Eagles gave him an NFL spot in 1944. He didn't know until 55 years later, when he read it in a newspaper

In today's NFL, missing a draft pick, especially your own, is basically impossible. Between buzzing smartphones and wall-to-wall TV coverage, a player knows his fate in seconds. But things were completely different back in the 1940s, and former Syracuse fullback Norm Michael might just have the wildest story in sports draft history. In 1944, the Philadelphia Eagles selected him in the later rounds. The only problem was Michael never got the memo. It was not until 1999, a full 55 years later, that he was casually reading a local newspaper when he saw his own name on a list of historic draft picks, as reported by Yahoo Sports on April 19, 2020. 

Trading turf for military service

Back in the fall of 1943, Michael closed out his junior year playing fullback for Syracuse University. World War II was in full swing, and college football quickly took a backseat to wartime duties. Sensing that his nation needed him more, he decided to leave campus athletics behind and enlist in the U.S. Army. Subsequently, he was dispatched down to Maxwell Field in Alabama for military service. At the time, it seemed like a good trade-off; after all, he'd suffered a broken leg, two fractured wrists, and a broken nose in his three-year stint at Syracuse. 

A selection sent into thin air

On April 19, 1944, however, when NFL teams gathered to make their wartime picks, the Eagles picked Michael as the No. 206 pick, not knowing he was with the Army. At that time, teams had to track down the players themselves, so Philadelphia thought they'd get a hold of Michael later and deliver him the good news. Unfortunately, with him being stationed in the Deep South, the team wasn't able to connect with him. And so, the Eagles moved on to their next assignment, and the selection quietly slipped into NFL archives for years to come. 

Decades of civilian life

Once his military service was over, Michael, who had already hung up his boots, never returned to the field. He settled down in upstate New York, built a multi-decade career working in sales, ran a local business in Rochester, and raised a family. For more than half a century, the sport remained nothing more than a hobby for Michael. That was until one day in 1999, when he was reading the newspaper and found an article about every Syracuse player ever selected in the NFL draft.

The 78-year-old was stunned to see his own name next to the Eagles. "That was the first I heard of it," Michael told NFL, according to talkSPORT. "My son sent them a letter after we found out. I think he wanted to see if the Eagles owed me a signing bonus. Think of the interest I could have had. Fifty-seven years' worth," he further joked. Instead of lamenting lost riches or glory, Michael treated the revelation with a sense of humor. He even remarked that he might've missed his opportunity to don the team's jersey. His draft story remains one of the most unique ever.

Michael beat the odds

Michael might not have gotten a chance to pursue his football career professionally, but he did beat the odds. According to an NCAA study, out of roughly 1.02 million students who play high school football, only around 77,000 ever get to play the sport for their universities; that's just a 7.5% conversion rate from high school to college football. These numbers shrink further when the odds from NCAA football to professional football are the topic. Only about 1.5% of football players make it to the NFL. This goes to show Michael's caliber. 

He's a one-of-one 

As for the people, similar to Michael, they were able to see the silver lining in all of this. Under a Reddit post by u/TMWNN published on February 19, 2024, regarding Michael's story, people took to the comments to express their views. u/r1pp3rj4ck noted, "That makes him the only person who’s simultaneously a draft dodger and a veteran." At the same time, u/JauntyTurtle revealed, "I had a manager at a retail store who was a baseball player. He was recruited by the New York Yankees (for a farm team). But the U.S. government recruited him to fight in Vietnam at the same time. Unfortunately, he didn't get to pick which one he wanted to do."

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