Watch Wallace Share his Draft Day Memories Video (2:37)
Leading up to the 2010 NFL Draft, Steelers.com will be bringing you Draft Day Memories from some current and former players. In this installment, wide receiver Mike Wallace shares his story with Teresa Varley.
Every team that called told me I was going to go in the second round, late second round. I was expecting to come off the board on the first day. I dropped a little bit to the third. But everything doesn’t go the way you want it to on draft day, but it’s an experience I will never forget.
I went on visits to about four or five places, Tampa, Denver, Tennessee, Chicago and Seattle. Just going and meeting the coaches and some of the guys on the team, being in an NFL atmosphere felt good. You know you are not in college any more once you walk into the room.
I went to the combine. The combine is nerve wracking. There are hundreds of people just pulling on you, going different ways for meetings, doctors. There are a lot of people determining your future. It’s nerve wracking in that sense because you don’t know where you are going to be, where you are going to be living, if you are going to get drafted. It’s crazy. It’s a good experience for anybody who gets the opportunity to have it.
A lot of the teams interview you at the combine. You have to try and hold your composure and not get too nervous because you are in front of those guys, the general manager, owner, head coach, assistant coaches. Everybody that has to do with the team you are in the room with them. They are interviewing you in the room. They have you on camera. It’s just an uncomfortable situation. You just have to be able to adapt. It was fun. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I loved going through it. I would do it again if I could.
I didn’t really know the Steelers were interested in me. I talked to Coach Randy (Fichtner) at the combine, but it wasn’t a team that had personally interviewed me. There were teams I sat down with, but not the Steelers. I just had an interview with Coach Randy. He came and worked me out at our pro day. I never thought in a million years they would take me, that was the last team I was expecting to pick me. I knew they had
I paid attention to what teams had. Just being a competitor and wanting to know what situation I was going into, every team I could tell who were there top two or three guys. I was trying to plug myself into teams to see how I would fit in to their team. I did that pretty much all 32 teams.
The first day of the draft was kind of frustrating. I thought I was going in the top two rounds. To have people there watching with me was disappointing and frustrating. It’s a blessing to get drafted anywhere, I don’t care where you go from the first to the last pick just to have the opportunity to see your dream of playing in the NFL.
I watched the draft the first day pretty much for the most part. It was the longest day ever it seemed like. It was well worth the wait. I don’t have a problem with it. With me going in the third round I just have to prove that they should have picked me in the first few rounds. I don’t hold anything against anybody. I am just happy to have an opportunity to play. At first it was kind of disappointing, but it wasn’t too long the second day.
It was early in the morning when I got the call because it was the second day of the draft. They had the first two rounds the first day and I got the call on Sunday. It was around 10 in the morning. It was early. I was just waking up. I was up about 20 minutes before I got the call. I had a lot of people the day before at the house, but about 30 minutes after I was drafted the house was packed.
The first person I talked to was Mr. (Art) Rooney. He called me. I saw the area code on the phone. I knew it was probably that time. I didn’t recognize the area code. I had all 504 calls coming in and it was from a 412 number. I didn’t know where it was from. I just picked the phone up. It was Mr. Rooney asking me how I feel about the Steelers. That was the call I was waiting for the whole time. I told him I loved them, I loved the Steelers, they just won the Super Bowl. I was excited about it. That is when Coach (Mike) Tomlin got on the phone and asked how would I like to become a Steeler. He told me they were about to draft me and it was the best feeling in the world. I felt like everything you work for the whole time, all of your years in college, high school, as a kid, everything paid off at that moment.
Coach talked to me, it was about coming in and playing special teams. I am the type of guy who is a competitor and I am going to get on the field any way I have to. I am strong minded. I know what I have to do in certain situations. I felt like they want me to play special teams and learn behind these guys and maybe get in a couple of plays at wide receiver. The whole time they are telling me that I am listening to them, but it’s going in one ear and out the other. That is not what I am focused on. I was focused on coming in and playing wide receiver. That was my goal and I had to do whatever I had to do in camp to get it.
I couldn’t believe it for a while. Then about 20 or 30 minutes later I got the call that Keenan (Lewis) was about to become a Steeler. That was probably the best day ever. I was still watching because I knew he was still out there. But I was still on the phone with the Steelers, talking to all of the coaches I had to and the media. My cousin is friends with Keenan’s cousin, like Keenan and I are friends, and they were talking on the phone and he told me he was about to get picked. I thought they were playing. When I got off the phone with the Steelers, I went in the house and the Steelers were on the clock and Keenan’s name came up. About 30 minutes later Keenan came to the house blowing the horn. I heard him from four or five streets over. He kept blowing the horn, making lots of noise.
It was just the start. I was still kind of mad. I thought I should have went higher and I had to prove it to people. We both took it kind of like that. We just have to use it as fuel to get better. It was just the starting point, we both have to make the team and do what we can to stay on the team.
There is a chip on my shoulder and it’s going to always be that way the whole time I am in the NFL. Every guy who was in my draft class, every wide receiver, I am going to try and outdo him. I am going to make it seem as though I should have been the first one out of all of the wide receivers to be selected. I am going to take it personal the whole time I am in the NFL to be better than all 10 of the wide receivers that were drafted in front of me in the 2009 draft.
I know what everybody does. I want to know who is doing what. The guys I came in with that is my class and I was competing against them last year. This year it’s against the whole entire league. At first it was just against the guys who were rookies I had something against and I had to outdo them. That is how I feel this year, but the whole thing.
The draft is special. Just when I got the call I can remember where I was sitting. If we went to my house today I could tell you exactly where I was sitting. Just looking at the phone, the 412 area code, I can remember getting that call. Once Coach Tomlin said how would you feel to become a Steeler, I said I would love it. Once he said we are going to pick you, I can remember it just like it was yesterday, every moment.
Previous Draft Day Memories:
* Ward
