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Mike Beamish
Vancouver Sun
Michael Vick, serial dog abuser, meet Danny Watkins, the Canadian kid who once rescued family pets from burning buildings.
The Philadelphia Eagles quarterback, who did some prison time for animal cruelty, was himself treated unmercifully by opponents last season because of his offensive line’s inability to protect him. That’s where Watkins comes in.
The West Kelowna firefighter became the 23rd pick in Thursday’s National Football League draft, the first sign that the Eagles intend to improve their offensive line play.
Eagles quarterbacks were sacked 49 times in the 2010 campaign, and the stat would have been much worse if Vick was not so proficient at sprinting out of trouble.
Selected fourth overall in the 2010 Canadian Football League draft by the B.C. Lions, Watkins, became the second player from Baylor University to go in the first round. His teammate, defensive tackle Phil Taylor, went two spots earlier to Cleveland.
The 6-3, 310-pound offensive lineman has only two years of major college football experience, but his accelerated rate of improvement, outstanding leg drive, blocking ability, aggressiveness and character make Watkins one of the most intriguing, and unlikely, stories in the draft.
At 26, he is four years removed from most of the other new pros and becomes the oldest NFL first-round pick since 1980. Watkins stumbled into football at Butte Jr. College in California, where he had gone to take a course in fire science. It was his dream as a teenager to become a firefighter after he joined the junior program with West Kelowna Fire and Rescue as a 16-year-old. Many of his buddies at the fire hall have helped mould his personal and professional life. “They’re the guys you’d never forget,” Watkins said.
Indeed, he invited five of his former colleagues from the West Kelowna brigade to be with him in New York, and they were part of a large cheering section at Radio City Music Hall, which included members of the Fire Department of New York. “This is unreal,” Watkins told ESPN. “I knew the boys were going to be here, but they brought others with them. I thought there was going to be a riot.”
Watkins toured a Manhattan fire hall and Ground Zero, site of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks where 343 members of the FDNY perished.
“It was important for me to come down here and pay my respects,” Watkins said.
“He woke up today and told us, ‘I’m going to the fire hall,'” said West Kelowna fire captain Lionel Bateman. “He didn’t say anything about, ‘Hey, I’m getting drafted.’ His priorities are all messed up.”
He becomes the first Canadian to be selected in the first rounds of both the CFL and NFL drafts since guard Mike Schad of Queen’s University, in 1986.
Watkins was one of 25 special draft invitees brought to New York after an impressive performance in the Senior Bowl, a college all-star game heavily followed by NFL scouts.
Because of his background in hockey and rugby, Watkins’ ability to stare down his opponents and intimidate is considered one of his greatest assets.
“Danny’s one of the toughest guys, if not the toughest guy, I’ve ever coached,” said Baylor head coach Art Briles. He’s a definite can’t-miss in the NFL.” The Eagles must think so, too.