Joe Horn is upset that his son was snubbed by the television coverage on NFL Draft night Thursday.
Horn’s son Jaycee, a cornerback from South Carolina, was taken No. 8 overall by the Carolina Panthers. There was some thought that a defensive player wouldn’t go in the top 10 picks. And there weren’t necessarily tons of expectations that Horn would be the first defensive player to be drafted.
But Joe feels like the draft coverage focused mostly on the Aaron Rodgers situation, and like his son didn’t get the type of attention he deserved.
“Let me say this, I’m a huge Aaron Rodgers fan,” Horn told ESPN. “But last night when I saw that he was not happy with Green Bay … when I saw nothing at all was talked about my son, it kind of upset me, and I was disappointed.
“To wake up this morning, I was expecting everybody to be saying, ‘Look, nobody thought Jaycee Horn was going to go top 10. Nobody expected he was going to be the first defensive player off the board.’ I thought it would be given a little more attention, and there was none. It was very disappointing as a father.”
There’s a few things to say here. First, the day you get drafted is a special one. Of course you want it to be a celebration and memorable day. Does Jaycee feel like he was snubbed or just Joe? Hopefully Jaycee felt like it was somewhat of a dream come true for him and this is only Joe who is upset.
Second, Horn was a fifth-round pick himself and had a chip on his shoulder over being a late pick. He was always complaining about something. Maybe he is gaining a chip over his son’s situation.
Third, the NFL is completely an offensive league. The importance specifically for quarterbacks has gone off the charts. They now overshadow players at other positions by so much more than they used to. In other words, Jaycee is playing the wrong end of the ball for attention these days, so he better get used to it.
Maybe Jaycee will use all of this as motivation to prove through his play that he deserves attention.
