Wednesday, April 20, 2005 | 10:44 a.m.
UNLV's Adam Seward, Ryan Claridge, Jamaal Brimmer, Dominique Dorsey and Earvin Johnson will be among the hundreds of college football players glued to their television sets this weekend watching how the NFL draft unfolds.
If they're lucky, they'll get a phone call from a team on the first day when the first three rounds are picked, or on Sunday when the remaining four rounds are picked. If they're not, they'll be waiting for their agents to land them a free agent tryout on Sunday night after going undrafted.
Seward, who has been ranked as going as high as late in the second round by some scouting services, Claridge and Brimmer are virtual locks to be picked sometime in the seven rounds while players like Dorsey, Johnson, offensive guard Joe Critchfield and punter Gary Cook are likely free agent signees or second-day picks.
But as some former UNLV players who have been through the draft process can attest, expect the unexpected when it comes to the NFL draft.
For ex-Rebels like defensive back Charles Dimry, running back B.J. Batton and offensive lineman Lonnie Palelei, the draft brought unexpected good news. But for others like offensive linemen Art Plunkett and Jerry Reynolds, it brought anxious moments.
"It is nerve-wracking," said Reynolds, a sixth-round pick of the Cincinnati Bengals in 1994. "You're in Vegas now but come this weekend you could be moving somewhere like Buffalo or Atlanta. The waiting is the hardest part. Draft day is probably the craziest thing you ever go through. All the general managers and teams go in with a plan and that plan goes out the window after about three picks.
"I figured I would probably go in the late rounds," Reynolds continued. "I knew I wasn't a first- or second-round pick. But then during the draft you get a lot of calls from teams, mainly a line coach, saying they plan to pick you with their next pick. And then something happens and they don't. So that just adds to the chaos."
Plunkett, an eighth-round pick of the Los Angeles Rams in 1981 who went on to play for the New England Patriots in the 1985 Super Bowl, said the NFL draft wasn't nearly the media event back then that it has become now.
"I had no idea where I was going to be picked," Plunkett said. "I was totally clueless where I'd go. I went to one (scouting) combine and that was it. It's gone from drafting you on the basis of your athletic ability to now where it's so scientific. They put these guys through so much stuff because they're an investment now.
"It's changed so much in the 24 years since I came out. Now they check everything out on you. Back then it was, 'Oh, he can play.' Now it's really high stakes. There were guys I played with who couldn't even bench press 250 pounds. Now you've got to be able to bench press 250 pounds so many times. It's changed so much. ... I mean, I played with guys who would smoke in the locker room at halftime."
And in the era before the Internet and numerous cable sports TV channels, about the only mock draft a player would see is one the local paper might do on the first round.
"I don't think it was even televised then," Plunkett said. "You were lucky to read about it in the paper."
Dimry was a fifth-round pick of the Atlanta Falcons in 1988 who went on to an NFL career that spanned three decades. Batton was a seventh-round pick of the New York Jets in 1980 and Palelei was chosen in the fifth round pick by the Steelers in 1993. They all thought they would be undrafted free agents but were pleasantly surprised when they got calls from NFL squads.
"I was the first player chosen on the second day," said Batton, who also excelled in track at UNLV and now is an assistant track coach at Palo Verde High School. "I didn't expect to get drafted. I was in bed when they called. I remember it exactly. It was 6:30 in the morning. I was dead asleep. And I thought to myself, 'Who is calling me this early in the morning?' And the guy said, 'I'd like to speak to Bobby Batton. This is so-and-so with the New York Jets.'
"I was wide awake after that. I was estatic to say the least."
Batton, who had run the 200 meters in a world-class time of 20.6 seconds, actually worked out much more for the other NFL team from New York, the Giants.
"I just knew it was going to be the Giants (that he signed with)," Batton said. "They came by four times one week to time me. Then the Jets came by and timed me. The first time I ran the 40 the guy said, 'No way, run it again.' So I ran it again. It was like a 4.4-something. Then they pulled me aside and told me that they would try and get me. But the Giants and 49ers said the same thing."
Palelei was so confident that he wasn't going to be drafted that he actually hung up on the head coach who called to tell him he was going to be selected.
"I watched the draft mainly to see where the best place might be for me to sign as a free agent," Palelei said. "My agent and I were calling back and forth. And when I did get drafted, I had no idea. The phone rang and the guy said, 'Coach Cowher calling.' I thought, 'No way.' My buddies had been making crank phone calls like that all day. So I hung up."
A few minutes later Palelei found out that the call was no joke when Pittsburgh head coach Bill Cowher was on the line again.
"He told me, 'You hang up on me again and you and me are going to fight,' " Palelei said with a chuckle.
Dimry was so confident that he wouldn't be drafted in the final round of the first day that he and his father decided to leave a draft party thrown by his agent Bruce Allen to go and get a bite to eat.
"We were in the parking lot getting ready to go when he ran out and said I better get back inside because Atlanta was on the phone and they were getting ready to pick me," Dimry said.
When asked to name some of his other memories from the draft process, Reynolds didn't hesitate.
"The New York Giants back then used to make you take a 490-question psychological test," Reynolds said. "It took two-and-a-half hours to complete. There was a coach I talked with from Buffalo who said they wouldn't even look at a guy who got less than a C on that exam."
What kind of questions were on it?
"True or false: I'd like to be a dressmaker," Reynolds said. "Goofy questions like that. Then you'd find out that question No. 385 was the same as question No. 6. ... There was one question where they asked you if you ever thought about killing somebody."
Although most of the former players didn't put much stock in mock drafts -- "Ninty-five percent of those guys never wore a jock-strap," Reynolds said --- Palelei gave kudos to ESPN's Mel Kiper.
"Believe it or not, he actually predicted that I would go to Pittsburgh in the 5th round," Palelei said. "And he was exactly right."
Still, that seemed to be the exception to the rule.
"There are a lot of mind games going on now so that maybe they can get a player they really want with a later pick," Palelei said.
"My only advice to the players this weekend would be don't over-anticipate what round you will go in," Batton said. "It's too nerve-wracking. You don't want to put yourself in a position where you let yourself down."
"You can't predict anything," Dimry agreed. "My thing would be is that all you want is an opportunity, whether it's by the draft or as a free agent. And if you do get that opportunity, do all that you can to take advantage of it."
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