60 years of draft history with Gil Brandt - MMQB feature

[KB_fan]

What a cool feature at MMQB.  Gil Brandt sharing gems from his 60 years of draft history.

http://mmqb.si.com/mmqb/2016/04/26/gil-brandt-nfl-draft-history

Here's a fun excerpt for Panthers' fans:
 

Quote

 

VRENTAS: How often do you hear from prospects’ families wanting to know what teams are saying about them?

BRANDT: Quite a lot. I am involved in selecting the players who come to Chicago for the draft. The first thing I do is I call the player and I say, “We’d love to have you at the draft, and here’s what we’d do for you.” Now with most 21 or 22-year-old guys, the next thing you have to do is call the mother, because you can never be sure they’re writing down all the details. The mothers are flattered to have you call. As an example, I had one mother call me, and she said, “Mr. Brandt, I just wanted to let you know, I am so happy about coming to Chicago that I went out and bought a new dress. This country girl is going to have a new dress when she comes to Chicago.” That’s great. Two or three weeks later on a Saturday night, she calls and says, “You know I told you I was bringing three of my lady friends with me, but now that son of mine is hogging all the tickets. Can you help me out?”

So I have formed a relationship with a lot of mothers. If I need a mother to call a family that’s thinking about not coming to the draft, or is concerned, I can go to Jackie Newton, Cam Newton’s mom. She called a mom for me this year. Because this is a huge thing—all of a sudden you’re coming to Chicago or New York or wherever the draft is, and they’ve heard all the horror stories about guys having to sit in the green room. Yeah, I wish I could pick the right 25 guys every year, but it doesn’t always work that way. Every once in a while we get a couple guys that are carried over to the second round. But I always tell them, if four years ago, when your son entered school, I told you he was going to be drafted, you’d be ecstatic, wouldn’t you? Yeah. Well now, think abut it this way: Not only is he going to be drafted, he’s going to be drafted in the first or second round. Doesn’t that make you feel good? They usually say, I never thought about it that way. We haven’t had one person out of the hundreds who have come to the draft and not said, I had one of the greatest days of my life. The excitement of walking the red carpet; and we give them an 11-by-16 family picture; and this year, when they come in on Tuesday, we’ll have a big dinner for them. It is a well-planned event, and everyone in sports is jealous of how well we do it.

 

 

[Mr. Scot]

Man, I bet he's got loads of great stories.

How fun would it be to pick Gil Brandt's brain about the draft?

[KB_fan]

So.... here's an interesting question.   From something I read at Panthers.com today, apparently Panthers haven't had our 1st round pick attend the draft since Cam in 2011.

Luke had to have been considered a top 1st round pick and been invited - did his family decline?

And Star was expected to be drafted higher except for the concern about a heart condition - was he invited?

Obviously in 2014 and 2015 we were picking much later. Less surprised that KB and Shaq weren't at the draft...

[TheRed]

I remember Star chose to watch, and celebrate with his family at home.

Don't really remember much about Luke. But he's a private low key guy so not really surprising.

KB was with his family at home as well.

[SIGCHI222]

Gil is a kind soul.  He isn't always right but he has never been malicious towards the Panthers org and could be considered a fan.  He will be missed when he is gone.  Enjoy it while we can folks.  They don't make Gil Brandts anymore.