Notre Dame First-Round Picks Who Went Beyond Saturday/Sunday Glory

At this time of the year, two important new chapters in the lives of many senior or even junior Notre Dame football players occur.

One is the NFL Draft, of which maybe 25 percent of a class will see his name called.

The second is graduation — where the goal always is 100 percent. The latter is the ultimate mission statement at Notre Dame and the foremost recruiting tool.

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A survey a few years ago revealed the average NFL career lasts 3.3 years. Furthermore, according to the NFL Players’ Association, 78 percent of players go broke within three years of retirement.

Short-lived NFL careers, especially because of injury, have occurred even to many of the most hallowed legendary figures at the school.

We will base our Notre Dame top 10 in this category — with at least one player from each position group — based on:

1. How brilliant his college career was in comparison to what was achieved in the NFL.

2. How high he was taken in the draft.

3. How long he lasted in the NFL.

We will feature the people since 1967, the first draft since the NFL-AFL merger and when making a living in the NFL became more significant rather than holding jobs down elsewhere in the off-season.

The three-time All-American won the Walter Camp Award and was third in the Heisman Trophy voting during Notre Dame’s 1977 march to the national title. A College Football Hall of Fame member, he was the No. 7 overall pick in 1978 by the San Francisco 49ers.

The only two tight ends taken higher since then have been Kellen Winslow II in 2004 and Vernon Davis in 2006, both at No. 6.

MacAfee played two years and caught 46 passes (five for scores) before head coach Bill Walsh wanted to convert him to guard. Instead, MacAfee opted to attend dental school and became a renowned oral surgeon, lecturer and philanthropist.

“I really just wanted to get on with my life rather than stay playing football just for a paycheck,” he told us in 2016. “It didn’t matter when my career ended because I had another profession to go to.”

He is a classic example of making football work for him rather than the other way around in what often is the Not For Long (NFL) league.

As a senior he won the Lombardi Award winner and became the most recent Notre Dame player taken No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft.

Patulski has dreaded interview requests during draft week about players who didn’t meet lofty expectations, but has been a good sport about it. He had four decent seasons along the defensive line at Buffalo (1972-75) before getting traded and having injuries end his career. In a 1993 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Patulski admitted he wasn’t mean enough to play in the NFL and had too many other interests.

"I was always the guy who you would want to go out with your daughter,” Patulski said. “I don't think I had the proper mentality for the game."

Walt is a recipient of the Key to Syracuse (New York) for his distinguished community service, including six years as Commissioner of the Syracuse Board of Education.

A three-time All-American and considered a freak of nature, the Randy Moss of his time, with his rangy 6-4, 205-pound frame, making him the No. 10 pick in the 1969 NFL Draft.

A ruptured hamstring in the Hula Bowl that was aggravated in the College All-Star Game severely hindered his pro career, where he caught 21 passes in three years.

“I could still catch the ball, but they wanted speed and it wasn’t there anymore,” Seymour recalled years ago before going into a successful insurance Chicago-land insurance practice. “When the body tells you it’s time to quit, you have to accept it.”

He passed away in 2011.

Patulski’s classmate was a two-time All-American, one of the best athletes ever to suit up for the Irish and was taken with the 15th pick in 1972.

Similar to Seymour, he played only three years (Atlanta Falcons) before retiring after a devastating knee injury, and went on to prominence in sales with the IBM Corporation and Honeywell International, and then education with the Dekalb County School District in suburban Atlanta.

Maybe the most talented interior lineman in Notre Dame history, his 290 career stops — despite missing most of his first two seasons with knee injuries — are the second most by a Fighting Irish defense lineman, behind end Ross Browner’s 340.

Niehaus was the No. 2 pick in the 1976 NFL Draft and was the NFC Defensive Rookie of the Year with the Seattle Seahawks (90 tackles, with 9.5 sacks), but a torn shoulder in year two basically reduced him to “trying to play with one arm in the NFL,” leading to only six more career starts in three seasons.

He returned to Cincinnati, working for Pepsi, Budweiser and in the construction industry before retiring.

He is one of three Notre Dame backs drafted in the first round since 1968. The other two were Greg Bell in 1984 and Jerome Bettis in 1993, with Bell leading the NFL in scoring two seasons and Bettis entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2015.

Ferguson rushed for 818 yards as a rookie but played sparingly the next three years while totaling 345 yards.

“College wasn't about me going to the next level,” he told Sports Illustrated several years ago. “I got my experience, I enjoyed it, and I was prepared to do something else."

He worked nearly seven years in Chicago for a Fortune 500 company before moving back to Richmond High to take care of his ailing grandparents who raised him, and served in athletic administration at his former high school. He also has served as his local president for the NAACP.

Former Irish head coach Charlie Weis predicted that Quinn — who propelled a 19-6 record in 2005-06 and finished in the top five Heisman balloting both times — would rank with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady as the top three quarterbacks in the NFL.

The first-round 2007 selection (No. 22 overall) played in only 24 games, was waived by three different teams one year and finished with 12 touchdowns and 17 thrown interceptions.

Quinn married USA Olympic gymnast Alicia Sacramone with whom he’s had three daughters and is using his eloquent skills as an analyst on FOX Sports. In 2011 he founded the 3rd and Goal Foundation, of which and his wife are co-chairs, that aids wounded war veterans.

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A starting tackle for the 1966 national champs, he was the No. 12 overall pick in 1967 even before Irish teammate and nine-time Pro Bowl player Alan Page at No. 15.

A leg injury sidelined him virtually all of his rookie year, and then in 1968 he enlisted in the military. A member of the New York Jets team that won Super Bowl III, he was released before the 1970 season before playing three years at Oakland and making one start.

He died in 2001 from colon cancer after having served as a church minister in California.

Rounding out our position group is what many consider Notre Dame’s greatest linebacker ever who three years ago was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Crable is the school’s all-time leading tackler (521), a two-time consensus All-America (one of 16 in school history) and still lone Fighting Irish linebacker to be drafted in first round (23rd overall pick).

He did play six years in the NFL, but knee injuries limited him to 43 starts. A ferocious hitter and competitor, it seemed ironic that his life after football has included teaching religion at his beloved Cincinnati Moeller High School, in addition to past head coaching duties. He now owns and operates Hilltop Management Company in his native Cincinnati.

It pays to prepare for life beyond football.

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