“What did you do when the guy from Oklahoma broke your record?," Smith offers.
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Gordon, the San Diego Chargers’ first-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, nearly falls backward shaking his head, almost as if Smith hit him head on. Gordon set the FBS single-game rushing record with 408 yards for Wisconsin last season, only to watch Oklahoma’s Samaje Perine reset the record with 427 yards the following week.
“I had that record for six days,” Gordon said before pointing out he almost broke Barry Sanders’ FBS single-season rushing record, too. Former NFL players Arthur Hightower and Eric Ball, team leaders for the Chargers and Bengals at the NFL Rookie Symposium, pile on.
“Six days,” they take turns saying.
For Gordon, who joined other AFC rookies at the symposium this week, it’s a brief look back during a week geared toward looking at the future. Then it’s a glimpse at what that future could bring at the NFL’s most-hallowed castle. Gordon’s in the right place at the right time.
“Really the whole deal on the Rookie Symposium is to teach you how to be a better man and a better player,” Gordon told Sporting News. “It helped a lot of guys with that this week, and hopefully the results show.”
The Hall of Fame tour opens with a speech from Pro Football Hall of Fame president David Baker that gets straight to the point.
“What your legacy becomes is what you make of it right now,” Baker tells the rookies.
It’s a message Ball, who played running back for seven years in Cincinnati and now serves as the team’s director of player relations, said needs to be heard given the publicity – ranging from off the field with Ray Rice to on the field with Tom Brady – in the past 12 months.
“The league has really changed in the past year,” Ball said. “So the emphasis this year is for that importance of the integrity of the game, commitment to the teams and the honesty that goes with respect. That’s what the NFL is trying to get across.”
Gordon shows he respects that history. The first stop of the tour features a display showing Adrian Peterson’s single-game record of 296 rushing yards, set in 2007 against San Diego. Hightower, the Chargers director of player development, let Gordon and a few other rookies know exactly how that day unfolded.
“He couldn’t be stopped,” Hightower said while pretending to juke through defenders.
The rookies then pass through the famed gallery of busts, where Gordon asks two quick questions to himself.
“Where’s Barry?”
“Where’s Emmitt?”
Gordon finds Emmitt Smith and Barry Sanders and takes a few pictures, then stops to shake Hall of Fame tackle Anthony Munoz’s hand before an on-camera interview with the NFL Network. It’s what-to-expect on-the-job training at its best.
“It’s like a new employee orientation for the rookies,” Hightower said. “You know what you’re getting involved in. It’s more of a learning event. You’re learning what it means to be a pro. The message for these pros off the field is to represent the NFL, your club and your family.”
Gordon wanders around the next exhibit, where the numbers continue to find him. A HD television splices through all the greatest single-game rushing performances in NFL history.
The highlight reel of Mike Anderson, Corey Dillon and Jamal Lewis rolls by before Peterson’s 296-yard game pops up again. He asks Pro Football Hall of Fame archivist Jon Kendle questions about those records. Gordon almost has to be pulled from the TV when it’s time to move on.
“It means everything,” Gordon said. “You look up to these guys and see this stuff. It’s their mark; the mark they made in this game. To see that inspires you a bit, and it motivates you.”
So do the prompters. The rookies pose with the Lombardi Trophy. The Super Bowl rings and Madden covers are in plain sight. The Super Bowl Theater is a vitrual replay of Super Bowl XLIX, and there’s a helmet history lesson followed by one last look at the Jim Thorpe statue before Munoz adddresses the class back at the reception room.
Munoz reiterates there might be repetition in what he says, but there’s a hidden message tucked in the closing minutes. It’s a player’s responsibility to become a respected member of the community in their new NFL city, not just their hometown or alma matter, he says. He used that formula on and off the field to become arguably the best tackle in NFL history.
“I’m from Southern California,” Munoz tells the rookies. “But Cincinnati is my hometown.”
Gordon hears that message. It’s no longer about those mere “six days” as the collegiate record-holder. It’s about the rest of his career in football.
“It’s college, and we’ve moved on,” Gordon said. “It’s good to look back and laugh about it with people, just because I know we’ve moved on to better things.”
Gordon exits the Hall of Fame and heads for the shuttle buses, but not before he signs a few footballs.
“Can we get a ‘thumbs up,’ Melvin?” one fan screams from the back. Gordon obliges.
He signs every ball, takes a hop step and hits the bus. It’s time to chase those numbers again. Will he leave a mark in Canton with a record of his own?
“That sounds good, but it’s the NFL,” Gordon said. “Those games, even my game in college like that single-game rushing record, those things just kind of happen. You kind of don’t worry about those things. They come to you with that feel.”
