Sunday evening, more than 30 hours after NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue steps to the podium in New York and announces the first pick in the 2005 NFL draft, 78-year-old Paul Salata will announce the 255th overall pick.
Maybe No. 255 will be one-time Nebraska center Richie Incognito. Perhaps it will be Oklahoma wide receiver Will Peoples or Syracuse safety Diamond Ferri.
Whoever it is, the young man will forever be known as Mr. Irrelevant. And that one moment will change his life. If not forever, then certainly for one wild and crazy week.
In the spring of 1997, West Point cadet Ronnie McAda, who had quarterbacked Army to a 10-2 record and a berth in the 1996 Independence Bowl, got a call from Green Bay Packers general manager Ron Wolf. The GM told McAda that Green Bay was going to select him with the final pick of the draft.
Then things started moving really fast. First he got a call from Salata’s daughter, Melanie Fitch, telling him he was Mr. Irrelevant. Then Salata announced it to the world on television.
“I had no idea what was going on,” McAda recalled recently from his home in Mesquite, Texas, where he owns Ronnie Mac’s Too car dealership. “I thought to myself, `Mr. Irrelevant? Why are they calling me irrelevant?’ I had no clue.”
He soon found out. McAda and his soon-to-be wife, Laura, as well as his parents, were whisked off to Newport Beach, Calif., for “Mr. Irrelevant Week.”
They flew first class and were showered with gifts. McAda still wears the $2,000 Rolex watch he was presented. He joined Mickey Mouse to lead a parade at Disneyland, took part in a regatta sponsored by the ultra-chic Balboa Bay Yacht Club, played in two golf tournaments and partied until he could party no more.
When McAda made his grand entrance at the swanky Dunes Resort, he arrived riding a rocket launcher, in honor of his military service. And, of course, he was presented with the Lowsman Trophy–the opposite of the Heisman–at a high-class banquet.
“It was first class all the way,” McAda said.
This year’s Mr. Irrelevant will be the 30th. The first was an obscure wide receiver from Dayton named Kelvin Kirk. The Pittsburgh Steelers made him the 487th, and final, pick in the draft. Like most Mr. Irrelevants, Kirk didn’t survive training camp. But he became the first honored in one of sports’ weirdest and most heartwarming traditions.
“My dad made up Mr. Irrelevant Week as a way to celebrate the underdog,” said Fitch, who took over the day-to-day duties of Mr. Irrelevant Week from her father 15 years ago. “Dad loves football. He had played college football at Southern California and had played for the 49ers. He also grew up in a very poor family.
“He just thought it would be fun to honor the last guy picked in the draft, somebody who wasn’t supposed to achieve. Dad’s motto became: `Doing something nice for someone for no reason.”‘
But always doing it with a twist. At an Angels game, Mr. Irrelevant doesn’t throw out the first pitch. Rather, he drags the infield in the seventh inning.
Not all of the previous Mr. Irrelevants truly were irrelevant in the NFL. Bill Kenney, a quarterback from Northern Colorado, played with the Kansas City Chiefs from 1979 to 1988 and was a starter from 1981 to 1987. In 1983, he threw for 4,348 yards and 24 touchdowns and made the Pro Bowl.
Actually, Kenney was not the final pick of the 1978 draft. He was drafted No. 333 by Miami. No. 334 was Montana State guard Lee Washburn, who was selected by Dallas.
But when a back injury put Washburn in traction, Kenney was invited to sunny Southern California and was feted as the third Mr. Irrelevant. After his playing days were through, Kenney became a Missouri senator.
Bears safety Mike Green, Mr. Irrelevant of 2000, has started 42 games in the last five seasons. Former Patriots linebacker Marty Moore, selected as the 222nd pick in 1994, is the only Mr. Irrelevant to play in a Super Bowl, suiting up for the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI against Green Bay.
But most of the 29 previous Mr. Irrelevants are like Larry Wanke, now a real estate mover and shaker near Cleveland. In 1991, the Giants picked the John Carroll College quarterback at No. 334.
Although Wanke had played one season for the University of Pittsburgh, throwing three touchdowns in the 1987 Bluebonnett Bowl against Texas, his NFL career lasted less than a summer.
But every now and then, the football career of Mr. Irrelevant 1991 becomes relevant again.
“Sometimes, more often then you would think, people remember,” Wanke said. “Except, sometimes they get it wrong. They’ll say, `Weren’t you Mr. Insignificant?’ Then I’ll just laugh and fade back like I’m going to throw a pass.”
