Quotes from Mel Purcell

http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/article.php?id=6797

About getting the news that he was drafted at 11am HST when he was eating at a restaurant with his parents, Mel said:
"I was so excited I couldn't even finish my food." (Clevelandbrowns.com)


A 2002 ESPN article reported that a Samoan boy is 40 times more likely to make the NFL than a boy from the US mainland, adding that the Samoan islands:
"are to the NFL what the Dominican Republic is to Major League Baseball." (Clevelandbrowns.com)


About how football is the best way for a young men to succeed and leave Samoa, Mel said:
"One of the only ways kids can leave the island is by getting scholarships. Mostly people who come out there to recruit are only there for football players." (Clevelandbrowns.com)

CB Note: "Purcell said he didn't get many television channels growing up and didn't get to see many NFL games, but the players instead came to them. Samoan NFL players often returned to their homeland to hold clinics on American football and often brought teammates to help.

In 2001, for instance, Eagles defensive end Jevon Kearse was brought to the island by then-Titans teammate and Samoan native Joe Salave'a for a clinic to instruct 600 children."


About the 6-hour time difference between Cleveland and Hawaii, Mel said:
"It's hard to sleep at night because it's still seems like it's 4 o'clock. I'm having trouble staying up in meetings. I'm adjusting but it's adversity. You just have to go through it." (Clevelandbrowns.com)


Happy to be playing for Cleveland, Mel said:
"Whatever they need me to do I'll do it. I'm very happy to be here." (Clevelandbrowns.com)