The Kid

Conner Brooks is 12, and on this night’s trip to the Columbia Mall he’s sporting one of his most coveted items from last year’s Christmas list.

Conner told his dad that he wanted an MU football jersey. But it couldn’t be any old number. He wanted the jersey of his favorite Tiger. He wanted a Jeremy Maclin jersey.

Why Jeremy Maclin?

“Because he’s the best receiver in college football,” Conner says.

Even better than Texas Tech superstar Michael Crabtree?

“Yea. Even better than Michael Crabtree.”

Jeff Parres says it was strange the first time he saw No. 9 MU jerseys around. Football superstardom was never something he and Cindy envisioned for Maclin. As much as Maclin hesitates to look back, the Parreses hesitated to look forward. He was always good wherever he was playing, but it never went too far beyond that. To them, Jeremy was just a kid. And by most measures he still is.

Four years ago he was 16 and a terrible driver. They used to take him into empty parking lots to practice, but when Maclin was behind the wheel everybody was uneasy. And whenever Maclin is home and the weather permits, he’s the one lobbying for a game of Wiffle Ball in the backyard.

Now he’s idolized by kids throughout St. Louis and the rest of the state.

Cindy Parres can’t imagine the pressure or the lifestyle. And who really could? Maclin isn’t old enough to have a seat at a bar, but plenty of people already have him on a throne.

Maclin’s brothers, Andre and Roshon, talk about the circus that a routine trip to the mall has become. Even scouting a new pair of shoes, one of Maclin’s few indulgences, comes with baggage now. And why? This is their little brother. They’ve watched him play this game forever.

But ask Maclin, and it’s easy to see that his transition has begun. He says that he knows what the territory brings. He says that it’s fun being a role model. There’s no reason to fight it. Even more, there’s good reason to embrace it.

Coming from where he does, and overcoming what he has, Maclin hopes that kids look up to him. He’ll tell you that he’s someone that’s done it the right way while so many others haven’t.

“I’ve seen too many people where I’m from that were great athletes fail because they didn’t have a good head on their shoulders,” Maclin says.

Suddenly, death-defying parking lot rides and Wiffle Ball home runs sound further away. He sounds like a professional football player.

The Sell

Walking on a treadmill before his daily workout, Maclin shifts his gaze to one of the 10 televisions that line the balcony of the Mizzou Athletics Training Complex. It’s tuned to the NFL Network, and news of Michael Crabtree’s decision to have surgery on his injured foot flashes across the screen.

Thousands of people saw the same bulletin. But to few does it matter more than to Maclin. Crabtree and Maclin are ranked 1 and 2 as wide receivers eligible for the draft. Both the Oakland Raiders and the Jacksonville Jaguars, with the Nos. 7 and 8 picks, are the in the market for a wide receiver. If Maclin slides in front of Crabtree by just one spot, it could mean millions. Last season the difference between the two spots was roughly $10 million spread over five years.

When a player declares for the draft, the next three months become one long marketing campaign. A player’s every move, football related or not, is scrutinized and evaluated. Former Alabama tackle Andre Smith was once thought to be the possible first overall pick, a selection that could have come with more than $30 million in guaranteed money. But after Smith left the NFL Scouting Combine unannounced, questions arose about his maturity; now he will be lucky to go in the draft’s top 10. Even Maclin had doubts fly his way after he fell during a drill at the combine and ran a 40-yard dash that was slightly slower than he had hoped.

Fortunes hang in the balance with every action, and that uncertainty creates the need for a strong team of advisers.

For two days after Maclin announced that he was quitting MU to go pro, agents filed in and out of the Parres’ home. Each promised the world. Or at least the biggest mega-million dollar contract out there.

“Everybody comes in telling you what they can do for you,” Maclin says. “It’s definitely hard. You have to go deeper than what people say. It’s hard. It’s long. I’ll tell you right now, I’m glad the process is out of the way.”

In the past few weeks Maclin has gone through the final stages of evaluation by making trips to work out for individual NFL teams. A lot of players try to put on a performance. Not Jeremy Maclin. He doesn’t see a need to be anything but himself.

“A lot of people try to put on a show, or act like or be something that they’re not,” Maclin says. “I think (teams) have been doing this long enough where they can read into that. You might as well be yourself. I think if you be yourself and do the things that you’ve been doing your whole life, then it shouldn’t be a problem.”

The Beginning

Every year the NFL asks some of the top prospects to be present for the draft announcements in New York. But before the invitations were sent, Maclin decided that he wasn’t going. He’ll be home in Chesterfield with members of both his families.

Above anything else he could say or do, the choice shows who Jeremy Maclin still is in spite of what he’ll soon become. He’s someone who, just a few years ago, watched his junior football tapes again and again, trying to relive the carefree memories of the game he loves. He’s someone who still talks with pride about his high school football days and with lingering frustration about losing one round short of the state championship game two straight seasons.

For now, Maclin is still more Lyons Stadium than Texas Stadium. More Meacham Park than Candlestick Park. It’s not that he’s not ready for the big time — he’s handled fame better than people twice his age. It’s that the places he’s been are just as important as the place he’ll end up.

That’s why when NFL commissioner Roger Goodell steps to the podium next Saturday to announce each first round selection, Maclin will be back in that basement with the helmets of his past, waiting to learn the one of his future.

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