The seven rounds of the draft were over; the 2011 draft had come to an end. After three days of intense hype and excitement from the first round to the seventh, the curtain finally fell.
This year, five players from UCLA entered the draft, and four of them were successfully selected, which was a great achievement. Rahim Moore was selected in the second round, Logan Newman in the third, and Marcus Lynch and David Carter were both selected in the sixth round.
The only one who was unfortunately not drafted was Lu Ke.
That's right, Lu Ke's name still didn't appear on the list of picks in the seventh round. Ironically, in the seventh round, the New York Jets selected a quarterback, Greg McElroy.
The reason it's "ironic" is that almost no one remembered Greg's performance at the rookie training camp.
Greg was 6 feet, 16 inches tall and weighed 220 pounds, which was a more balanced height-to-weight ratio compared to Lu Ke. But other than that, his physical test results were unremarkable. His 40-yard dash, 20-yard shuttle, broad jump, vertical jump, and 3-cone drill were all very similar to Lu Ke's.
On the other hand, Greg's position drills were mediocre, with twenty completions out of thirty passes. In the following practice game, he only managed to advance less than thirty yards and ended the game with an interception.
In other words, aside from having a weight advantage, Greg had almost no other advantages over Lu Ke. Of course, Greg was a seventh-round pick, which was not a great draft position to begin with. But between Greg and Lu Ke, the New York Jets chose the former, and not Lu Ke, who had performed excellently in passing, offense, and on-field command.
In the seventh round, people could say that this was an ambiguous choice, and the Jets made the best decision for themselves. But it could also be said that this was the reality of the NFL: not to mention a Chinese quarterback, even a Chinese player was a huge challenge for any team. This was true for a huge and open market like New York, so what about teams in other cities?
Many times, racism is not necessarily about demeaning and dirty slurs, nor is it about condescending exclusion. The kind of ingrained beliefs and ideas that fundamentally separate two races are the most terrifying kind of discrimination. Because it's almost irreversible. Black people have been struggling for half a century, and women for two centuries, and they are still fighting.
So, what about Asians?
In soccer, basketball, and even track and field, Asians, represented by the Chinese, are gradually expanding their territory and proving that race is not the biggest constraint on athletic talent; prejudice is. But the field of football is still virgin territory. This was a challenge for Lu Ke, and also a chasm that stood in front of him.
The fact was, the New York Jets chose Greg McElroy in the seventh round, not Lu Ke.
Of course, Lu Ke had almost no chance to perform during college, no game tapes, no reference points, and no scouting reports. Just based on a fifteen-minute and a two-minute game, and his ups and downs at the rookie training camp, it was not enough for Lu Ke to break down the racial barrier.
So, the draft was over, and Lu Ke went undrafted.
After seeing off the Newmans and Logan, who couldn't stop wailing, the house finally became quiet. Lu Zhengze and Jiang Youning turned around and went back inside. Walking through the living room, they saw Lu Ke standing in the backyard.
At this moment, Lu Ke's back was to them, and he was standing on the porch. The wind chimes next to him were chiming crisply and distantly. The cold moonlight and the creamy yellow light from the porch light shone down, outlining a lonely and lost figure.
Looking at her son's back, Jiang Youning felt a bitter sadness but didn't know how to express it. She knew more than anyone else how much effort Lu Ke had put in to get to this point.
She still remembered when Lu Ke was in ninth grade. Because he was so thin, he couldn't effectively compete in team practices, and his stamina, endurance, and explosiveness were all lacking. To catch up with his teammates, Lu Ke trained hard every day and didn't dare to take a single day off.
One day, Lu Ke had a slight fever from being in the rain, but he still didn't want to miss practice and insisted on joining the team's daily training. In the middle of practice, Lu Ke secretly ran to a place where no one was looking and threw up for a while until there was nothing left, then he pretended to be fine and snuck back to continue training.
When he came back, Lu Ke was pale and had no color in his face. He collapsed directly on the porch at their front door. If Tiffany from across the street hadn't found him in time, noticed he was burning up, and immediately taken him to the hospital, who knows what the consequences would have been. The doctor later said that Lu Ke had a fever of 103.1 degrees Fahrenheit and bronchitis, and the inflammation was spreading to his lungs. If they weren't careful, the situation could have been unimaginable.
When Jiang Youning arrived at the hospital, she was terrified and cried her eyes out. In the end, it was Lu Ke who comforted her. "Mom, this way I get a chance to be lazy, and you won't have to worry anymore." He only said half of it before falling back asleep again, as if he was delirious from the fever.
That wasn't the only time something like that happened. Every time she saw Lu Ke training so hard, Jiang Youning's heart ached, but in the end, Lu Ke always gritted his teeth and persevered. When he couldn't get on the team for two consecutive years in college, he didn't give up. When he was a practice player in his junior year, he didn't give up... He had come to this day, one step at a time.
But now, all his efforts had been invalidated.
Jiang Youning's nose started to sting, and tears almost fell. Then, she felt an embrace. She looked up and saw her husband's slightly red eyes. "Little Ke is the one who's the saddest. You know, what he needs most is our support. Your son won't be easily defeated. Even if both of us can't hold on, he still won't give up. So, we can't be weak before he gives up."
"I just feel bad for him..." Jiang Youning raised her hand to cover her mouth, then wiped the tears from her cheeks. If she could, she would rather Lu Ke be a journalist than fight on the football field. As a mother, no matter what he achieved, she would be proud!
"I know," Lu Zhengze hugged his wife and patted her back gently. "I'll go and talk to Lu Ke. Remember, he needs our support."
After that, Lu Zhengze took a deep breath and then walked forward.
Pushing open the back screen door, Lu Zhengze walked out. The April monsoon winds swept across the sea and the hills, carrying a hint of moisture and a touch of coldness, which immediately cleared his mind. Lu Zhengze stopped next to Lu Ke, and he couldn't help but look at his son, who was taller and stronger than him. He wanted to say something but didn't know where to start.
"Dad. I want to keep trying," Lu Ke said first, which made Lu Zhengze look at his son's face.
On that face, which had gradually shed its immaturity and started to mature, there was no disappointment or sadness as he had imagined, nor was there any pain or resentment. Instead, there was a faint, confident, and determined smile.
"I didn't get drafted, but I'm still an undrafted rookie," Lu Ke said, meeting his father's gaze calmly. "I know I've worked hard for so many years, even with all my might, but I still didn't get drafted. So, it would be smart for me to know when to give up. I think my brain is pretty good, and I can figure this out."
Lu Ke chuckled and said jokingly, "The most logical thing for me to do is to give up on football and start looking for a job as a journalist. There are still four months left, and before September, this is the peak season for job hunting. I should send out my resume to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and even New York to look for more opportunities before the title of 'recent graduate' starts to fade, and I can plan for my future."
"But, Dad, I want to try a little more," Lu Ke said sincerely, looking at his father without any flowery reasons. "I know it's silly and not very rational. But I don't want to give up yet. It's not because I'm not willing to accept defeat, but because I feel that I still have potential that I haven't tapped into. I hope someone can see it, and I also believe that I can earn a spot on that field."
The football superstar system was one of Lu Ke's sources of confidence. But even without the system, in the years before he got it, Lu Ke had never given up easily. His confidence came from the system, but more importantly, it came from himself.
Before Little Seven, at least six other people had gotten the system, but not all of them were successful. In the end, on the field of competition, it's the person who holds the key to victory.
Lu Zhengze didn't answer immediately. He looked at Lu Ke seriously and felt a little emotional. In his son, he saw his younger, fiery self. Immigrating to the United States in the mid-1990s was not as easy as it seemed. The difficulties and challenges they faced were far beyond what they had imagined, but he and his wife gritted their teeth and persevered, creating a life for themselves, one step at a time.
They found an opportunity and took it. Now, it was his son's turn.
"Here in America, don't they have the concept of a gap year?" Lu Zhengze finally spoke. "After you graduate from college and before you start your official job, you can give yourself a year to explore the world, the unknown, and what you truly want. Maybe it's a dream, maybe it's freedom, or maybe it's wealth."
Lu Zhengze patted Lu Ke on the shoulder. "I hope you can find it. On the sports field, your mom and I can't help you much, but you just need to remember that we will always support you. In our hearts, you are the best quarterback. "He let out a long breath and also smiled. "So, go for it. Undrafted rookie, even if you weren't drafted, you still have a chance. I believe in you."
The reason a "dream" is called a "dream" is not because it's so beautiful, or because it can be achieved, but because it transcends life and reality. The road to a dream requires facing difficulties that are far beyond imagination, and it even requires a little bit of silly courage. Giving up on a dream is not difficult; continuing to chase it is the hardest part.
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