Padecky: Scooby Wright keeps his focus as NFL beckons

So now the long-distance courtship begins and there’s nothing subtle about it. The phone rings. How ya doing, Phil? I’m a player agent. I like your son a lot. He’s got an NFL future, no question about it. I like his work ethic, how he covers the field sideline to sideline, how he plays whistle to whistle. Can I talk to him? I know that’s all the NCAA allows me to do right now.

This week, six NFL agents have contacted Phil Wright about his son, Scooby. Wright guesstimates about a dozen or so have phoned him since Scooby and the University of Arizona stopped playing football last season. Phil is the filter for Scooby. Some, they are asked to send a resume. Others, like Drew Rosenhaus, are allowed a brief phone conversation. Rosenhaus has negotiated about $2 billion of NFL player contracts, including guys like Frank Gore and Terrell Owens.

“His stats from last season read more like career numbers than for a single season,” Rosenhaus said. “Scooby is the NFL prototype inside linebacker. I rarely have seen a college linebacker dominate the way Scooby did last season. If he stays healthy next season I don’t see why Scooby wouldn’t be a first-round pick in next year’s draft. You don’t have to be a top agent to recognize that Scooby Wright is a special player.”

And then Rosenhaus said he wanted to adopt Scooby.

OK, maybe he didn’t. But Rosenhaus’ enthusiasm is as transparent as the irony that currently surrounds Wright. Two years ago, only one college recruited Wright after playing for Cardinal Newman. Now, Wright has at least a dozen agents sitting like a hen on his dad’s phone like it is a hatching egg, hoping to claim the baby chick inside … and thanks for staying with me on this one.

“I’ve told everyone that Scooby plans to play all four years at Arizona,” his father said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Phil Wright ain’t no turnip that just fell from the truck. The coach of SRJC’s softball team, Wright was a college linebacker, first at SRJC, then at Long Beach State. It was Wright’s experience at Long Beach that still impacts the message to his son.

“I don’t want Scooby to make the same mistake that I did,” Wright said. “I kinda lost track of football when I went to Long Beach. I focused so hard at the JC, wanting to go to a four-year, that I forgot why I was there, to play football and get an education. I did a lot of partying.”

Almost as if he is channeling his father, sitting right next to him at a coffee shop, Scooby says calmly and evenly, “I don’t want to look back with regrets.” Dad smiles. Message has been received. Message, in fact, doesn’t have to be repeated, not after hearing Scooby’s opinion about all the attention he’s getting from player agents.

“I just think of it as noise,” Wright said. “It doesn’t mean much.”

Disrespect is not the meaning behind those two sentences. Perspective is. The sports landscape is littered with top-tier talent that lost their way and careers by falling in love with compliments like Rosenhaus’. Ego is a precious but fragile necessity for the competitive athlete. Having too little of it produces the same results as having too much of it. Wright knows who he is. He’s a football player in the purest sense. He’s a baller, like they say. The game is his thing.

Compliments? Who doesn’t like them? Wright appreciates them. But compliments have never made a tackle. Compliments never studied game film. Compliments never worked out on their own, as Wright does. In Tucson this offseason, the Wildcats have organized team workouts five days a week. Each day, hours after his mandatory workout, he works out on his own, apart from and in addition to his teammates.

“So would the word ‘lazy’ be the worst thing I could say about you?” I asked Scooby.

Before he could respond, his father said, “That, and selfish.”

“Yes,” the player said. “Selfish.”

Scooby spat out the word like it was a curse word, dripping with distaste and ugliness. He’s the Pac-12’s Defensive Player of the Year, the first underclassman to ever win the award. He’s a Nagurski winner, a Bednarik winner, a Lombardi winner, and national awards given for defensive excellence. He was the only linebacker in the country to rank in the top three of tackles, tackles for a loss and sacks. He’s a projected first-rounder on several 2016 mock drafts.

All of which is kryptonite to his Superman. It would make him less than whole. It would make a joke of what he did as a Pop Warner player, when he would have to cut weight to play, his body that much bigger. His Pop Warner nickname embodied his dilemma: Wright was called Younger and Heavier. He’d have to lose weight to play with the older kids.

“Thursday would be a salad for dinner,” his father said. “Friday a salad for dinner, too. I’d put him to bed and then I’d rush to the fridge for food. I couldn’t eat a full dinner in front of him. Then we’d hit the sauna Thursday and Friday, even do it before the game on Saturday. Then the minute Scooby would make weight, I’d give him a deli sandwich, a Red Bull and Snickers.”

As if on command, again in an even voice, the upcoming college junior added, “That made me respect the game even more.”

Ask for a compliment and Wright will tell you about the tackles he missed. Tell him about those 14 sacks and he’ll shift the focus to the ones he missed. He’s in search for the perfect game, the search made all the more exciting for him because no one has ever played one.

To go where no one has gone before, you could say Wright already has done that. In his 28 years as a player agent, has Rosenhaus even seen anyone go from nearly ignored out of high school to consensus All-American in two years? He didn’t have a conclusive answer.

A kid’s head could turn sideways with such limelight. So Scooby, I’m here to help. Please consider the following a personal favor from me to you.

Wright is listed as a first-rounder on many 2016 mock NFL drafts. One in particular stood out.

Something called Behind The Steel Curtain, operated by SB Nation, projects the 49ers will pick Wright with the 14th pick next year.

Wright is listed as a linebacker … from Arizona State. That would be Arizona’s archrival.

Scoob, you can thank me later.

To contact Bob Padecky email him at bobpadecky@gmail.com.