On one hand, Fitzpatrick has a lot to overcome: his Division I-AA and Ivy League origins look paltry against the primetime names of the Big 10 or SEC.
On the other hand, his unique background—and his ability to compete on a physical level with the other draft-hopefuls—may actually work to Fitzpatrick’s advantage come draft day. The Harvard name and the intelligence it implies make him an enticing pick for a team looking for a trainable quarterback in the mold of the Tom Brady, a former sixth-round pick who has won three Super Bowls with the Patriots.
And Fitzpatrick’s Harvard brains have earned him attention from the media, as well.
At the NFL Combine, Fitzpatrick garnered national publicity for his score on the Wonderlic Personnel Test. The economics concentrator reportedly got a perfect score on the 12-minute, 50-question intelligence exam, finishing with enough time to check over his answers.
Though Fitzpatrick told The Crimson that he had in fact left a question blank on the exam, his feat was enough to add to the buzz already surrounding the Harvard captain.
For Dan Shanoff HBS ’02, a writer for ESPN.com, it only confirmed what he had suspected about Fitzpatrick—here was a kid who not only had the athletic goods, but a compelling back story.
“The last couple of years I’ve been following [Harvard football] really closely,” said Shanoff, who was at Harvard Business School for the Crimson’s 2000 undefeated season when Fitzpatrick was a freshman. “Fitzy’s obviously great and especially for Division I-AA he’s exceptional. The record was great, his stats were great, but I didn’t know how it would translate to the NFL, or the NFL Draft. And then I saw the all-star games, and how the scouts were talking. I flagged him as someone to keep an eye on. But what really put it over the top was the story about the Wonderlic.”
Shanoff saw Fitzpatrick’s story as compelling to a wide audience and a welcome change to the number-crunching that characterizes draft preparation.
“The whole draft culture of ‘four hundredths of a second can make you drop in the draft,’ this is crazy,” Shanoff said. “Let’s throw some weight behind how smart a player is.
“You don’t have to go Harvard to be more intellectually inclined than physically gifted,” he added, explaining Fitzpatrick’s appeal. “The guy brings a whole other dimension.”
WAITING GAME
Shanoff plans to include his own conjecture about Fitzpatrick’s chances in today’s “Quickie” column. He sees Fitzpatrick’s intelligence as being a key motivating factor for a savvy coach.
“My personal theory is that [New England head coach] Bill Belichick—who appreciates, probably more than anyone in the NFL a player’s intellectual skills—has Fitzy’s name written on a board somewhere,” Shanoff said. “He’s going to grab him in the 6th round, and he’ll be backing up Tom Brady.”
Shanoff added, however, that if the majority of quarterbacks get picked on the first day, Fitzpatrick could go as high as the fourth round.
Fitzpatrick, however, doesn’t care to speculate about his chances this weekend. He will be watching the draft with his family at home in Gilbert, Ariz., having done all in his power to make a case for his draftability.
“I thought I performed well in all the stuff I did, at bowls and practices and pro days,” Fitzpatrick said. “Everything is out of my hands now and into the hands of the scouts.”
Rote refused to say when he thought Fitzpatrick would be drafted, but expressed optimism for the Arizonan’s chances.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and [speculating] is a fool’s game,” Rote said. “But there’s a lot of teams that want him.”
—Staff writer Lisa J. Kennelly can be reached at kennell@fas.harvard.edu.