The NFL Draft in its current condensed form still leaves a host of players with great talent and potential on the table. Maybe that was less of a case when the draft went on for 10, 11, 12 rounds and had territorial picks and many other nuances that pulled young players into the fold of a team one way or another.
Back in those days, the tag of “Mr. Irrelevant” was probably more of a worthy choice, with some teams even using that last pick or pick as symbolic ones for players who would never don an NFL jersey. Nowadays the end of Day 3 of the draft has high quality talent to go with great stories, but “Mr. Irrelevant,” the tag given to that last player taken, still lives on, and in today’s social media brand building world, it may have even more of a chance to be significant than when the first person to officially be given the “Mr. Irrelevant” title, Kelvin Kirk, at pick number 487 of the 1976 draft was crowned.
For those who don’t know, the idea came about when former USC and NFL receiver Paul Salata created the idea in Newport Beach, California. He continued to announce the final pick of the NFL Draft until 2013; from 2014 his daughter took over in announcing the pick. During the summer after the draft, the new Mr. Irrelevant and his family are invited to spend a week in Newport Beach where they enjoy a trip to Disneyland, a golf tournament, a regatta, a roast giving advice to the new draftee, and a ceremony awarding him the Lowsman Trophy. The trophy mimics the Heisman, but depicts a player fumbling a football.
“Irrelevant Week” gave so much publicity to “Mr. Irrelevant” that in 1979 the Los Angeles Rams, with the penultimate pick, intentionally passed to let the Pittsburgh Steelers, with the last pick, choose first. The Steelers also wanted the publicity and passed as well. The two teams continued to refuse to choose a player until NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle forced the teams to pick, with the Steelers winning the pick. The incident led to the “Salata Rule”, which prohibits teams from passing to get the final pick.
On February 7, 2021, for the first time in the history of the NFL, a Mr. Irrelevant played in and won a Super Bowl, when Ryan Succop was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers starting placekicker in Super Bowl LV. Now its Grant Stuard’s turn to take the mantle, and the trip to Southern California with a chance not just to extend, but to expand the role
And Stuard, and his story are anything but irrelevant
Stuard, was team captain for the University of Houston Cougars, a long haired All-AAC choice after leading the team with 61 tackles. He celebrated his big moment with both of his parents, with whom he hasn’t always had the smoothest relationship. Stuard told ESPN when he was younger he “was bouncing from home to home” and had to care for his siblings, not knowing if they would eat or which school they’d be attending.
“My mom is a drug addict. … She used to work in the sex industry,” Stuard told ESPN. “My dad was in prison a good portion of our young life. Even when he wasn’t in prison, he was very absent when we were growing up. That results in both parents being absent the majority of the time.”
He now heads to Tom Brady and the defending Super Bowl champions with a story and a style to match the notoriety and the brief spotlight that “Mr. Irrelevant” brings. In a time when building a personal brand tied to storytelling has never been more important, it seems like the elevation of a fun title and a short prize might never be more relevant to an audience and to a team in a small market with big time eyes upon it.
Ride the wave Mr. Stuard. Yours timing was pretty strong at U of H, now it’s has a chance to influence even more. Irrelevant can sometimes mean mediocre. This story, and this opportunity, is anything but.
