More than an Intern, Patrick Laird is the Miami Dolphins’ true renaissance man
In every NFL locker room in every NFL town, there are buried treasures of not just talent, but personalities.
We don’t know many of their stories, or sometimes even their names, because they’re not the ones making plays on Sundays. They might not be the highest draft picks (assuming they were drafted at all), and some go an entire season without a singe interview request.
But sometimes, events unearth these hidden gems, and brighten up a football season that, at least in these parts, has been largely dreary.
Last Sunday, such an excavation occurred. The NFL formally met Patrick Laird, the Intern.
That’s because the Dolphins’ rookie running back, and potential Week 14 starter, scored his team’s game-winning touchdown (and subsequent two-point conversion) against the Eagles.
And when he did, Laird celebrated in a way that befitted his unique personality. He pretended to open a book, and thumb through the imaginary pages.
Laird loves to read. Has since he was a kid.
He has a curious mind and an old soul. What other high schooler actually reads “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” — and then uses those habits to chase a long-shot NFL career?
“I’m not as smart as everyone thinks,” Laird said, somewhat sheepishly, at his locker this week during a wide-ranging chat with the Miami Herald. “I study. I try to work hard. I’m still working on working harder.”
Working harder?
This is the same kid who got Ivy League scholarship offers, but turned them down to walk on — and pay his own way — at the University of California, Berkeley.
Who already had a whole batch of university credits when he arrived on campus, because in addition to passing his AP tests, Laird took junior college classes during his summers as a high schooler.
Who as a teen produced a rap song with GarageBand on his mom’s laptop that made it to iTunes.
Who decided one demanding major (business) wasn’t enough at Cal, so he signed up for a second (political science).
Who was so passionate about child literacy that he started a summer reading challenge at Cal called Walk On Then Run, registering some 3,000 students the summer before his senior year.
The 1,000 who completed the challenge got tickets to Cal’s season opener last fall, and Laird’s unofficial fan club went wild when he scored a touchdown, joining him in his one-of-a-kind celebration.
“My [college] buddies and I — back when I was on special teams, I wasn’t playing on offense — we were going around talking about hypothetical touchdown celebrations that each of us would do,” Laird said. “And someone jokingly said — ‘If Pat ever scored a touchdown,’ — and they didn’t think I would ever score a touchdown — ‘he would probably pretend to read a book.’ Tried to jab at me. I just kept it in the back of my mind and ended up doing it a year later.”
If this all seems to you a bit like a movie — or, more fittingly, a book — you’re not the only one.
Laird is the ultimate underdog. Or, as teammate Josh Rosen joked after Laird met with a large group of reporters recently, “America’s sweetheart.”
He didn’t even really take football seriously until his sophomore year of high school. Basketball was his first love, but when his older brother Kevin accepted an offer to play football at Cornell, he decided to get serious, too.
A native of California, Laird made varsity at Mission Prep and just “fell in love with the sport.” He was determined to play not just college football, but big-time college football. Problem was, he was a zero-star recruit. He still doesn’t even have a Rivals page.
But Laird was determined to play at Cal, and made the team as a preferred walk-on.
His first three years there, Laird (or more accurately, his parents) paid his way. But he stuck with it, working up the depth chart, and finally earned a scholarship his redshirt junior season.
He deserved it. Laird was by then Cal’s starting running back, rushing for more than 1,100 yards and scoring nine touchdowns from scrimmage in 2017.
That success made the idea of football as a career plausible, although not likely.
After another successful final season — which included a bunch more book-opening celebrations — Laird had hopes of getting drafted.
He was not.
So he knew the play was to sign at place where he had a real chance of making the team. The rebuilding Dolphins were the logical fit.
But here, like at Berkeley, he started at the bottom. Early on, the unassuming, 6-foot, 205-pound Laird had to convince even some within the organization he was actually part of the team.
It’s a story that’s since taken on a life of his own: Laird lunched with a random group of club interns early on who thought he was actually one of them, and not a professional athlete.
One even asked what he does with the Dolphins.
“So I told him, ‘Oh, I’m on the team,’” Laird said. “I wasn’t offended in any way. I thought it was funny.”
When word of the mix-up made its way through the organization, the nickname was obvious. Laird was forever known as the Intern.
Thanks to the Fox TV crew, who told the (slightly butchered) story during last Sunday’s broadcast, the world knows the name too. After Kalen Ballage went down with what turned out to be a season-ending injury, Laird played the most snaps of his NFL career.
And given that the held his own — plus the Dolphins are basically out of running backs — expect to see even more of his Sunday against the Jets.
“I thought he really did some good things in the pass game, pass-protection wise,” Dolphins running backs coach Eric Studesville said. “… He’s done a good job. And he’s taken advantage of the preparation and the time.”
Which brings us back to those seven habits that Stephen Covey famous identified in his 1989 self-help manual. That was formative. So was Charles Duhigg’s “The Power of Habit.”
Those skills will forever help Laird, no matter his pursuit. For now, football is his No. 1 priority. But he has options if that falls through.
On his resume: a summer stint with a boutique investment firm in San Francisco called Greentech Capital.
His job title?
Intern.
This story was originally published December 6, 2019 at 10:22 AM.
