The weeks leading up to the draft were long, and Elliot Hord anxiously waited for the day to finally arrive. After graduating from the University of Washington, and bringing home the National Championship home to Seattle in his Senior year, Elliot was poised to have his name called on draft day. It was raining like usual on the Oregon coast as Elliot sat with his parents, in the house he grew up in, watching his parents TV awaiting the draft to begin. As the commentators were casually talking about where each prospect would go, Elliot kept the TV on mute. Why? Well, to Elliot it didn’t matter what some “Fancy Suit” said about him or the other prospects. In Elliot’s mind, the only thing he cared about was hearing his name, and it would be his lifelong mission to make every team that passed on him, regret their decision. Secretly, he did hope for one specific team to call his name, but he knew anything could happen in this draft. Elliot is a realist, he knew that his name was unlikely to be called in the first round. There was too much talent, and more well-known names to allow for him to be called too early. So when the draft began, he was not surprised when the first name was called and it wasn’t his. He patiently sat there awaiting the results, the TV remained on mute and the silence was deafening. The first round came and went, with a few surprises that the commentators went on short tangents about, showing shock on their face as they moved their mouths, but no words being heard. The second round began and Elliot’s heart dropped when the one team he was secretly hoping would call him, took another player. His parents were the only ones who could figure out how disappointed he was about them not calling him, they knew he would be the happiest if he ended up there, even though Elliot never said anything. “Its okay, there is plenty of time left” they told him as they patted his back. Elliot just stared at the ground and quietly said “I’m going to make every single one of these teams skipping me, pay the ultimate price on the field when I face them”. Round two continued and it was at pick 22 that his phone broke the silence, startling Elliot and his parents. Elliot sat in shock, it was “HIS” team, the team he had been wishing would call him for two rounds. The team he had posters of, hanging on his childhood room walls. The team he imagined over and over again as a child, scoring the final TD of the Championship game for, and holding the trophy in their jersey. Elliot has always, is now, and forever will bleed GREEN. The Portland Pythons called him, welcoming him “HOME”. Elliot would be playing for his hometown team! Elliot told them “Thank you. You made the right decision. I’m a Python through and through. Teams are going to tremble in fear when they face us!”. Elliot hung up the phone, grabbed his bags, hugged and said goodbye to his parents and told them “Its time to get to work” as he walked out the door and immediately drove to the Pythons facility, eager to join his teammates on the journey to greatness.
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