Marcus Lattimore's message to South Carolina athletes who get selected in this week's NFL Draft
The newest episode to the podcast series “BLEAV in South Carolina” with me and Marcus Lattimore on the BLEAV Network is live.
On this week’s episode we breakdown South Carolina’s recent spring game and discuss this week’s upcoming NFL Draft. While Lattimore’s NFL career was short lived he achieved a feat not many get to say – he was drafted.
“When I decided I was gonna leave (South Carolina), my agent said, ‘Marcus, you know that you have an opportunity to go first round or you have an opportunity to go undrafted. So that was my projection.” Lattimore recalled. “That added to the weight that I felt, like I felt so heavy going into that Thursday because my agent is texting me the first night. He’s talking with teams and I’m like, ‘what the hell is going on?’ Then the second night goes by and he’s texting (me) and talking with teams and asking me if I’ve heard from this team in the second round. Then the third day comes by and I’m just like, I’m over it. I’m over this sh*t.”
But on that third and final day of the 2013 NFL Draft the moment Lattimore had been waiting for his entire life would finally come to fruition when he was drafted with the 131st overall pick by the San Francisco 49ers.
“We’ve all been in situations where we’ve been anticipating something. This one was just a release of pressure from my body. I went through this like 30-second recap of my knee (injury) until that moment. Just going through rehab down in Pensacola (FL) with Dr. James Andrew to not even being able to move for about three weeks. Starting rehab, starting jogging, and putting that foot into the ground and doing drills at pro day. Just my career in a sense. It was a mini revelation happening in that moment.”
As this year’s NFL Draft that is set to begin on Thursday, looking back on his draft day experience nine years later, Lattimore hopes the Gamecocks who hear their name called this weekend will treat their moment differently than how he handled his.
“I felt like I could’ve soaked it in a little bit more. I hope they really understand like you can celebrate this, celebrate yourself. I was so focused and determined to prove people wrong. It was like I had this stern attitude about what I needed to do once I got there. I didn’t celebrate myself and all the hard work and obstacles… and yes, that mindset is important (to have) but you’ve got 24 hours; a dream just came true.”
One thing Lattimore is grateful for that he did was how he was smart about the money he received when he was drafted. While he joked that it wasn’t some of the millions of dollars some players who were picked higher in the draft that year earned, it’s something he hopes all players take seriously.
“Once that time period is over and things start to calm down, save your money. Take care of what you need to take care of but save your money. Don’t worry about that, worry about the mission. Worry about being the best player you can be.”
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