This past weekend's NFL Draft hit close to home for me. Each year I'll probably think of the opportunity we got to be at the Greenway family farm near Mount Vernon. In 2006, Chad Greenway was taken in the 1st Round by the Minnesota Vikings.
I remember we had an in, since ESPN televises the draft, and ABC owns ESPN, and we're an ABC affiliate, we got the call.
Since Greenway was projected to be an early to mid-1st round pick, ESPN called us to see if they could use our satellite truck, for a live interview with Chad after he was drafted.
I don't think the Greenway's wanted a flock of local media hanging out with them all day(understandably so). But with ESPN asking, it was no problem getting permission.
It was truly a setting or rural America, with the strong ties of a South Dakota family. We sat there in the living room, watching the draft, wondering when is name would be called, which is pretty tense.
Chad thought the Rams would take him with an earlier pick, and I saw some diappointment in his face when it didn't happen.
But it wasn't long after, that the Vikings chose him, and soon he was on the phone with then newly hired Vikes head coach Brad Childress.
It wasn't long after that, we had Chad hooked up with a variety of cords, for his live interview with ESPN2.
I talked to the ESPN producer of the draft that day, and my job suddenly didn't seem stressful at all, he was going 100 different directions.
The Vikes probably weren't Greenway's 1st choice that day, but after missing his rookie season with an injury, it seems like a perfect fit, for a certain to be fan favorite.
That was a day both I, and a small South Dakota community will never forget.
Just ask anyone who was in the packed Mount Vernon high school gym, where Chad went shortly after the live interview.
And anyone who wasn't a Vikings fan, suddenly became one.