Big 12

Getting the Call Was 100 Times Better Than Expected

The image will accompany Skylar Thompson's NFL Draft Day experience forever and ever, how he concealed his face with his left hand and held his cellphone with his right. He wore a plain white hoodie, the hood pulled hard over his head. The legs that nearly four months to the day stood atop the victor's podium at the 2021 TaxAct Texas Bowl shifted upon the tile floor of his parent's home in Independence, Missouri. Pictures of his past surrounded him neatly in assorted vertical and horizontal frames.