Tickets
By Bill Koch
GoBEARCATS.com
CINCINNATI -- Five years after he heard his name called on ESPN's NFL draft coverage as the sixth-round pick of the Carolina Panthers, Tony Pike calls it "a memory that I'll never forget."
Pike had just come off his senior year at the University of Cincinnati, where he led the Bearcats to a 12-0 regular season record, a No. 3 ranking in the BCS standings and a trip to the Sugar Bowl. He passed for 2,520 yards with 29 touchdown passes.
As the draft is being conducted this weekend, he still wonders what might have been if an elbow injury hadn't ended his career prematurely, but he has mostly pleasant memories from draft day on April 24, 2010, first from when he got the call from the Panthers that he would be taken with the 204th overall pick and then from being able to watch his name called on TV surrounded by family and friends at his parents' house in Reading.
"To be able to know it's coming and then a minute later to see your name up there, for me it was an overwhelming feeling of joy and seeing all the hard work pay off," said the 29-year-old Pike, who now tutors young quarterbacks at Beacon Elite Sports Training in Sharonville. "To see the reaction of family and friends, that to me was even more special to be able to celebrate with them."
After the initial celebration at his parents' house, he joined a larger gathering that night at a gym in Reading. By then, the pressure was off. Although he had been confident that he would be drafted, he felt some anxiety because he didn't know how early he would go, having been told it could be anywhere from the second round to the fifth or sixth round.
On the second day of the draft, when the second and third rounds were being conducted, he played golf with a few friends and family members to keep his mind off it. By the end of the draft, he was the ninth of 12 quarterbacks who were selected.
"It got to the point where as a quarterback you want to believe that you can put yourself against anyone and be confident that you will come out on the winning side," Pike said. "It's a confidence and a pride factor. But at the end of the day, to be one of the very select few that get drafted and has the opportunity to live out their childhood dream meant the world to me."
It probably meant a little more to Pike than it did to the likes of Sam Bradford or Tim Tebow because just a few years earlier he had been a forgotten man at UC. It wasn't until Brian Kelly, then the head coach at UC, challenged him during training camp just before his junior year that Pike began to show what he could do. He got his chance when Dustin Grutza got hurt at Oklahoma and immediately displayed a powerful arm with uncanny accuracy and an ability to scramble out of the pocket. Suddenly, a career that seemed to be going nowhere began to show promise.
"Going from the start of camp my junior year when I was sitting fourth or fifth string on the depth chart," Pike said, "if someone had said to me at camp that day that in two years you'll hear your name called in the draft, I would have asked them if they were on something."
For Pike, one of three UC players drafted that year, the process leading to the draft began began just days after the Bearcats lost to Florida in the Sugar Bowl.
"Right after the game you have three days to decide who your agent is going to be and where you're going to be training," Pike said. "In a week's time, I went from playing my last college game to living in California, where I trained all the way up to the combine."
At the NFL scouting combine, like all prospects, he was peppered with questions, some football-related, some not. And because he had twice broken his left, non-throwing arm at UC, he was also subjected to seemingly endless probing by doctors from each of the 32 NFL teams.
"You're definitely coached up on the drills you're going to be doing," Pike said. "You wake up for a drug test in the morning and when you go for your physical, each team is allowed to perform a physical. For me, coming off two arm surgeries, there were 32 different doctors pulling on my arm. That all leads up to your last day when you're finally able to perform on the field. Then you get ready for your pro day."
After the pro day, there was nothing to do but continue to work out and wait for the draft. As it turned out, Pike wouldn't be the only rookie quarterback in the Panthers' training camp because they had also drafted Notre Dame's Jimmy Clausen with the 48th overall pick in the second round, so there was no guarantee that Pike would make the team.
"The higher draft numbers are looking for houses," Pike said. "I lived in a Holiday Inn for five weeks in Charlotte. A hotel room can get pretty exhausting in five weeks."
Pike made the team but played in only one NFL regular-season game, completing six of 12 passes for 47 yards on Nov. 7, 2010 against the New Orleans Saints in relief of Clausen. Soon after that, he began to have problems with his right elbow.
"After my first year, I was losing the spiral on my passes," Pike said. "I was losing a little velocity. I didn't know what happened. They said I had some nerve damage in my elbow. It was the ulnar nerve. I had surgery on it but the first surgery didn't take. Then I had another doctor go in and re-do it."
Pike was waived by the Panthers on Aug. 30, 2011 and received an injury settlement. His elbow was never the same. After the second surgery, he had a tryout with the Bengals, but by then it was apparent that his football career was pretty much over.
Pike has come to grips with all that and moved on. But every year around this time when the draft begins, he can't help but think back to his special day when he was filled with hope for the future and pride over what he had accomplished to get drafted. He takes solace in the knowledge that he made the Panthers as a sixth-round pick, something he says can never be taken from him.
"I'll definitely reflect back (during the draft)," Pike said. "For me, it's still a process on the mental side of things. If it weren't for my elbow, I still feel like if I was healthy I could compete at a high level. For me that part is hard, to know that I won't have that opportunity again."
Bill Koch covered UC Athletics for 27 years - 15 at The Cincinnati Post and 12 at The Cincinnati Enquirer - before joining the staff of GoBEARCATS.com in January, 2015 as featured columnist. Follow him on Twitter @bkoch.