WHEATLEY: Involved process means relaxing will have to wait

By Terrence Wheatley, Special to the Rocky

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Former University of Colorado cornerback Terrence Wheatley is on the clock. His countdown to the draft has been in motion since his senior season ended in Boulder. The Senior Bowl, scouting combine and the Pro Day last week in Boulder are behind him. He is keeping a diary along the way for the Rocky Mountain News of the places he goes and the people he sees. This is his fourth installment.

I wish I could take it easy right now after all that's happened. I know I'm going to try and catch a weekend where I can disappear from the world, shut off all the phones, cut off the e-mail, but there is still a month to go before the draft, a month to go with plenty of things to do.

I've got some interviews coming up in the next couple weeks, some visits coming up, there are a couple teams I've got to go see, a couple other teams flying people into Dallas to see me.

So I'll be kind of flying around, bopping around, more workouts, more interviews, just going to see the people who want to see me.

It's more of a hands-on type thing at this point, more of a relationship-type deal. They've kind of seen what you can do physically from the Pro Day, from the combine, but now they have to look at it from a relationship standpoint. Is this a guy I can coach or is he a person who is going to resist direction, be hardheaded?

Basically, can I get along with this guy or not?

How does he respond to hard coaching? How will he respond to criticism because criticism is going to come in a professional environment. Because some coaches will be kind of nice at this point, and some coaches bring you in right now just to see how you react to certain things. That's just another part of the process that you have to deal with at this point.

But I'm ready to go. When teams bring you in, that can be kind of a sign they're interested in you, so that's always exciting. You get a few more phone calls and that's a lot better at this point than sitting there hoping the phone rings and going to play golf because you don't have anything else going.

So it's definitely something you've got to enjoy.

Now that the combine is over, my Pro Day is over, I can say it's all been an eye-opening experience. I'm not sure I realized how hard the whole thing would be from the start through the Pro Day. You go through so much stuff every day, you're tired all the time, it's like going through fall camp for months.

Fall camp is typically a month when you're in college, now you're going through it for three, four months. You're up every day, two-a-days every day to get ready for all of this.

Sometimes, you wanted to go out to a movie or something, and you're like, "I can't, I've got to be up at 4 in the morning, or 5, or whatever it is, like a lot of people do every day working their jobs."

It makes you realize a little bit just how hard it is to get to the NFL. When you're in college or high school, you always look at it and think, "I could do that. I could run the 40, I could run a 4.3."

But when you have to get out there and actually run, you realize a 4.3 is smoking, or even a 4.4, a 4.5.

I really tried not to stress about it - I stressed a little bit after the Senior Bowl - but that's because you're getting into the process, all of the interviews, the questions. They were watching you practice, how you come out - did you jog out, did you walk out like you didn't want to be there? They want to know if you stay late to get right, if you socialize or hang out by yourself, whether or not you're a guy who pays attention or one looking out the window.

After a while, you kind of get used to it and say, "Oh, well, a couple more months of this."

And now you've only got a little ways to go until, hopefully, you hear your name called and know whose training camp you have to get ready for.