The
Cruelest Cut of All
When you’re Tony Romo, you sign a $67
million contract and date Jessica Simpson. When you’re a last-round NFL draft
pick, things are a little different. By Jana Wallis
WITH
HIS SWEAT-SOAKED SHIRT clinging
to his back, Alan Ball removes his helmet and walks off the practice field at
Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas. The blast from the air-conditioning
shocks his body as he transitions from the 110-degree heat. For the moment,
Ball is a Dallas Cowboy. But in 24 hours, his life could dramatically change.
Ball is near the bottom rung of the
NFL ladder, looking up. That’s the only available perspective for a final-round
draft pick, even one who was a standout cornerback playing in one of college
football’s elite conferences. “It was definitely exciting to get drafted by
anybody,” says Ball, who played for the University of Illinois
in the Big Ten. “But then to get drafted by the Cowboys — that’s America’s Team.
At some point in everybody’s life, they were a Cowboys fan, so it was big.”
Although he grew up in Michigan, Ball chose to attend the University of Illinois.
There, he was named the team’s outstanding defensive back his junior year
before going on to record a career-high 62 tackles as a senior. He expected to
be called in the 2007 NFL draft; he just wasn’t sure when or by whom. What he
didn’t anticipate was waiting until the seventh, and last, round.
“It was a long day because we thought
I was going to go earlier,” he says, referring to the April 28, 2007, draft.
“The call came late, but I’m glad it came. From the way everything went up to
the draft, I definitely thought [I would go to] Green Bay or the [Chicago] Bears.”
BALL’S FIRST TASTE of NFL stardom comes on a steamy July
24 at the Alamodome in San Antonio,
where the Cowboys hold training camp. There are 17,297 screaming fans on hand
to welcome 85 Cowboys — dozens of whom won’t be around in five weeks.
The celebration is a prelude to an
infinitely more sobering ritual: the grueling two-week process of players
getting in shape and of coaches evaluating the talent. As a rookie cornerback,
Ball joins Cowboy vets like Roy Williams, Terence Newman, and Ken Hamlin during
defensive drills.
“The guys I’m with in our secondary [defense]
are great,” Ball says. “I love being around
them, as far as me being a young guy and them being teachers. The way they accepted me and the way they’re teaching me
and helping me out has been big.”
But Ball struggles to stand out under
the shadow of the bigger, faster, stronger veterans. Almost religiously, he and
fellow draft picks Courtney Brown and Deon Anderson stay after practice to run
sprints, hoping their extra work will pay off. Cowboys defensive coordinator
Brian Stewart takes notice of Ball’s potential but isn’t sure he’s ready to
play with the big boys.
“He’s a real savvy player,” Stewart
says of the six-one, 175-pound 22-year-old. “He’s good at running the football,
he’s a tough kid, he has a lot of upside to him. But I’d like to see him gain a
little weight.”
The end of training camp comes
without there having been any breakout performances by Ball, but he survives
the initial cut and maintains his focus on making the final 53- man team. His
hopes rest on the preseason, a four-game struggle for survival for rookies and
veterans on the roster bubble. Impress the coaching staff, and you get a
$285,000 non-guaranteed salary at minimum. Make them yawn, and you start sending
out résumés. It’s life or death in the NFL.
Ball knows he has to find a niche in
order to survive, and he spots a possible sanctuary on the special-teams squad,
defending during kickoffs and punts.
“I really think I’m going to have to
fight for special teams,” he says early in the preseason. “I’m going to have to
do something on special teams that somebody else can’t do. That’s what I’m
playing for right now.”
The Cowboys already have talented
starting cornerbacks in Newman and Anthony Henry as well as an experienced
backup in Jacques Reeves, so the likelihood of Ball making the team at the
cornerback position is slim. Winning a roster spot as a special-teams player
would buy him valuable time, allowing him to grow and develop in his preferred
position.
That’s the plan, at least, as Ball
makes his way down the tunnel, through an oversize Cowboys helmet, and onto the
field at Texas Stadium on the night of the first preseason game.
“It was crazy,” he says, grinning as
he relives the moment. “Even though it was a preseason game and it wasn’t a big
crowd, just coming out of that tunnel with the smoke — it was crazy.”
Ball gets playing time on special
teams, as he will in all four preseason games, and the Cowboys beat the
Indianapolis Colts 23–10. In one game, a 28–16 loss to the Houston Texans, a
national TV audience sees Ball up close: Stewart is reprimanding him on the
sidelines for missing a crucial tackle. Despite his mistake, Ball stays on the
roster through the next cut and spends plenty of time on the field in the
Cowboys’ final preseason game, against the Minnesota Vikings.
“By this game, I was pretty
comfortable out there,” he says after the 23–14 loss, fidgeting with his jersey
and staring into his locker. “I felt okay. I’m just trying to make this roster,
so I did everything I could.”
Usually energetic and talkative, Ball
is distant and eager to get on the team bus to leave the stadium. He knows the
final roster cut comes in 48 hours.
SATURDAY,
SEPTEMBER 1: the day of the final roster cut. Ball
waits for the phone call that will end his ride with the Cowboys. It doesn’t
come, and he starts preparing for Dallas’s
regular-season opener against the New York Giants. After all, he’s a
full-fledged NFL player.
Almost.
On Sunday, Ball receives a call from
Cowboys operations manager Bruce Mays, who breaks the devastating news: Ball’s
been removed from the final active roster.
“I thought I was on; I thought I made
it,” Ball says. “It was a big emotional roller coaster from Saturday to Sunday,
making the 53 and then having them say you’re on the practice squad. But it’s
the business, so I just have to work my way back up.”
Ball’s dream is not lost, though;
it’s merely deferred. As a member of the Cowboys practice squad, he’ll stay in
full view of the coaching staff and make about $4,700 each week by
participating in game situations during practices. If a Cowboy gets injured,
Ball could be called up to take his spot. And, since he’s technically a free agent,
another NFL team could sign him to their active roster at any time. Beyond
that, there’s another training camp in San
Antonio coming up.
Stewart, for one, doesn’t think the
practice squad is the end of the line for Ball. “I think he definitely can play
in the NFL,” he says.
Stewart’s prediction comes true in
the regular season’s final two games, versus the Carolina Panthers and the
Washington Redskins. The Cowboys’ front office puts Ball on the active roster
after injury issues with cornerbacks Henry and Newman, and he responds by
recording three solo tackles, breaking up a key pass, and earning head coach
Wade Phillips’s praise.
“We liked him all along. He’s gotten
better and better,” Phillips says of Ball, who saw his paycheck nearly
quadruple to $16,764.40 for the last three weeks of the regular season. “You
see him making plays against the Terrell Owenses of the world and you go,
‘Wow.’ He competes. We certainly didn’t want to lose him.”
JANA WALLIS is a writer based in Dallas.