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University of Minnesota Athletics
Blog: Catching Up With Eric Decker
12/16/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
University of Minnesota wide receiver Eric Decker is a busy man these days. Not as busy as he would have liked to be, but busy nonetheless.
The senior wide receiver and Biletnikoff Award semifinalist would like to have been healthy, preparing for the Gophers' bowl game and perhaps flying all over the country to take part in some awards banquets. He was jet-setting a little bit last week, however.
Decker was in New York last week for the National Football Foundation Awards Banquet, held at the Waldorf Astoria hotel. He was there to be recognized as one of 16 college football players (across all levels of NCAA and NAIA competition) to be named as a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete. That prestigious award is given to those who succeed on the field and in the classroom and one of those 18 is awarded the Campbell Trophy, which is known as the "Academic Heisman."
Decker didn't take home the Campbell Trophy, which went to Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. But he did receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation. And he got to meet and hang out with a number of his contemporaries.
"It was a great trip out there," Decker said. "It was a great time. It was a real honor to be associated with that award and what it means as a student-athlete. The other finalists there were great guys. We had a lot of fun with the Christmas Spectacular on Monday night, which was fun. We went to Mickey Mantle's restaurant and had dinner."
But it wasn't just meeting the current football players that excited Decker. It was also getting to meet some of the legends of the game, who were inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Notre Dame's Tim Brown, West Virginia's Major Harris, Texas' Steve McMichael, Ohio State's Chris Spielman, Penn State's Curt Warner and Nebraska's Grant Wistrom were among the members of the 2009 class.
"It really was a who's who of football," Decker said.
In addition to current and former players, there were other prominent people in the world of sports, such as Nike Founder and Chairman Phil Knight and Billy Payne, who is the chairman of the Augusta National Golf Club. Knight was honored as the NFF Gold Medal recipient for 2009, while Payne was named the organization's Distinguished American.
"I sat by Phil Knight at the banquet," Decker said. "It's pretty neat to know this guy founded such a big company."
Decker may have also had a chance to impress a future employer.
"Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft, some NFL team owners were there," Decker said. "It was definitely a great event to meet people and be surrounded with success and greatness."
Decker, who already has a degree in business marketing and education, will be moving to Arizona soon. He's headed to the Phoenix area to rehab his foot and train in preparation for the NFL Combine. He'll travel with the team at the Insight Bowl and take part in many of the team activities, before fully turning his attention to preparing for a career in the National Football League.
To hear Decker's thoughts on his team's matchup with Iowa State at the Insight Bowl and to hear more about his future plans, click the video above.
-Andy Seeley
