Shepherd Hill’s Chris Lindstrom Became First Central Mass Football Player Drafted In 1st Round Of NFL Draft And Is One Of The Nicer Kids I Met When I Was Teaching

 

Since I used to teach at Shepherd Hill I’d be remiss if I didn’t dedicate a blog to congratulating former Ram and Boston College offensive guard line Chris Lindstrom, for being the 14th overall pick in the NFL draft by the Atlanta Falcons on Thursday.

Let me just say this. Chris is lucky to come from an awesome family and went to an awesome school. His father is a former BU legend who played in the NFL, and was the coach of Shepherd Hill’s football team when Chris went there, and his brother Alec still plays for Boston College.

But he didn’t just become the first player in Central Mass history to get selected in the first round of the NFL draft because of good genes and good upbringing. Chris was in my class for like a day before a scheduling conflict moved him to another teacher in 11th grade, so I never had the pleasure of having him full time. But I knew he was a good student and a great football player. As the track coach I desperately wanted him to join the team because we would’ve won the shot put by default every meet just by him showing up. Unfortunately for us he was so dedicated to football that I’d see him outside every day of the spring practicing stances, simulating snaps, and working on his footwork. By himself. I know he’d be a good football player, but first round of the NFL draft? That’s as good as it gets. 

His Dad is one of the most straight forward and well respected teachers in the building, who has created one of the most dominant football programs in Massachusetts. The football players I had in class were not your the typical jocks that AC Slater has led you to believe they are. They came to class in shirts and ties on game days and they all did well in class because they knew if they didn’t that Lindstrom would hear about it. That guy always put academics first because he was trying to make men out of boys. And it’s paid off not only for the success of the program, but for what these kids do after high school. Currently there are still 3 more grads – Kevin Mensah (UConn), Sean McKeon (Michigan), and Alec Lindstrom (BC) playing Division 1 football. I’m willing to bet you’ll see the latter two drafted in the next couple of years.

There are many more playing I-AA. Shepherd Hill football is a program that gets a lot of big boys, but they turn them into complete football players. Chris couldn’t have weighed more than 240 pounds in high school, but now is easily over 300. You don’t do that by eating Big Macs alone. You do it by dedicating yourself to your craft.

This video of him getting the call from the Falcons and having his name called by Roger Goodell is fantastic.

His first NFL injury may have come from Mom from squeezing his arm so hard. She was way more excited than Falcons fans.

Lot of dudes there. I’d estimate that’s a 28-3 ratio. And this is why my favorite highlights of fans watching the draft will always be when their team selects an offensive lineman. It’s like getting socks for Christmas. No one asked for them but without them your team doesn’t function. Trust me when I say that they will look back at this video and realize how dumb they were. Patriots fans would never do this. We understand football and know that God loves us more.

There’s a lot of lazy players drafted in the first round who think they’re going to be stars simply by showing up. Chris isn’t that guy. He will work his ass off to protect Matt Ryan and have a long and successful NFL career. Couldn’t happen to a nicer kid and a nicer family. Congrats Chris.

P.S. No matter how much shit they give you, never get rid of this shirt.

 

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Hello Turtle Riders. As you know if you follow Turtleboy we are constantly getting censored and banned by Facebook for what are clearly not violations of their terms of service. Twitter has done the same, and trolls mass reported our blog to Google AdSense thousands of times, leading to demonetization. We can get by and survive, but we could really use your help. Please consider donating by hitting the Donation button above if you'd like support free speech and what we do in the face of Silicon Valley censorship. Or just buy our award winning book about the dangers of censorship and rise of Turtleboy:  Qries
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