Craig Hormann is a typical SEAS senior with only a few weeks left in his college career—he’s got meetings to attend, final exams and projects, and he just finished getting his first out-of-college job settled. What makes him atypical of his fellow engineers, and most people in the world for that matter, is that his summer job is taking him to Cleveland to begin playing football for the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.
This Sunday was both a breath of fresh air and a whirlwind of a day for the quarterback, as he grew anxious and excited at each pick that went by in the latter rounds of the NFL draft. He had received a call earlier in the day from the Browns so that they could make sure that he hadn’t been contacted by any other teams—he had not—but he still didn’t know what to expect.
“I was just sitting in one of my friend’s rooms, and we were watching the end of the draft, the last couple rounds,” Hormann said. “I was starting to get a little nervous, a little anxious I guess more than anything to figure out what was going to happen.”
After the draft finished and he didn’t get drafted, Hormann officially became a free agent. He wasn’t one for very long, as he soon got another call and suddenly, things started to get very real.
“It was probably a half an hour after the draft was over, my agent called me, actually, and said that there’s ‘one other guy that’s ahead of you and you’re the next guy in line, if they can’t get that first guy, then you’re going to be the guy they pick up,’” Hormann said. “A couple minutes later he calls back and says, ‘I’m working out the contract right now, everything looks good.’ A few minutes later, one of the guys from the Browns called and said, ‘Congratulations, you’re a Cleveland Brown now.’ So everything happened pretty quickly there once the calls started coming in.”
So in what seemed like the blink of an eye, Hormann’s identity shifted from Columbia student-athlete to NFL free agent to member of the Cleveland Browns organization. All this was especially unexpected considering that the Browns have only been talking to Hormann for a few weeks, compared to a few other teams that had expressed interest earlier in the spring and even last year.
“In the big picture, the Browns kind of were one the teams I really wasn’t expecting, I had only begun speaking with them just a couple of weeks ago,” Hormann said. “In those past couple weeks, I’ve probably spoken with them [the Browns] the most. I wasn’t completely surprised at the end of the draft that they were one of the first teams to call me.”
While most students here at Columbia might begin to study for finals this weekend, Hormann will be spending his weekend with the Browns at mini-camp. Here, he will get to meet coaches and members of the organization, as well as all of the other incoming rookies.
“I’m not 100 percent sure what to expect quite yet,” Hormann said. “I know it will be a lot of meetings, we have four practices over three days, just a lot of getting used to the personnel that’s there, the coaches, the management, all those people.”
This weekend will be the first time in awhile that Hormann will have been on a football field, but he has been working out since the season ended, and he is prepared—mentally and physically—for what the Browns have to offer at mini-camp.
“I definitely feel pretty confident with where I’m at right now, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve stepped out on the actual football field,” Hormann said with a laugh. “My mind-set is just go in and have fun and enjoy the experience, but definitely there’s a lot of focus there.”
As a SEAS senior majoring in civil engineering, Hormann has more to worry about this weekend than just mini-camp—he has finals. Even though he has a lot on his plate in the next few weeks, he is focusing on everything one thing at a time and not letting things get to him. He may be in the NFL, but right now he’s still a second semester senior looking to wrap things up.
“I’m back here by Sunday night, I do have quite a few things due next week, and actually I have a final on Monday, but ... I probably wouldn’t start studying until Sunday night anyway,” Hormann remarked with a smile. “I just want to go and focus on football and not have to really worry about all that stuff for the next few days.”
Hormann is joining the Browns organization as the fourth quarterback on its roster, with 2007 Pro Bowl quarterback Derek Anderson, 2006 Maxwell Award winner and former first-round pick Brady Quinn, and 2001 Rose Bowl MVP and National Champion Ken Dorsey ahead of him. The Browns brought Hormann in as a fourth quarterback and are hoping that he will be able to contribute on the team’s practice squad.
“Right now they want to bring in a fourth guy and use him on the practice squad for this season and kind of get familiar with them, let that quarterback learn the system, and potentially move him up onto the roster in the future,” Hormann said. “For me, a practice squad job would be a pretty good situation. It would help me a lot just to get used to playing with guys that are nothing like the competition I played against here in the Ivy League.”
After anxiously waiting to find out what his future held for him, Hormann has some stability with the Browns, but now the waiting game will resume as he finishes school and begins to work out with the team. The future is still relatively uncertain, but he is confident that he has learned enough to be successful through his experience here at Columbia.
“I guess football-wise, I’ve had a better understanding of what it takes to be a successful football player and especially a quarterback just with the amount of time spent coming in and watching extra film on your opponent and learning a lot about the defense you’re playing that week,” Hormann said. “I know that’s definitely a major part of playing quarterback in the NFL, even more so it’s a lot more film study and things like that that I’ve had a good understanding of here at Columbia.”
Some help and guidance may be waiting for Hormann in Cleveland, as safety Steve Cargile, CC ’04, was waived by the Denver Broncos on April 28 and claimed by the Browns on April 29. Cargile started his career as an undrafted free agent as he signed with the Dallas Cowboys in 2004 and has played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Denver Broncos since then. He has spent most of his time on practice squads, but has seen play in 15 games over the course of his career. Though Hormann and Cargile never played on the same team, they both come from Columbia and entered the league as undrafted free agents.
Hormann recognizes that this is an opportunity that not many people get, and he plans on just relaxing, having fun, and enjoying the experience.
“It’s been great, a lot of people have really showed a lot of support and I don’t always have the chance to say thank you, but it’s been great,” Hormann said. “Just to be able to get a chance is all I can really ask.”
