INDIANAPOLIS -- Attend his fiancée’s softball game at Texas A&M or sit around at home waiting for his phone to ring to see where he would be playing in the NFL?
That’s the (good) dilemma the Indianapolis Colts' second-round pick, offensive lineman Braden Smith, faced Friday, the second day of the NFL draft.
Smith, being a smart man, traveled to College Station, Texas, to watch fiancée Courtney Shea, the starting catcher at Auburn, take on the Aggies.
“I mean, my fiancée wanted to be here with me when it happened,” Smith said. “I mean, happy wife, happy life.”
Smith was all situated in the front row of the stands at the game when his phone rang. Right before the national anthem was about to start.
That’s when his second dilemma arose.
Answer the phone during the national anthem or let the phone call go to voicemail?
Smith, not wanting to miss the call, couldn't wait, he had to answer his phone. It was the Colts on the other end telling him that he was their second-round draft pick, joining first-round pick Quenton Nelson on the offensive line.
“I had to answer, you know?,” Smith said. “It was actually a couple seconds before they started doing the [national] anthem. I mean, you definitely can’t decline that type of call.”
Smith, who was a first-team All-American at Auburn last season, figured there were a lot of eyes on him as he talked, with the national anthem playing in the background.
“I mean, when you have someone blabbing on his phone during the national anthem, they’re probably like, ‘What’s wrong with this guy?’” he said.
To make sure Smith didn’t miss the draft, his fiancee’s parents had it on an iPad during the game, and they had a poster board in case they needed to write a message on it during the game to let Shea know where she will eventually be living. Shea, who is a senior at Auburn, found out about her future husband joining Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton in Indianapolis due to applause in the stands.
“We are in the little Auburn section, so everybody is cheering, and then they are just lined up, so they kind of got the message and they all kind of clapped from there,” Smith said.