Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 05:21, 26 April 2012

This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (January 2010)

"Mr. Irrelevant" is the title bestowed each year upon the last pick of the annual National Football League draft.

Irrelevant Week

The name arose in 1976, when former Southern California and NFL receiver Paul Salata founded "Irrelevant Week" in Newport Beach, California. He announced the final pick of the NFL draft. During the summer after the draft, the new Mr. Irrelevant and his family are invited to spend a week in Newport, California, where they enjoy 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.

The first Mr. Irrelevant was Kelvin Kirk, pick number 487 of the 1976 draft. The current Mr. Irrelevant is defensive end Cheta Ozougwu of the Rice University Owls, who was selected by the Houston Texans as pick number 254 of the 2011 draft.

On April 24th, 2012, a woman named Brianne posted a video on YouTube offering herself to whoever was drafted last, earning the "Mrs. Irrelevant" title. She stated that she doesn't like the hype put into the first round and the players taken in it. Instead, she "has a special place in her heart" for those players who she dubbed "humiliated, neglected. The last pick on the playground type of guy." She went on to say that the night the two will have "will be anything BUT irrelevant" and that she'd be watching intently. Before she ended the video, she specifically called out the Big Sky Conference. Reception to the video has been overwhelmingly negative so far.

Notable "winners"

Several players who have been presented with this dubious honor have nevertheless succeeded in making the team that drafted them, with significant contributions on the field.

• Bill Kenney, who won the 1978 Mr. Irrelevant award, earned the award as the second-to-last selection when the last player taken suffered a back injury and failed to report to camp, and was even honored with an invitation to the Pro Bowl in 1983.
• Special teams player Marty Moore became the first Mr. Irrelevant to play in a Super Bowl, with the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.
• Jim Finn was the starting fullback for the New York Giants, and was a part of their Super Bowl Championship team in 2008.
• 2008 winner David Vobora is a starting linebacker for the St. Louis Rams beginning in the 2009 season.
• 2009 winner Ryan Succop became the starting kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, and kicked a winning field goal to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on November 22, 2009. He went on to tie the NFL record for highest field goal percentage by a rookie in a season with 86.2%, and also passed NFL Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud for most field goals made by a rookie in Chiefs history. Succop was awarded the Mack Lee Hill Award that year.

One "Mr. Irrelevant" (who actually predated the award by nearly a decade) went on to a productive professional career in another sport. Jimmy Walker was the final pick in 1967 despite never having played college football. His main sport, however, was basketball, in which he was a consensus All-American and the nation's leading scorer as a senior at Providence. Walker was the first overall pick in the 1967 NBA Draft, and opted for a career in the NBA.

Mr. Irrelevant "winners" and other final selections

See also

• List of first overall National Football League draft picks
• National Football League Draft

References

• http://www.nfl.com/news/story/09000d5d82896421/article/woman-sets-her-scandalous-eyes-on-next-mr-irrelevant

1. http://kcchiefs.com/news/2010/01/05/rb_jamaal_charles_voted_derrick_thomas_award_winner_k_ryan_succop_wins_mack_lee_hill_award/%7CSuccop Wins Mack Lee Hill Award
2. May, Peter (2007-07-03). "Providence hoops legend Jimmy Walker dies at 63". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-08-08. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
3. There were two awardees, as Scanlon chose to play in the Canadian Football League and McGriff was named as a replacement.
4. Two Mr. Irrelevants resulted because original selection Washburn could not attend training camp because of a back injury. Kenney was named as a replacement as a result.
5. Although some contemporary sources list Don Nottingham, who had a seven-year career in the NFL, as the last pick of this draft, the Oakland Raiders passed when their time came to pick in the last round and wound up choosing last.

External links

• Homepage for "Irrelevant Week" and the current "Mr. Irrelevant"
• Mrs. Irrelevant video

• Ironic and humorous awards
• National Football League Draft
• National Football League trophies and awards