HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Brad Cecil watch all 259 selections in the 2023 NFL Draft. His name wasn't called. But moments after the event concluded, his phone rang. It was his agent.
"I said 'Hello?' He's like 'Are you ready to be a [Detroit Lion]?'… "Absolutely! Yes sir! Where do I sign?" Brad recalls.
"You're a Lion," his agent repeated. "Okay! Yes, sir! Okay, I'm out at dinner with my family," Cecil frantically replied. "I hung it up, and everybody started going crazy. It was a really cool experience. Something that I'll never forget."
Whether you're a drafted player or a free agent, Cecil knows every rookie starts from square one.
"I'm being evaluated from day one. I mean, it's a little nerve-racking, but it's- knowing that if I do everything right, I'm going to be in the best possible position for myself," Cecil explained. "I'm super-excited, and I love to have an underdog mentality going in. All you guys got drafted, but I'm right here with you."
Brad earned his undergraduate degree in three years, so he used the extra COVID year to work toward his master's degree in business. He'll receive that honor this weekend.
Unfortunately, Cecil had off-season surgery in 2021, so he couldn't attend that ceremony. But he's more than ready to do it this time.
"I think that this one's gonna feel even better. Just because I get to walk across the stage and know that you know, I got another degree," he said. "It'll set in after I walk. It'll be real that, wow, I actually did it."
Cecil hopes to have a long playing career, but when he's finished, he wants to provide other athletes the same motivation his coaches have always given him.
"I think there have been so many coaches that have poured into my life and have made me who I am- not only as a football player but as a person," Brad added. "I'd love to do that for the youth and the upcoming football players. So I'd love to have my own gym, my own facility. For the everyday person to come in and work out, but also where I could train athletes and develop them, and turn them into the best version of themselves."
Cecil hopes the post-football chapter of his life is somewhere down the road, at the end of a journey that starts in a Detroit Lions uniform.
"Once I put that helmet on, it's go time. It's gonna be just like I was playing in college or in high school. Once I put the helmet on, it's football at the end of the day, just against better competition. I know I'm gonna be super-excited. But I'll be locked in, and I know I'll be ready to do what I know how to do."
NFL teams open rookie minicamp over the next two weekends. Detroit and Tampa Bay begin theirs next Friday and Saturday.
