\u201cThey\u2019ve got to love football. \u2026 You want a bunch of people that understand that that\u2019s what we\u2019re here for and that can fit the type of team we want to play, the values that we\u2019re looking for. We want good, tough, hard-nosed players that want to play hard, that are team-first type people that like every part of football, meetings, weightlifting, practice, preparation, like being around the guys and the gals who are involved in it, and they want to go out there on Sunday and let it rip. That\u2019s what we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n
That is New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh talking about the type of players he wants to coach.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, I spent some time at the NFL Scouting Combine asking NFL Draft prospect what \u201cLove of the game\u201d meant to them. Here are some of the responses I received.<\/p>\n
The first two are my favorites. They are the kind of responses I think would get Harbaugh\u2019s attention if he had been asking the question.<\/p>\n
Kendal Daniels, LB, Oklahoma<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the game of football, but Coach Venables always said you have to live it, you have to breathe it, you have to know football, you have to think about football every day. Love is a word that people just throw around. I love the game of football, but you have to love the game of football when it\u2019s hard, when you don\u2019t feel like getting up, when you don\u2019t feel like you can do this anymore. That\u2019s when you show love for something. That\u2019s when you know you can keep going.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had experiences like that. In 2024 season I was on the edge of thinking that I was falling out of love, but you figure out that you love football more than you think you do when you start thinking about what\u2019s next. Going to Oklahoma made me figure out that I really love football, and that\u2019s something people need to understand. Love isn\u2019t when it\u2019s going great. It\u2019s when you\u2019re not doing good, do you still love the game of football and still want to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLove the game to me means you\u2019re down with everything that comes with it. You\u2019re down with the ups, you\u2019re down with the downs. When things aren\u2019t going well are you still with the team, can you still hold the team together, can you still galvanize, the guys, and can you still come to work every day and show up and do your job? It is your job, it is your duty to go out there and get the job done.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what I think love of the game is. Are you willing to give your all and be with, and go with the flow and go with the punches of everything that comes with this game because this game is not all sunshine and rainbows, it\u2019s not all like a box of ice cream. There are going to be hard times, you\u2019re going to go through adversity, but I feel like it\u2019s your ability to push through adversity and overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaleb Elarms-Orr, LB, TCU<\/p>\n
\u201cYou gotta be obsessed with the game. If you want to be great in football everything that you do, what you eat, recovery, when you go to sleep, even when you\u2019re not in season has to revolve around the game. I feel like that\u2019s something I definitely have been doing these last two years. Ever since I got to TCU everything I do revolves around getting that one percent better, getting that competitive edge to be the best player I can possibly be.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dLoving the game is not playing the game, but what you do when you\u2019re outside the game. That could be recovery, watching extra film. Really just living football.\u201c<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, the reason I get out of bed and do what I do is just the brotherhood aspect of the game. Nowadays everyone\u2019s transferring and that\u2019s all great, but for me personally I came in with my guys freshman year, we grew up together, we had five years, we were all working towards a common goal. That last year I played with all my boys, just knowing all the work we put in \u2026 that was the most rewarding year of life just knowing all the work we put in and showing up with them. That\u2019s pretty much why I do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just overall about caring. I feel like when you love the game you love all aspects of football, but you love the guys around you. To truly love the game you have to be a leader. To be a true leader you have to be a guy that cares about everything that you do and care about the people around you, staff, everyone. Everyone\u2019s job is on the line when you go out there, so having a level of care and passion about the game and the people around you is what makes a great football player.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zeek Masses, CB, California<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just your mindset, man. This game is going to come with adversity, so you have to have a great mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, loving the game is just really being all about football. I can\u2019t see myself doing anything but playing football right now. I don\u2019t really have a Plan B. I\u2019m all Plan A. I just want to do this. I\u2019ve been wanting to do this since I was four or five years old.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThey\u2019ve got to love football. \u2026 You want a bunch of people that understand that that\u2019s what we\u2019re…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2026],"tags":[7,1208],"class_list":{"0":"post-784827","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-york-giants-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116155189071910584","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}