I usually have a yearly draft crush (guys like Calvin Johnson, Eric Berry, Patrick Peterson, etc. from drafts past), but we tend to have a near-zero shot of ever landing one of these guys since we tend to draft in the later portions of the draft. However, this year, my crush was on DeCastro from day one, and I would have traded up a ton to get him (as most of you recall). Now that we magically got him without having to give up anything, I'll simply have to go with DeCastro now, even though I have yet to see him take a snap in the black and gold.
I will undoubtedly be getting a DeCastro jersey this year (the only question now is which style...I'm almost tempted to go 1934 bumblebee with the numbers in boxes...one of these "it's so bad, it's almost good" sort of things) and I probably should have bid on the that Under Armour Combine shirt of his posted on eBay on draft night (but I was kind of in a state of stunned euphoria at that point that I was barely functional). I couldn't sleep, and probably watched the same crappy draft recap show on NFL network 4 times while surfing the web before passing out that night (and I had a sleep study scheduled for the next night...whoops).
There's a certain symmetry to starting out my true Steeler fandom with a Greg Lloyd crush (that was the first jersey I got way back in the 8th grade), and right when he leaves we draft Hines Ward (I've told this story before, so I'll make it brief...prior to SBXL I bought a black Hines jersey for myself and a white Hines jersey for my dad, and surprised my dad with his Ward jersey at our hotel in Ann Arbor the morning of the game before heading over to Detroit), and now right when Hines leaves, we draft David DeCastro. A nasty linebacker to a nasty receiver to a nasty guard. I'm good for the next decade or so, I think.
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