Predictably Unpredictable

As published in The County Times (countytimes.somd.com)

By Ronald N. Guy Jr.

When the NFL Draft ends, another draft begins.  This one isn’t televised.  Mel Kiper, NFL Draft Expert (and Baltimore native), isn’t available with prospect breakdowns.  Short of NFL front offices and coaching staffs, and ultimate nerd-fans, no one cares.  And rightfully so: This is the NFL equivalent of a picked-over yard sale.

Nevertheless, this second draft, if you will, is for the vinyl record hounds.  You know who you are.  You search for record shows and music shops wherever your travels lead.  Stuffed crates are comprehensively searched.  No record can go unturned.  Broken fingernails and busted cuticles must be risked.  Mounds of record fodder are no deterrent.  The crates contain vinyl gold - somewhere.  Golfers swear one memorable shot can rescue a brutal round; likewise, a single epic find validates the swim in vinyl seas. 

What in the “it rhymes with smell” am I talking about?  Undrafted free agents - UDFAs for the initiated.  Dudes unselected during the seven rounds of every annual NFL draft immediately become UDFAs.  It’s slick code for what resembles an ordinary job search.  Instead of getting chosen by a team and reporting aboard, UDFAs shop their wares, balance offers for fit or financial return, and make a decision in their best interest.  It sounds glamorous.  It isn’t.  Better descriptors: disappointing, nerve-racking, stressful.  UDFAs are clinging to NFL life.  Few make NFL rosters, fewer still make meaningful contributions or see their jerseys in the stands.

Imagine: three years ago you were a backup running back on a middling Georgia Tech football team.  “Middling” being kind: you won 16 total games in four years with the Yellow Jackets (Free tip: If you dig jazz, check out the band Yellowjackets).  The 2022 NFL Draft comes and goes, your name unspoken.  The phone rings.  Modest offers filter in.  You sign with San Francisco, one of the best teams in the NFL, and begin a precarious professional football existence. 

After two seasons, your resume includes 80-ish carries and over 30 games played.  As an UDFA, the odds have already been beaten.  Entering the 2024 season, you’re buried on the depth chart behind more experienced players and the most versatile running back in the NFL.  Then stuff happens, as it does in life.  The backup gets hurt in late August.  The starter has a nagging injury and can’t go.  So in week one, on Monday Night Football, in front of the entire nation, you get the start. 

Too much?  Stage too big?  Nah.  You rush 28 times for 147 yards and a touchdown to lead your team to victory. 

And that’s the story of Jordan Mason: UDFA and the most unlikely starting running back for the San Francisco 49ers.  He backed up that Monday night performance with an impressive 20 carries for 100 yards last Sunday. 

Mason’s story causes many words, with broad applications, to come to mind.  Belief.  Self-confidence.  Commitment.  Ability.  Preparation.  Professionalism.  Availability.  Reliability.  Faith.  Opportunity.  Teammates.  These ingredients led Mason to this moment and allowed him to succeed in it.  Deserved props to him and the 49ers. 

But there’s more – the sheer unpredictability of Mason’s emergence.  Further, that he’s taking handoffs from Brock Purdy, himself an absolute lottery ticket (Purdy was the last pick…Mr. Irrelevant…in the 2022 NFL Draft), defies all logic.  A couple years ago Mason and Purdy were seeking a shot; now they are backfield mates for the 49ers, the defending NFC Champions.  How?  Sports, man…

Reflecting on Mason’s ascension, two lessons emerge from sports’ classroom.  The first, no matter your walk of life or professional pursuit, fate will smile on the confident, the committed, the prepared and the reliable.  Opportunity will knock; be ready to answer.  And second, as a fall wave of COVID and illness confront families and young athletes, I think back to what we learned in 2020: Plans are written in sand next to an angry, shifting surf.  Anything can happen at any moment.  More metaphors: You can get drafted first, last or not at all.  Be sent to faraway cities, traded, cut or benched.  The only infallible prediction, is the unpredictability of every journey.  Overcome.  Adapt.  Capitalize.  Be Jordan Mason.