9781422283066

be in the Green Room wherever the NFL Draft was being held, waiting—with some of the other college stars of his day—to find out he was one of the top picks. When a league executive tapped him on the shoulder, he would quickly put on his adoptive team’s cap, and walk out to the podium to pose for a picture with the commissioner and hold up the jersey of his new favorite team. But Mel Hein did not play in today’s football world. And because he played college ball at an out- of-the-way place such as Pullman, he didn’t exactly have NFL teams pounding on his door to sign him. So instead of having the league come to him, he went to it: Hein wrote to several NFL teams telling them he wanted a job playing pro football. The Providence (Rhode Island) Steam

Roller was the first team to write back. The Steam Roller offered Hein $135 a game to come play for them. The club enclosed a contract for Hein to sign. He was thrilled. Football wasn’t anywhere near the big-mon- ey sport then that it is now, but $135 wasn’t

The early NFL Draft was held in a very different time.

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