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ORIGINAL: Ricky J

Is there anyone here that subscribes to The Athletic that would be willing to copy & paste for us to read, "Revealing the identity of Prospect X, the most overlooked player in the 2024 NFL Draft?"

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“I hate my phone!” X says.

It does this annoying thing where it silences calls from unknown numbers, so even though he had it in his hand, he wasn’t looking at the screen when the call from the 952 area code came in.

X thought he was prepared. He’d even done a trial run earlier that day. His friends called to see if his volume was loud enough, and he changed his ringtone to the NFL draft theme that chimes whenever a pick is made.

During one of the test runs, his mom, Dorothy, brought out a blowhorn to try to get people to stop talking, but the noise barely made a dent in the buzz created by the 70 or so people at his draft party.

X’s parents live in a one-story, 980-square-foot home. There are two bedrooms and one bathroom, a kitchen, a living room and a narrow hallway leading to the backyard. It’s the home X and his older sister, Jirah, grew up in together, where they shared a bedroom with a divider down the middle.

It’s the home where his dad, Narciso, would lock X out until he’d burned off some of his limitless energy. He wasn’t allowed to come back inside until he finished building whatever project he’d started — a deer blind or a hammock or a wood carving. It’s the home where X would drink more from the hose than he would from the sink.