You aren’t supposed to root as a member of the media, but Florio and I were rooting like many others for former Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich to get drafted at the end of Saturday’s seventh round.
It didn’t happen, and now Herzlich is stuck like so many other potential undrafted free agents in limbo, waiting for the NFL lockout to end to see where they will go next.
Herzlich, who overcame cancer to return to play in 2010, was in New York for draft festivities during the week and was on stage Thursday before the draft started. We heard that he left town on Friday because he knew he wouldn’t be taken until day three at least.
It had to be a big disappointment to Herzlich to go undrafted; after all he was considered a surefire first-round pick in 2009 before cancer struck. He took this latest adversity in stride and with class, as you’d expect.
“Thanking everyone for their support tough times call for perseverance and a tough mind,” Herzlich wrote on Twitter. “Today sucked for me but everyone needs to pray for all the people in Alabama. They need us more than ever right now.
“I have been told that I can’t play football before. We all know what happened with that. #neverquit.”