As the NFL Draft begins, there’s the notion that a record number of former Georgia players could be selected in Thursday night’s first round, adding to the 31 Bulldogs previously picked in the opening round of the draft. When it comes to the annual affair, whether selected in the first or final round—or even not selected at all—there has been another type of “Top Dog,” whereby a Bulldog’s entry into the draft was transformed into having the most interesting, intriguing, and notable results.
The following is my opinion of the top five most noteworthy instances involving Bulldog players and the NFL Draft:
5) WEYMAN SELLERS (1948): Back when collegiate players with eligibility remaining could be selected as “future players,” Georgia end Weyman Sellers, who would serve as co-captain of the Bulldogs that season, was chosen 31st overall by Green Bay in the ’48 NFL Draft (actually held in 1947 on December 19). After playing an integral role on Georgia’s 1948 SEC championship squad, Sellers spurned the Packers, signing a contract with the Los Angeles Dons of the relatively new All-America Football Conference (AAFC) which, as it turned out, was entering its final season of a four-year existence.
Sellers decided not to report for the Dons' training camp during that summer, citing a back injury which had been hampering him for nearly three years. Therefore, he remains the highest-picked Bulldog in an NFL Draft who never played a down in the league. Regardless, Sellers would soon make a mark in the sport beginning in 1952, coaching five different Georgia high school programs for 34 seasons while winning more than 200 games.
4) CHRIS CLEMONS (2003): Of Georgia’s 35 all-time early entries into the NFL Draft, only three were not ultimately drafted: Kwame Geathers in 2013 being the latest, Danny Ware six years before that, and linebacker Chris Clemons who, after starting just 15 games at Georgia from 2000-2002, became the first Bulldog to bolt early for the pros only to go undrafted. Nevertheless, after signing as a free agent, Clemons was a valuable reserve defensive end/linebacker for three different teams until landing in Seattle in 2010, where he tallied 11 or more sacks for three consecutive seasons. The Bulldog, who no pro team initially wanted, ended his career in 2015 with 69 sacks and 20 forced fumbles, each of which currently ranks as the second-most totaled by a former Georgia player during an NFL tenure.
3) LINDSAY SCOTT (1982): It might be hard to fathom that from Georgia’s 1980 national championship team, only one player, wide receiver Lindsay Scott, was chosen in the top 65 picks of the NFL Draft—and not just the ensuing draft following the championship season, but any NFL Draft. In comparison, the winner of the previous national title in 1979, Alabama, had five players selected in the first 65 picks of a draft, whereas the 1981 Clemson team, the next championship winner, had six players. After being selected 13th overall by New Orleans in the 1982 draft, Scott was unfortunately never better than third on the Saints in annual receiving during his four years in the pros, and finished with only 69 career receptions, including just one for a touchdown.
2) DONALD CHUMLEY (1985): While at home in Savannah, Ga., during his final year at UGA in the spring of 1985, Donald Chumley, a two-year starter for the Bulldogs, received an unexpected late-night phone call around 3:00 a.m. one morning from the San Francisco 49ers, notifying him they had selected the 6-foot-4, 260-pound defensive lineman with the team's pick in the 12th round. Only a few minutes later, Chumley received a second phone call from the 49ers. This time, the team added he was also the 336th pick of the draft, or dead last and, evidently, the least—the NFL's Mr. Irrelevant.
The league’s tenth Mr. Irrelevant, and Georgia’s first and only, Chumley nearly made the 49ers squad before getting cut during the final days of training camp. Ironically, at an “Irrelevant Week” celebration for the Bulldog lineman roughly a month beforehand at Newport Beach, Calif., the town’s chief of police had handed Chumley a stack of employment applications "for after you're done with training camp." Nevertheless, Georgia's lone Mr. Irrelevant would eventually find suitable employment, to say the least. Currently, Chumley is the head football coach at Savannah Christian Prep, where he has won nearly 80 percent of his games while making the playoffs every year except once in 12 seasons.
1) RAY JEFFORDS (1968): To date, there have been just nine Bulldogs drafted by the nearby Atlanta Falcons in the organization’s 52 years with the first, Ray Jeffords in 1968, never having set foot on a gridiron while at Georgia. Selected in the eighth round of the draft, the 6-foot-5, 200-pound Jeffords had played basketball at Georgia—but basketball only. Still, the Falcons selected him as a tight end prospect because of his "good hands," which he indeed had possessed while playing football—but more than six years earlier, or the last time he had played the sport as a first-team all-state end for Ware County High School.
The day before the draft, Jeffords had broken his nose in a blowout win over Alabama. Two days later, or the day he was chosen by the Falcons, Jeffords not only played at Auburn, but led the basketball Bulldogs with 14 points scored.
Although eventually cut by Atlanta, Jeffords was back in pro ball the following season with the Alabama Hawks of the since-defunct Continental Football League. The next year, in 1970, he was back in the NFL, having earned a tryout with the St. Louis Cardinals. Jeffords remained with the team until its roster was trimmed to 48 players and he was waived—but only after having suffered a severe shoulder injury.
Did I miss anybody? What is another one of the more notable instances involving a Bulldog player(s) and the NFL Draft?
