KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The 2023 NFL Draft begins Thursday night, which means at least 30 young men's lives will change in a matter of five minutes via phone.
One man knows how they're feeling all too well.
"When I was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs, I really didn’t know where Kansas City was," said Tim Grunhard, former center for the Chiefs.
Grunhard was drafted in the second round out of Notre Dame in 1990 and spent eleven seasons with the team.
"The phone rang, it was Carl Peterson and Lamar Hunt for the Kansas City Chiefs," Grunhard said. "So, that’s the way life is and that’s the way the NFL Draft is. That’s why it’s so cool and that’s why everybody loves it."
Little did he know he'd be in Kansas City for the next 33 years of his life.
"A lot of these guys are going through the same thing where they’re thinking, 'Ok, am I gonna get drafted? If I get drafted, when am I gonna get drafted? What round? Am I going to be able to make a team? And where am I gonna live?'" Grunhard said.
He recalls one moment at the beginning of his career with the Chiefs when he went to Arrowhead Stadium for the first time with Carl Peterson.
He asked about the names lining the inside of the stadium, to which Peterson said, "That's what you want to aspire to." Today, Grunhard's name joins them.
"And that was always my goal. It really wasn’t about going to the NFL Hall of Fame," Grunhard said. "I just wanted to be a part of this Chiefs organization long enough where, ya know, I was a part of that great group. And I was so blessed to do that."
As for this year's draft class, he has some words of advice for the young athletes: it doesn't matter what round you get drafted, it matters what you do after.
"We saw [Isiah] Pacheco this year, the running back for the Chiefs, seventh-round guy from Rutgers," he said. "A lot of people didn’t think he was good enough to play, and [he] became a superstar on the Chiefs' Super Bowl team."
For anyone who knows an individual who may be drafted, Grunhard advises they should wait to call.
"That’s what I remember the most is being just aggravated by people calling to see if I was drafted yet," Grunhard laughed. "You’d answer and it’d be a buddy of mine who’d say, 'Hey did you get drafted yet?' I said, 'Quit calling here!'"
Nowadays, Grunhard hosts four shows a week on 810 Sports Radio, coaches football at Bishop Miege High School and serves as a Chiefs Ambassador.
