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What should every commencement speaker do at this time of year? Simple: Tell kids how to get jobs. Goodell's advice began when he graduated from Washington & Jefferson College just outside of Pittsburgh in 1981 and wanted to work in football. Anything in football.
"I wrote more than 40 letters to the NFL,'' he said. "Everybody. The results: a big pile of rejections. Some plan, huh? But I was determined and persistent and kept writing. Finally, there was a polite but somewhat dismissive reply from a weary executive at the NFL to, quote, 'Stop by if you're in the area.' So I told him, 'I'm in the area.' ''
Sort of.
"I got in my car,'' Goodell said, "and drove all night from Pittsburgh to New York, and I was on his doorstep the next morning. Six months later, 12 or 13 more letters later, they offered me a three-month internship. So it doesn't matter how you get in that door. Just get in that door. The lesson: Seize every opportunity.''
A little while after his speech, I caught up with one of the graduates, 23-year-old history major Thomas Screnci of Milton, Mass. I asked him what he thought of the speech.
"Very inspirational,'' Screnci said. "He knew what we wanted to hear. We all wanted to know how he got from college to here. He told us what we needed to hear -- there are no shortcuts, no magic formula. He got dozens of rejection letters, but he was determined to show his boss what he was made of. Same thing with us now. Now it's our shot to show the world what we're made of.''
In front of a civic center of strangers Saturday, Roger Goodell did his father proud.
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