In a stunner, Scott Sicko says no thanks to NFL
(Updated)April 24, 2010 at 8:58 pm by Mark McGuire
COLONIE – The Question always nibbled at the back of Scott Sicko’s mind, but the New Hampshire tight end by way of Stillwater and La Salle always had a ready answer.
Yes, he has a deep passion for football. Yes, he wants compete and work and excel.
But The Question, lurking well below the surface, still lingered: Is this what he wanted to do with his life?
“There was a little glimpse of it in my mind: Is this the right thing for me?” Sicko said. “During the whole process I was answering that easily with a yes.”
Scott Sicko proved to be a great high school and college player, possessing the rare size and speed and pass-catching skills necessary to be considered an NFL prospect.
But as the final day of the NFL Draft progressed Saturday, and Sicko continued not to see his name pop up on ESPN, that easy answer to The Question grew hazier, then clearer.
And when the NFL finally called – and called and called and called – late in the afternoon, Scott Sicko’s response shocked his agents, the teams but in the end not himself.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Instead of taking the first steps in an NFL career, Sicko is walking away.
“Some people will think I’m absolutely out of mind, and I and understand it,” he said Saturday night. “I completely see where they coming from.”
Although undrafted, the 6-4 ¼ receiver was hardly uncoveted.
Sicko’s reps at the Niskayuna-based National Sports Management gathered in a side room at Wolf’s 1-11 in front of a bank of TVs, fielding calls and scanning rosters. The Jacksonville Jaguars wanted the tight end as an undrafted priority free agent. So did the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys.
In some ways, that’s better than being drafted late, since the player can pick a team that offers the best chance of making a roster or at least practice squad.
A deal was in place as the seventh round wound down. JR Rickert, the founder and president of National Sports Management, cupped his hand over the phone and called over to fellow agent Ray Brownell.
“Tell Scott he is a Cowboy if he is not drafted,” Rickert said.
Brownell made the call to Sicko at his Stillwater home, where he was watching the draft with family and friends. Brownell looked dumbfounded by Sicko’s resonse:
If I’m not going to be drafted, Sicko told him, I’m not going to play.
“As the seventh round started to get underway and progress,” Sicko later said, “that decision (to not play) became a very strong reality.”
So when the Detroit Lions selected Weber State wide receiver Tim Toone with the 255th and final pick, Scott Sicko’s football career came to a close.
“He would have been a Cowboy,” Brownell said. “I’m certain he would have made the roster.”
The Cowboys even made a personal pitch to Sicko. And still he said no.
Three more teams called Rickert after the draft about wanting the tight end. The agent had to tell each one that Sicko was no longer interested.
“They were very surprised,” the agent said, adding he’s never come across anything like this in his 10 years representing professional athletes. “They all felt he had a great opportunity to play in the NFL for years to come.”
So what happened? Why did Scott Sicko change his mind?
As his agents worked the phones, Sicko returned to The Question.
Not getting drafted, he decided, provided a new clarity, a different answer to the question of whether he wanted to get started on his life after football.
“If I were to be drafted I would have had more confidence of a much longer career in the NFL,” Sicko said. “I have to look at my life and decide what will make me the happiest. And the thing that will make me the happiest now and in the long run is to pursue my education.”
After getting his New Hampshire degree this May, Sicko plans to get a post-graduate degree or two in history, and become a history teacher or professor. And, yes, he knows he could have put off his education.
Sicko said the answer came to him not emotionally, not irrationally. But won’t he regret this decision, turning down a chance to compete for a shot, a realistic shot, of playing in the NFL?
“I’m definitely going to say `What if …?’ ” he said. “It’s not the asking of the question that’s the important thing. It’s the answering of the question that is the important thing.”
Simply, he decided that his education was more important than a shot at the NFL, and he did not want to put it off.
We don’t have to agree with or even understand the answer Scott Sicko came up with Saturday to The Question. More importantly, we don’t have to live with it. If he says he can, that has to be good enough.
