FOXBOROUGH — Quinn Nordin was getting ready for life in the real world when his phone lit up with a text from Patriots special teams coordinator Cam Achord.
“I waited four days (after going undrafted). I was on LinkedIn looking at jobs,” Nordin said. “I was thinking of maybe going into the military. The Patriots were my only call, so I’m here. I’m doing the best I can, and that’s it.
“I was literally on LinkedIn typing in, like, ‘What to do after college.’”
Though he was one of the most highly sought after high school recruits in the country, Nordin’s senior year at Michigan didn’t go as planned. The kicker only hit two field goals — he went 2 for 5 — and didn’t hear his name called at the NFL Draft.
When the Patriots reached out he was still approaching things with a certain level of skepticism.
“I got a text from Cam — Coach Cam — and he was like, ‘We might have something, not sure.’ And it’s like 10 o’clock at night,” Nordin said. “I was sitting in a recliner all day on my laptop, calling people, looking for a job. I was on a walk with my mom, and my agent called me and told me that (the Patriots) were going to get (me) a contract. And I said I’m not going to believe anything until there’s something at my house. Something came to the house, and I’m extremely grateful. But I couldn’t even believe it, because when you want something to happen and it doesn’t happen and you wait and you wait and you wait, you’re just that much more grateful when the opportunity does come.”
So what else was the kicker considering?
“Literally, I think it was two days after, my dad needed the deck power-washed,” Nordin replied. “All my buddies had signed with teams, and I was like, you know what, I could rent this power washer and I could power-wash decks in the neighborhood. But I wanted to give (the NFL) a shot. This is every kid’s, person’s dream to get a chance to play for the New England Patriots.”
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