He knows the number, and the names. There were 17 linebackers selected ahead of him in last weekend’s NFL Draft, and Brandon Short has the list nearly put to memory. He was deemed to be the 18th-best linebacker, an evaluation that put a sour expression on his face and ingrained inside him a burning desire to prove everyone so very wrong.
That includes the Giants.
“They passed on me three times, too,” Short said.
Yes, the Giants have themselves one ornery rookie. Along with the seven other draft picks, several first-year free agents and a bunch of veterans, Short took part in a three-day rookie minicamp at Giants Stadium, a camp that ended yesterday. Nothing, of course, is decided this quickly or this early, but there is a feel around the Giants that Short comes as a steal and that he will not take long to push his way onto the field.
“I don’t sense a bitterness,” Jim Fassel said. “He’s not going to walk around and blame it on other people. It should be motivation, that he wants to prove myself.”
Few fourth-round picks arrive with the pedigree and credentials that Short brings to the table. He was a four-year starter at Penn State, a finalist for the Butkus Award, a multiple all-Big Ten selection. The interest in inside linebackers, though, is not what it once was, and Short grew more and more angry when he eventually heard his name as the 105th player to go in the draft.
“I feel like I had a better college career than that,” Short said. “I feel like I’m a better player than apparently what other people think.”
Upon hearing that some scouts labeled him a “long-strider,” which means he might not be able to quickly change direction, Short scoffed and shot back, “All that’s B.S. All you’ve got to do is make plays, and I made plays. The only thing I didn’t get that I wanted was a national championship. There really isn’t more I could have accomplished in college, with the exception of winning a championship.”
Short is one of the rookies who at 6-3 and 252 pounds already looks like he fits in, and he’s starting off on the strong side, where he will challenge Ryan Phillips for an immediate chance to play. He was given uniform No. 53, once so forcefully worn by Harry Carson, a middle linebacker who in some ways Short resembles.
During a break between practices this past weekend, Short had his head buried in the new playbook that he was expected to be on his way to mastering. As much as he did at Penn State, this was indeed a new beginning.
“You have to earn respect here, absolutely,” he said. “Nobody knows me; you’ve got to start from scratch.”
Playing on a defense that included Courtney Brown and LaVar Arrington – taken with the first and second picks in the draft – it was Short who emerged as the player acknowledged as the leader. It is not a reputation Short backs away from.
“My teammates respect me because of the way I carry myself,” Short said. “They know I believe in certain things and I’m willing to stand up and fight for whatever I believe in. I play hard, come to work every day, I care more than about just myself. All those qualities make people look at me and say, ‘That guy’s all right, let’s listen to what he has to say.'”
The Giants placed Short’s locker almost directly opposite from Jessie Armstead, another linebacker who came into the league feeling slighted. As a three-time Pro Bowler, Armstead to this day is fueled by the reminder that in 1993 he was an eighth-round pick out of Miami. There aren’t even eight rounds in the draft any more, which shows how lightly-regarded Armstead was coming out of a similar big-time program.
Armstead keeps with him a list of the 33 linebackers taken ahead of him when he came out of college, and he takes great delight in checking off names as players drop out of the league, while he continues to thrive as the Giants’ inspirational leader and playmaker.
Short was informed of Armstead’s tale, and he took something from the information.
“Hopefully,” Short said, “my career can turn out like his did, and I can be ticked off. It’s something I’ll never forget.”