go to a library for like three or four
hours and study with an S A T guy. You know,
obviously math and stuff was hard. To end up getting
(21:05):
straight a's probably for my first time in my life
and kind up qualified and I was just so happy.
He qualifies for Division one football and follows up his
twenty SA junior year with thirteen more sacks as a senior.
This leads to hammaca committee to Oregon State, planning to
(21:27):
join his older brother there who plays on the basketball team. Finally,
the dark days are behind him, until what seemed like
the perfect situation in college quickly turns into another bad dream.
Our freshman year, end up traveling every game thinking I
was gonna play, you know, the coach telling me to
(21:49):
get ready, stretch and stuff like that, and I'm never
going me in. At the last like two games, he
was like, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm your ash, saying that
he is like seeing you to do elemental lived and
that was that, and it was pretty tough. I was
working my butt off, you know, I was probably just
(22:09):
stronger than just starting linebacker and faster than him. And
I'm working my butt off from doing everything right, and
I just didn't get that chance. And second year comes
around the same thing. I end up playing this special
team my second year, um doing everything right out there,
smacking people, smacking people around on kickoff and punt and
stuff like that, with the hopes of, you know, playing
(22:31):
on defense. And I think I want to say, I
probably got eleven plays that whole second year on defense.
He wasn't getting to play, and he certainly wasn't having
the same fun he used to when he was younger.
It was a tough time and I couldn't do nothing
(22:52):
about that. You know. Everyone went around me was like,
I can't believe you're not playing. So I feel like
that's probably what this motivated me. Even are those years,
those past years, I'm just like, they don't believe me.
They don't see what I see, and they are not
even gonna give me the chance to even try to show.
That's what probably the hardest part was anger, you know,
(23:13):
just not playing. You know, you're not playing football. You
just YEA, obviously you can lose yourself. Because mom Misha
tried to stay positive despite the difficult years adding up
and Hammka's brother transferring to another university. We just try
(23:34):
to do is just encourage him and still hanging there
for him, never playing, from him always playing football for
now everything stopped. Your whole life changed. Just still trying
to encourage him to just keep pushing forward even though
he's not playing. So it was a rest time. And
then for your brother to be there, and then he's
no longer there, and the first first time I ever
leaving home and our households had changed completely. So we
(23:57):
just had to keep encouraging him and until you can
figure this part out. Once again, her son faced a
daunting period in his life. No matter where he looked,
he didn't see a clear road to better times ahead.
(24:21):
We'll be right back. Despite all the challenges, Hamaca's mom, Misha,
never lost faith. She explains, I said I would do
what I have to do to fixes and I'm would
(24:42):
support you guys, regardless of what we just went through.
I said, I need you guys to do your job too,
So you expect to me the hand of my business.
I need to do hand of yours, and you're gonna
get there regardless. Yeah, even if we had that was
Hammaca's stepdad Chris Acklamore in the background talking about driving.
(25:03):
He came out eighteen how okay came home. It was
like spring breaker with I don't know what it was,
but he came home and we had got him a
plane ticket to go back to Oregon. So we got
to the airport drop hammca off after flying home to
Arizona for spring break. Hamaka is now returning to campus
for the rest of the semester at Oregon State. Drop
(25:31):
him off at the airport. He calls, we weren't even
back dead to the apartment yet. Mom, the plane left me.
What do you mean the plane left year? What do
you mean? What do you mean? And so trying to
faire out, Okay, he has to be back to school
the next day or so. He's like, I'm trying to
figure out how to buy another plane ticket. Everything was
(25:51):
like two dollars one way. Looks at Chris, he said,
we drive there? What did you mean? We went and
picked that to go back up from the airport. Twenty
two hours we drove him back to Oregon. Just not
time to get to practice. When I say driving off
(26:14):
to you were attack team and have a go to
sleep there in the back of the Seguoya. We were
just driving twenty twenty two hours. Twenty two hours of driving,
two years without playing, his brother transferring from Oregon State.
(26:36):
Throughout it all, hammock As simply tried to persevere. Research
shows the most predictive traits for success are persistence and grit,
showing up for practice and tutoring day after day, dragging
yourself to the public library, having a family who picks
you back up metaphorically off the ground and literally from
(26:57):
the airport and get you back on your way. This
is what Hammaca and his parents did, and suddenly one
day it paid off. Going into Hammoca's red shirt sophomore year,
the Oregon State Beavers hired a new head coach, Jonathan Smith,
and just like that, everything in Corvallis oregan changed. Third
(27:18):
year and I got a new coach of staff and
finally got to play football, like three years. I was
just thinking this whole time, like you might not see
it now, but I'm gonna make someone pay. And I
was honestly wanted to play that old coaching staff and
just go crazy on that on their team and just
showed them like this is the guy you had on
the bench the whole time, you know, and you didn't
(27:40):
even give him the shot to even try. You know.
He got like twelve tackles, twelve two typles Watson and
some sids. And I was just like, wow, this football
feels like a year. I haven't played so long since
high school. But after that, you know, the sky was
a lament his red shirt junior year in all the
(28:02):
pieces came together, the joy was back, and football became
fun again. So fun it was. It's so much fun,
you know, thinking about like, oh, I'm out here getting
(28:25):
respect from other teams and everyone was like, yeah, you're
a great player doing this. I remember Vivily like issue
like tackles. He was just like me a game. I
ran past him and I got like another tiger for loss.
He was like, bro, you're killing me. He was like, bro,
I really can't stop to me. I end up trying
to like be like a one arm staff and he
like knocked my hand down and I fell to the
(28:46):
ground and he was like, yes, I got him. You
finally got him. And I was just like this is funny.
It's like really crazy, Like he finally got me. On one,
I'm killing the whole game. So I feel like overall,
it's just it was a great year. So I was
just just me just getting back to football and being
out there being destructive and making plays the biggest difference,
(29:12):
you know, I'm just out there being free, letting me
go over as you left me play football. Hammka registered
fourteen sacks that year along with the twenty two and
a half tackles for loss. He catapulted into the national
spotlight and became a first team All American and then
surprisingly he decided to return for his senior season. It
(29:35):
was tough to think about right now, but um, yeah,
I broke my thumb has curgery at the end of
the year for you know, tween ninety year. So you know,
my big reason why I was gonna go to draft
was that I couldn't do the benches and combine stuff.
So that really affected me. And I think I was
like projected top thirty or something around there, and I
(29:57):
felt like I could definitely improve and do another great
year and go up and become a you know, top
ten pick. That's always been my dream, you know, always
want to be a top ten pick. And that's why
I really that's really motivated me, and I felt confident
what I had and what my coach has prepared me
for and the people around me. I feel like we're
(30:17):
gonna have a way better here, not knowing you know,
COVID and all stuff is gonna happen. His goal for
a senior year is to become a top ten pick,
and he's feeling as optimistic as ever. I'll still recovering
from pins in my hands, from broken down, and COVID
(30:38):
here comes. They're like, yeah, I just go home and
we just did one to two practices and they're like,
I'm just getting started, and I'm like, wow, we gotta
go home now. COVID hit campuses across the country and
Hammakah had to return home after justice first few practices.
We're I'm going home for four or five months. I'm
(30:59):
training my it off at home, working out with two coaches,
going to two places just to be stayed, and I
want to stay. After that delay, they canceled it. They
counsel our season. The PAC twelve conference initially calls off
the entire year, then as the pandemic situation becomes clearer,
they eventually decided to play an abbreviated season all the
(31:22):
players returned for fall camp with new COVID protocols, including
a test every single morning. I woke up at six
a five am to get tested at or the state,
and the trainer came in and talk to me. I
was in the meeting room, he was about to start
doing meetings and he came in and he was like, heym,
I need you. He talked to you, and I'm like, hey,
can you need to talk to me about right? And
(31:44):
end up going downstairs with the trainer. He's like, you
just power for COVID. You test positive, And I was
like what. He's like, yeah, you need to go home
right now, like right now, and walking home and didn't
leave my house since then for four ten day and
probably was the most terrible time every fourteen days ever
(32:05):
And I'm like, what the heck? How right? And I'm
like all I did was stay home and went to
go judge Mikes. So, so when we were at that time,
from going to get some food and from back to
practice or whatever, I got COVID. Somehow. He spent four
(32:27):
straight months training at home and finally recovered from his
broken thumb and then COVID. So I missed two weeks
of all camp, then have to come back after COVID
and play. You know, I felt like COVID pretty much
hit me, and the hardest I would say, you know,
I just have legs. You know you need you need legs.
You need legs to do everything you're doing for the wall,
(32:48):
your legs over eight from a sack to her. You know,
I feel like all that stuff matters, and it definitely mattered.
Hammica's COVID recovery was slow and drawn out. He didn't
have his usual first but once again he persevered. I
didn't have to come back after COVID and play. Then
(33:08):
got hurt her my ankle pretty bad. Didn't try to
just get ready for the season and rehabbing a lot
of it and played a couple of games, just tore
up and you know, I'm just do whatever it thinks.
You're not trying to survive these couple of games. And
it just wasn't great. And obviously I didn't get a
(33:31):
lot of stats, as you know a lot of people
wanted me to have and obviously hurt me. You know,
this is the one and only topic NFL teams focused
on whenever Hammakah talks to them. What happened. They all
want to know what happened to Hammaka. What happened was
(33:51):
a string of injuries and illnesses. He wasn't able to
play his best football. To his high school mentor coach Scott,
it was also a case of game plan when he
came back. You know, teams that already you know, understood
if if this kid is back around us, what we
have to do. He's way too strong, way too way
too fast for a single coverage. And so what the
(34:12):
teams started doing is they started double teaming to keep
him away from quarterbacks. So that was the biggest thing,
was the adjustments that teams made against him. It wasn't
anything that he did wrong because that that wasn't the case.
But you know, your better teams aren't going to allow
that to happen. You know, they learned about him and
they learned how to slow him down. So the question
(34:36):
of what happened depends on who you ask and how
much they know about the last six years of Hammaker's life.
And when it comes to NFL scouts and executives, they
want to know absolutely everything. A lot of meetings, but
you know, every meeting, and I had two teams were
talking about, how did I drove from fourteen stacks zero?
(34:57):
That's pretty much where I had answered his whole drive time.
And that's probably the jig question now, I mean I
asked injuries, double teams, COVID. Those are all part of
what happened this past season, though the real answer goes
all the way back to the little kid playing football
(35:18):
in the streets of Phoenix, the one chasing down his
older brothers, having the most fun as he crashes into
kids all over the neighborhood. What happened this past season
is something that's happened many times before. He had a
very tough year. Football stopped being fun for a little while.
But the recurring story of Hammocka's life is that no
(35:38):
matter what gets thrown at him, he always fights his
way back. He's been through ups and downs like this
many times before. Expectations were definitely high. Now I played
my worst football ness last year because love injuries, not
because no, I can't play great football. Next I'm drafted.
(36:08):
It was to me it was like a death and
I had the baby at the same time, Like, what
in the world just happening? I know, I just took
my mic off and when I'm staring and I was hot.
I'm just mad, come on, call my phone with somebody.
Somebody called my phone. But originally when I saw him
looking at his phone, like no, he's joking on my
phone into that this is the movie, It's like, this
doesn't happen, this isn't regular. So that's my that's my
(36:30):
little catchphrase do for the movie. Packers hit me and
turned to hit me. I'm like, what I'm trying. That's
when you have to push the motion to the side
and say what are we gonna do best for him?
From seeing people get drafted with like no names and
like it's just it's just irritating. So I just broke down.
He didn't hear me crying on my side of the phone, bro,
but it was so unreal. Drafted is a production of
(36:59):
tree Ford Media, Clutch Sports Group, and I Heart Radio.
The executive producers are Kelly Garner, Lisa Ammerman, Eric Slott,
Eric Weiner, and Sewn t Toone. The series is produced
and written by Eric Winer. Garme Mamalu is our coordinating producer.
Coral Silverberg is our associate producer. Tom Monahan is our
senior audio engineer. The show is mixed, edited, and hosted
(37:22):
by me Steven Johnson, additional production help from Tim Shower
and Haley Mandelberg. For transcripts of the show and more information,
undrafted quot to Tree for dot fm and for more
podcasts for My Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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