In probably one of the funniest stories that you will read all day, Jeff Bray, the father of former Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray, who went undrafted and eventually signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as a free agent, told WWLS Radio that draft day was brutal for his son and that the Pittsburgh Steelers were one of two teams that said they would draft his son.
“Nobody wants him (in the draft), then for two hours the phone does not stop ringing from different teams,” the elder Bray said. “As a parent, you say: \’You want him now, but you didn\’t want him in the draft?\’ I know I\’m his parent, but I don\’t see how 11 quarterbacks get picked, and the best quarterback physically is not picked.”
Mr. Bray sounds like he is a soccer mom.
“It was brutal,’’ he said in a phone interview to the radio station. “I personally think with that kind of talent, to sit through something like that, it just amazes me.’’
It is likely true that the Steelers did have serious interest in Bray. They did send a full contingency to the Tennessee pro day this year and reportedly even took the quarterback out to dinner in addition.
The Steelers very well could have drafted Bray in round six or later, but they probably never imagined that Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones would still be on the board by the time their second pick in the fourth round rolled around.
Let\’s not forget that Bray also came with a few character red flags and the fact that he never beat a ranked team and won just two SEC games in his last two seasons at Tennessee.
There are no guarantees on draft day and I am pretty sure that Bray was not the only kid that was told by a team that he would be drafted by them only to wind up having said team pass on him altogether.
Someone tell this man that there is no crying in football.
