DENVER — A year ago, Gardner Minshew’s dad Flint was excited about one thing.
"I remember just like the sixth win going, 'Alright, we're getting to go to a bowl game.' We don't care if it's the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl, we're just glad we're going to a bowl game," he said.
A few months later, and Gardner is now starting in the NFL and is aiming for a lot more than six wins.
"Nobody thought he was going to be an NFL quarterback," said Flint. "A lot of people now say they did, but there was only a handful."
Obviously, Flint was a part of that handful. He saw Gardner’s potential from a young age—and not just from an athletic standpoint.
"He played on a really good soccer team. Played in a lot of regional tournaments and they did well," Flint reflected. "They were in a shootout to win the tournament. After the game they won, I said, ‘Hey, were you nervous?” He goes, ‘No, I would’ve been nervous if anybody else was out there.’ He just always had that belief in himself," he said.
That belief in himself led him all the way to Jacksonville and he showed it to the Jags even before they drafted him.
"He had a really good interview. I think the first thing he said was, ‘Hey I know I’m too short. My arm’s not strong enough. I’m not very fast, but I just went to Washington State and won 11 games, and no one’s ever done that.’ There again, that’s that confidence," Flint said.
Speaking of Washington State, Flint had nothing but good things to say about the man who brought Gardner there.
"Mike Leach is a genuine person. He checks on Gardner all the time. I know he was big advocate of Gardner when people would call about scouting him and things like that," he said. "That changed the track of Gardner’s life when he got that call. Obviously, it put him on a different trajectory to go like he did."
Flint has been on the ride of that trajectory for the last year and change, but that hasn’t changed how proud he is of his son.
"People go, ‘Oh, you must be so proud of him.’ I’m like, ‘That’d be pretty crappy if I was just proud of him when he did well.’ We always praise our kids for work. At the end of the day, when you get your kids playing sports you're trying to teach them a good work ethic and how to be a good teammate and work with others and how to work and that will carry you further in life. I’ve never been more proud of any one ball game or this or that. I’m always proud of his effort," he said.
And that leads us to Flint’s simple hope for his son as he keeps climbing in the NFL.
"Just help those guys win ball games. That’s your job. The other stuff, hey if you throw for a bunch of yards and you lose, you lost. That’s what it’s about.," Flint said.
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