Philadelphia's Sharrif Floyd goes to Vikings

NEW YORK - Sharrif Floyd, who first made his name playing football for a high school on Bustleton Avenue - George Washington High, in the Philadelphia Public League - was picked 23d overall in Thursday's first round of the NFL draft by the Minnesota Vikings.

The surprise was that Floyd didn't go a lot higher.

A massive defensive tackle with a sprinter's burst, the former Florida Gators star left after his junior year after his college coaches told him he would be a first-round draft choice.

Thursday turned into a long night for Floyd, who didn't go as high as virtually all mock drafts had predicted. He had been forecast as a top-five pick in many. NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock actually had Floyd as his No. 2-rated player on the entire board.

At 10:45, George Washington's principal, Kathy Murphy, said, "It's the Vikings." Somebody in the crowd had just gotten word from the green room where Floyd had been waiting. Floyd had gotten the phone call.

Ten minutes later, Floyd was on stage showing off his purple jersey. At 6-foot-3 and roughly 300 pounds, Floyd played inside and out on the Gators defensive line, but he said he believes defensive tackle in a 4-3 system suits him best. NFL teams seemed to agree.

"I'm not looking at it is if I fell," said Floyd, who stressed that he hadn't gone in thinking he should be the top pick or No. 3 or any other pick. "I looked at it as: I'm going to the team that needs me.''

Floyd said he wasn't "so much tired of waiting; I'm more ready to work and prove people wrong."

He added, "I'm nowhere near upset, I'm nowhere near angry."

Floyd's own story is kind of a Philly version of The Blind Side. For stretches of high school, Floyd lived with his guidance counselor's family. He also had lived with his great-grandmother. As a senior, he lived for a time in the basement of a friend's house. The school held a bake sale to help send him to an all-star game, where he turned heads. He was a no-doubt-about-it blue-chip recruit, with offers from Penn State, Ohio State, and other powers.

A year ago, he was adopted by a Chester County couple who had earlier given him money, which had caused him to be suspended for two games as a Florida sophomore.

A bus had come to the draft from Philly that included his high school coach and principal, several George Washington assistants, a cousin, a high school buddy, and his great-grandmother, who sat in the back.

"It was kind of low-key, kind of quiet, in anticipation," George Washington coach Ron Cohen said of the mood on the bus.

This week, Floyd said his first purchase would be a home for his great-grandmother in Atlanta, where he has extended family. She had been his most stablizing influence growing up in North Philadelphia, he said.

Murphy, the George Washington principal, said she asked Floyd to speak at this year's graduation.

While Floyd was at her school, Murphy said she kept hearing the same thing, from teachers, coaches and guidance counselors: "They all believed in him,'' Murphy said. "I began to take note of him.''

She remembers how as an underclassman, Floyd was a mentor to ninth graders, a pretty effective one.

Inside Radio City Music Hall, the George Washington group was in the back of the bottom section, right behind the cameras that focused on NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announcing the picks, about 10 rows behind the ESPN set featuring Chris Berman, Jon Gruden and Mel Kiper.

They weren't the only ones cheering in the end. All of Radio City seemed to stand for Floyd when his name was finally announced.

Asked what his great-grandmother said to him right after he was selected, Floyd said, "She couldn't say too much. She was crying."