The New England Patriots selecting Utah offensive tackle Caleb Lomu in the first round of last month’s NFL Draft was followed by the typical post-pick discussion. There was analysis of the player and his fit with the team, breakdowns about his impact on the depth chart, and talk about his future and which position he would end up playing.
There also was this:
Lomu’s short promo clip that aired on ESPN after the Patriots brought him aboard with the 28th overall
pick quickly went viral. Speaking to reporters at Gillette Stadium on Thursday, he explained how the video and his little dance itself came to be.
“That was an interesting moment,” Lomu said during his official introduction with the Patriots. “It was at the Combine, all that media stuff that they were doing there. They put me up on a stage along with a lot of other people. They had all the cameras just like this and they go, ‘Alight, for 10 seconds just do whatever and we’re going to film you.’ So, I was saying like, ‘What should I do?’ And they were like, ‘Just do whatever you want.’ And I just didn’t do it once. They made me do it like four different times. They made me walk from the back of the stage up to the front doing the exact same thing.
“That moment, I hated it. I hated it in that moment. But I was like, ‘OK, I’m up here, I’m just going to do whatever my body does.’ There’s no real backstory to that. It was really just what I was feeling at the moment. Of course they decided to use that as the dance that they posted. It was not my best work, but it was something.”
The Patriots did not draft Lomu for his skills on the dance floor but rather because of what he can do on the gridiron. He will get a first opportunity to showcase those talents this week: New England’s rookie minicamp will take place at Gillette Stadium between Friday and Sunday.
That is where the Patriots are hoping to see Lomu’s true best work.
