”Remember this conversation,” Johnny Mitchell cried as he rambled on in a dialogue that was decidedly one-sided.
”Remember what I`m telling you,” proclaimed the former Simeon High School tight end, who decided to turn pro after playing only two years at Nebraska.
”I`m going to do some damage in the National Football League. I`m the best tight end to come out since Kellen Winslow. The team that picks me up is going to be very happy. The other 27 teams are going to be very unhappy.”
Then Mitchell, his voice rising like that of a preacher coming to the main point of his sermon, said, ”In the long run, I`m going to be the best man to come out of this draft.
”Remember this conversation!”
Confidence oozes out of Mitchell like the first gushes of water from the infamous Chicago flood. When it comes to the biggest mouth for Sunday`s NFL draft, Mitchell is the No. 1 pick.
Mitchell, though, won`t be the top choice, and his prediction of history recording him as this draft`s most significant player still rates as a long shot. Yet there`s little question that Mitchell will be one of the more intriguing picks on the board, and there`s an outside chance that he could land with the Bears.
While the Bears` priorities are in the lines, personnel chief Bill Tobin said the club might go for a tight end if he is rated higher than players at other positions. During a speech last week at Nebraska, Bears coach Mike Ditka said, ”I know enough about (Mitchell) to know he`s outstanding.”
Wherever he goes, it will cap quite a journey. Mitchell came to Chicago as a high school junior via Tchula, Miss., where he lived on a farm with his grandparents. He went from limited football experience to accepting and then rejecting a scholarship offer from Miami, choosing Nebraska instead.
At Nebraska, Mitchell came in as a Prop 48 and went out as an Academic All-Big Eight. He originally said he would return to Nebraska for 1992, but after the Orange Bowl he changed his mind after deciding he had to provide for his grandparents, who live in a house with no phones and only one heated room. If Mitchell had stayed, the scouts project he might have been a top 10 pick. As it is, he is rated the second-best tight end behind Notre Dame`s Derek Brown and should go late in the first round or early in the second round.
Mitchell could be a bargain at that position. He has the size (6 feet 2 1/2 inches, 255 pounds) and the speed (4.67 in the 40, fastest among tight ends).
”Definitely rates as one of the most accomplished tight ends to come out in years,” said ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper. ”Johnny will be quite a weapon if he goes to the right team.”
Other observers have compared Mitchell to Eagles tight end Keith Jackson. ”He`s exceptionally quick, explosive,” said Ron Brown, Nebraska`s receivers coach. ”His real strength is that he`s not afraid of any challenge. He wants the ball.”
”At tight end, I don`t see anyone near his ability,” said Simeon coach Al Scott.
And that includes Notre Dame`s Brown. ”Nobody comes close to me as far as potential is concerned,” Mitchell said.
To some, that may be bragging. But to others who know him, that`s Johnny Mitchell.
Scott describes a conversation with Mitchell as doing ”a lot of listening.”
”He believes in what he says,” Ron Brown said. ”He`s a very confident young man. But he`s lived up to everything he`s talked about.”
With one notable exception. Mitchell stole the pre-Orange Bowl spotlight by predicting Nebraska would beat No. 1 Miami. The Cornhuskers didn`t, losing 22-0. However, he made two spectacular catches.
Even in defeat, Mitchell`s confidence didn`t wane. ”It`s something that I was born with,” he said. ”If I`m not confident, I`m not going to be Johnny Mitchell.”
Scott noticed that trait when Mitchell arrived at Simeon. Mitchell, whose parents live in Chicago, came north because he felt he had a better chance of getting of a scholarship at a bigger college.
The culture shock, though, was huge. The farm boy with the Southern drawl suddenly found himself on the streets of Chicago.
”When I spoke to people, it was, `Hey, you`re not from around here,`
” Mitchell said. ”It was very tough. There were drugs and gangs. I stayed home and involved myself in sports. I know the good people from the bad people.”
Indeed, Scott said Mitchell is so straight, ”I don`t think he`ll stay in the room if someone is smoking a cigarette.”
Ron Brown calls Mitchell one of the hardest workers he`s ever seen. His achievement in the classroom supports Brown`s testimony. He carried a 3.165 grade-point average in human development.
Mitchell said he plans to finish his degree, and the coaches hope he will. But his future changed when he went back to Mississippi after the Orange Bowl.
”My grandparents live in a 125-year old house with one heated room,”
Mitchell said. ”It`s so cold in the winter, my grandfather ends up in the hospital because he gets sick. It was horrible. I couldn`t stand to see them live like that.”
”We would have liked to have him back, but his financial situation warrants an early move,” Ron Brown said.
Whether he left too early remains to be seen. One of the scouting services thought Mitchell needed another year and called him ”immature.”
Indeed, Mitchell`s bravado won`t go over well with NFL veterans. ”He`ll be immature at first, but they`ll wake him up,” Scott said.
Mitchell, though, believes his time has come.
”If I get picked up early, great. If not, I hope to make those other teams pay,” he said. ”People say I`m not fully ready, that I`ve only played two years of college ball. I don`t care what people say. I know I can play.
”The best has yet to come for Johnny Mitchell.”
The NFL won`t be the same.
