John Ojukwu smiled, then glanced to his left, where Tennessee Titans coach Brian Callahan sat.
General manager Ran Carthon had just informed him he had made the 53-man roster.
“Are you serious?” the offensive lineman asked.
Four other players also were called into Carthon’s office during cut day Tuesday.
None of the five knew they were being filmed for a video the Titans posted on social media. None of the five quite knew why they were being called in.
Their reactions proved that.
“Really?” tight end Thomas Odukoya said. “Oh, my God. That’s amazing.”
“My heart is racing,” linebacker James Williams said.
Offensive lineman Andrew Rupcich’s heart was too, from the moment he received the phone call to report to Carthon’s office and the whole drive there.
“Y’all scared the (crap) out of me,” he said. “I called my agent and everything. I was like, ‘Dude, 2:45? No way they’re calling me at 2:45 to cut me.”
“Or not,” Callahan said.
“The whole way here I was like, ‘Gotta keep it cool. Don’t know what it is,’ ” Rupcich said.
He even brought his iPad, just in case he had to turn it in.
Tight end David Martin-Robinson was nearly speechless when Carthon informed him.
“Thank you. Thank you,” he said.
“You don’t have to thank us, you earned it,” Carthon told him.
Carthon took the advice a New Orleans Saints fan gave him during Sunday’s game when it came to tight end Thomas Odukoya, who improbably chased down a Saints receiver and prevented him from scoring a touchdown Sunday.
“The guy was like, ‘You better not cut 89,’ ” Carthon said. “Then, in the third quarter you had a catch and they cheered for you. That says a lot.”
Paul Skrbina is a sports enterprise reporter covering the Predators, Titans, Nashville SC, local colleges and local sports for The Tennessean. Reach him at pskrbina@tennessean.com and on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter) @paulskrbina. Follow his work here.
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Publish date : 2024-08-29 09:43:00
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