The NFL Draft must be insanely nerve-wracking for young players. Imagine having what might essentially be your whole fate laid out before you based on the whim and whimsy of advanced data and bizarre personality tests. But Louisville corner Jaire Alexander cut through the pomp and circumstance—straight to the heart of the moment—when he stopped his interview to celebrate the first-round selection of his teammate Lamar Jackson.
Jackson was the forgotten man among the crop of highly-touted quarterbacks in this draft, despite putting up gaudy numbers at Louisville and winning the 2016 Heisman. He was subjected to the classic NFL black quarterback “athletic” coding and many pundits and anonymous scouts talked about him switching to wide receiver. He was criticized for his completion percentage, which was better than Wyoming’s Josh Allen (as was his Twitter game.)
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All of this is to say, no one really knew where, or if, Jackson would get selected in the first round. His teammate Alexander got picked by the Green Bay Packers with the 18th pick and he was just settling in to do an interview when the Baltimore Ravens traded up to take the Eagles pick—the last of the first round—and took Jackson.
“Lamar! What?! What?!” Jaire shouted, as he dropped out of mic range and into the curtains to celebrate the move. “I’m sorry—Lamar, it’s for real. It’s great. My boy Lamar. What? What pick?”
Someone off-screen told him that Lamar was picked last in the first round, and then Jaire started dancing about it. “I told you, man. I told you,” he said.
On a night where it’s supposed to be about your own fate and your own destiny, Jaire proved that paychecks are thinner than bond. The NFL might pit old teammates against each other in the long run, but that doesn’t unwrite the experience they had together back in college. Pretty heartwarming stuff.
