The dream of nearly every collegiate football player is to ultimately be playing on Sundays. But as is often the case with lofty aspirations, this dream comes with a reality check attached. In this instance it’s in the form of a very small number – as in 1.2%. That’s the estimated percentage of NCAA Division I, NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, and NAIA football players that annually make the jump to the NFL. It’s not the most encouraging stat you’ll ever find, but as Jim Carrey’s character Lloyd Christmas so famously and optimistically uttered in the movie Dumb and Dumber, “So you’re telling me there’s a chance!”
That “chance” is what the College Gridiron Showcase is all about. The Showcase, or CGS as it’s known, is an independently operated post-season college football event hosted each January in Fort Worth, Texas. It attracts players from all over the country who have completed their college eligibility and want to showcase their football skills on (and off) the field, meet agents, and interview with professional football scouts – and to be given that elusive chance.
For the most part, these are the kids that won’t get invited to the NFL Combine, but heading into its 8th year in existence, CGS can proudly point to the fact that over 600 of their athletes have been offered pro football contracts. It’s now a regular occurrence for CGS attendees to claim spots on almost every NFL team each season, and former CGS players have been on both Super Bowl teams every year since 2016.
When Executive Director and CGS Co-Founder Jose Jefferson was asked what the motivation was to begin such a large undertaking, he said, “Craig (Co-Founder and Director of Operations Craig Redd) and I wanted to give players who don’t normally get exposure an honest look. It isn’t so much to get players drafted as much as it gives players an opportunity to go to camps. There are 425 undrafted free agents on NFL rosters in 2021. This is the space we want to live in. We will get our draft picks for sure, but there are more kids that need an ‘honest’ look, and teams were wanting a place to get that look.”
Late in 2019, our Dallas-based sports production company, Mint Farm Films, entered the CGS scene. My partners and I are former NHL, MLB and NBA executives and we’re constantly on the lookout for intriguing sports-related storylines to document. We saw the entertainment potential in unveiling the stories of these underdog athletes, and partnered with CGS to produce an hour-long special featuring the attendees of the January 2020 event. Just weeks later the novel coronavirus reshaped the world, but we were still able to get our show produced and aired, albeit over hurdles we had never encountered before. If you’d like to check out last year’s, pre-pandemic edition you can view it on our YouTube channel.
Fast forward to the subsequent 2020 football season – perhaps as challenging as any ever witnessed in the history of collegiate sports. Microcosms of the country (and the world for that matter) in general, athletic departments, schools, conferences, and athletes had to circumnavigate the same issues of uncertainty and perils that we all did. COVID-19 wreaked havoc on scheduling and schedules, with game cancellation and COVID-positive test announcements seemingly a weekly, if not daily, occurrence. Some schools and athletes, not surprisingly, chose to not play football at all.
To rattle the worlds of these young athletes even further, mix in the social injustice issues that were brought to the forefront of the nation in May of 2020 with the killing of George Floyd. The resolve of many of these athletes was tested for the first time in ways unrelated to the gridiron or even the pandemic, and racial tensions certainly seemed to have the potential to break apart locker rooms throughout all sports. But as we dug beneath the surface in our interviews with these athletes, we found more times than not the resulting outcome was the exact opposite, as conversations on the topic actually strengthened the bond between teammates of different colors and backgrounds.
The most recent version of CGS occurred this past January, and drew over 400 athletes, a testament to the ever-growing popularity of the event. An interesting subset of this year’s group were the 100 or so free agents attending the Pro Gridiron Showcase (PGS). For the most part these are athletes who have been out of school for a while, and are trying to work their way on, or in some cases back on, a professional roster. One example is former Dallas Cowboy Lucky Whitehead, who spent 2019 playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League, and then dealt with the entire 2020 CFL season being cancelled due to the pandemic.
As we wrapped up the final touches on the second season of our CGS show this week, one of my Mint Farm Films partners Rush Olson, who wore dual hats of both writer and director on the project, succinctly summed it up, “It’s really about the individual stories of these athletes and the challenges that many of them have had to overcome. Some are from smaller schools, some have had some issues or injuries along the way, or some have just been overlooked. But there are some really good stories here, and really good players. The issues through which they had to face and ultimately persevere in 2020 just adds to the depth of their narratives.”
The show’s second season will premiere on Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 4pm, with follow up airings on Thursday Sept. 30 at 7pm, and Saturday, Oct. 2 at 1pm. Chicago’s Marquee Sports Network will pick up the show next, airing on Monday, Oct. 4 at 10pm, Thursday, Oct. 7 at 9am, and Saturday, Oct. 9 at 9pm (all times listed are Central Time Zone). Individual stations in cities across the country will follow up with airings as well. Check your local listings for dates and times.
