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Still hopeful after
all these years

YESTERDAY, in case you noticed, I was not selected in the NFL Draft. Again. But I remain undeterred.

It's only been 13 years in a row now.

For those of you who have never been through it, though, this kind of thing can be very stressful. Sitting there waiting to be picked, waiting all day for that call. Round after round, pick after pick without your name coming up. Meanwhile, you're getting all kinds of calls from people asking why you haven't been drafted yet, how this could possibly happen, don't they realize they're missing a great player, what team do you think you're going to now, etc.

Or, you know, if you have any large household items you'd be willing to donate, are you happy with your long-distance carrier, when is that story going to be finished -- haven't you ever heard of a deadline? You know. People call.

It was a surprise to me that I didn't get drafted. You would think some team would pick me up. I had heard from a number of general managers and scouts.

I clicked on ESPN.com.

And there was really a lot of interest in me heading into the draft.

But for some reason they kept misspelling my name "A-L-E-X S-M-I-T-H."

You know how it is, though. When NFL teams are looking at you, eventually they start seeing negatives no matter where they look. They found problems with my 40-yard-dash time, my shuttle run, my vertical jump, my weight lifting, and even, yes, my intelligence test. My best test result was my drug test.

Eleven pieces of pizza and half a bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the past 24 hours.

It's tough to take criticism like that, especially after I thought everything had gone so well at the NFL scouting combine.

I once knew someone who went to the NFL scouting combine.

But you know that's all politics.

The guy went undrafted and became a soybean farmer.

Frankly, I'm genuinely surprised about this. My old coach was an assistant in the Canadian Football League and a coordinator in the USFL, and he knows talent and potential when he sees it.

You don't pick just anybody to be your No. 3 holder.

I think a lot of the reason for my having been overlooked in the draft goes back to the kind of thing they say Tim Chang is experiencing. Like that agent said in the SI.com story, "I think people in their evaluation process of him are coming into it with so many preconceived notions and biases already that it makes it difficult for them to see through those things and fairly evaluate him." Exactly. Scoff if you must, but I think there are a few people in NFL "war rooms" who aren't quite ready to see success from someone of my "profile."

Slow. Short. Old. Balding.

But I'm not bitter. My agent, Star-Bulletin staffer Ben Henry, has lots of football connections. He's said he can set me up.

He could probably get me a tryout with one of the local old-man leagues. Or, barring that, a spot on a flag team, if I could come up with part of the entry fee.

That's a good thing. Because when you have a love of the game and respect the game the way I do you just don't let go that easily.

There's been a void in my life without having undergone major reconstructive knee surgery.

But I don't know. I thought this was it, I really did. I was ready, by the phone, watching the TV. Can you believe I wasn't drafted? Me? So maybe this is it. I just can't help but think there's something telling me it's time to put this dream to rest.

My wife just changed the channel from ESPN so she could turn on "Lifetime."