KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the weeks before the 2011 NFL draft, then-Mizzou quarterback Blaine Gabbert was on the cover of Sports Illustrated along with fellow prospects Cam Newton and Jake Locker.
The night before the draft to be held at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, he was one of five draft candidates to be invited to dinner at the Waldorf Astoria with the President of the United States. Never mind that there were another 150 people there and the closest he got to President Barack Obama was 10 feet away.
It was the stuff dreams are made of, really. But the intense spotlight, which also included months of being probed and dissected by the NFL, also came with something heavy.
So by the time Gabbert was selected 10th overall by the Jacksonville Jaguars, he was mostly just relieved.
“It’s definitely a weight lifted off your shoulders,” he said that night.
Just the same, it was a long way from shouldering the expectations that came with all that through an ever-changing career arc to the man now so at ease in his own skin as he steps back into the spotlight.
On Sunday in Los Angeles, Gabbert will make his first NFL start since 2018 with Tennessee. It also will be his first for the Chiefs since Patrick Mahomes is being rested against the Chargers with the team’s playoff seeding (third in the AFC) assured.
“So, I am starting this week,” Gabbert said with a lighthearted comedian’s touch on Wednesday as he stepped to the media room podium for the first time this season. “I don’t know if Coach Reid told you.”
In fact, coach Andy Reid moments before had let it be known and, predictably enough, suggested the suddenly 34-year-old Gabbert would be excited by the opportunity.
With his smile alone, Gabbert affirmed Reid’s point and spoke to the message he’ll have for younger teammates.
“I’ve been fortunate to start quite a few games in the NFL, and these opportunities don’t come around too often,” said Gabbert, who is 13-35 in those starts. “Just make the most of them, have fun, cut it loose and let’s go play ball.”
Early in his NFL career, Gabbert no doubt had to remind himself of all that.
After all the fanfare to get there, he had four head coaches in three seasons in Jacksonville, during which time the team went 11-37 and he struggled. He ultimately played for nine head coaches with four franchises in his first eight seasons — and five teams overall before the Chiefs signed him.
Maybe it would have unfurled differently with better structure and support around him to begin with. And, of course, he wishes he’d become “a franchise guy” and won some Super Bowls as a starter, he told me during camp in St. Joseph.
But some things in his control didn’t go as he’d wished, he said then, and some things felt beyond his control.
