CSUN’s Kane on Hold as He Awaits Draft Call

Mike Kane sat on the edge of the couch in the Northridge apartment he shares with three of his former football teammates, staring blankly into a television set about 10 feet in front of him.

On the tube a newscaster was telling of a manhunt in Montana, but Kane was not hearing or seeing a thing.

His mind was on a manhunt 3,000 miles away--in New York, the site of the National Football League draft.

There, his future was being decided. Or was it?

Kane already had done his part. In his senior season at Cal State Northridge, he rushed for a school-record 1,565 yards and led the team in receiving with 30 catches for 383 yards. Now he was about to find out if those statistics were enough.

Professional scouts tend to look at things like size and speed before statistics. Kane has neither. He has bulked up 13 pounds in the past four months but is still only 5-10, 193 pounds, which would be acceptable if he ran 4.4 instead of 4.7 for 40 yards.

So Kane spent Tuesday pacing his apartment, waiting for the phone to ring.

Was he nervous? “No,” he said, nervously scratching his forearm. “I just want to get a call. I’m getting bummed.”

Kane, a Division II All-American, had been saying for weeks that he didn’t expect to be drafted, but the reality that a couple of hundred players were being selected before him was obviously eating at him.

“I’m small and I’m slow,” he said, “but in my mind I know I’m going to make it.”

As the hours passed, it appeared that if Kane does indeed make it, it will be as a free agent.

Chicago, Detroit, Dallas and the Rams drafted their first running backs as late as the ninth round, making them logical candidates for a free agent tryout. The best possibility, however, would probably be the Indianapolis Colts, who didn’t select a running back in the first 11 rounds.

Kane has been in this position before. After running up school-record yardage at St. Francis High, he was recruited only by Northridge and a handful of junior colleges.

He said his feelings were much the same as the draft’s final rounds dragged on.

“Nothing comes easy,” he said. “I’m feeling a little mad right now. Mad and determined.”