Adam Gotsis' childhood dreams never included being an NFL football player

Most NFL draft picks have dreamt of being first-rounders, playing for the hometown team or winning a super bowl from the day they picked up a ball—not Adam Gotsis, the Denver Broncos second-round pick. In fact, he laughs at the notion.

“Not when I first started,” he says with a heavy accent and a chuckle. “When I first started I was just out there having fun, you know? Just loving the game. Playing with my friends, that was just the awesome part.”

You see, Gotsis couldn’t play for the hometown team, unless, of course, we’re talking Aussie Rules football, a sport he has actually played longer than he has American football. A native of Abbotsford, Australia, his beginnings in football were very different from the average NFL’er.

“The league that I played in, you’d go down there and you ‘d pay $300, get some pads and insurance, practice once a week and play once a week,” he explained. “It was just guys that love the game, just wanted to be out there having fun, having to run around, that’s what it was. There weren’t 5,000 people in the stands or anything, there were 30 people surrounded by a roped off field.”

Nothing glamorous about it, but that roped off field roped in the teenage Aussie.

“It was just guys out there just loving the game, it made me fall in love with the game,” Gotsis told. “One thing led to another, the more I was out there, the more I loved it.”

As time progressed, those typical dreams started to develop about as fast as his body, development that had him growing to about 6-foot-5, 300-pounds in high school.

“When I first decided I wanted to come to college I was 17,” Gotsis explained. “Basically, one of my coaches back home had a relationship with Coach [Paul] Johnson, who was my head coach here at Georgia tech, he basically was looking for a kicker in Australia and my coach back home was like ‘Well, I’ve got this pretty big Australian kid who can run well and is pretty athletic for his size.’ Next thing Coach Johnson asked for some film on me to show him my athleticism, invited me over for a recruiting trip and offered me a spot.”

He turned that spot into 37 starts that included 12.5 sacks and 26 tackles for a loss. Despite a knee injury suffered on Halloween of last year, Gotsis had made his mark, a mark worth enough of a second-round pick from the Super Bowl champions.

“It’s been an unreal process the whole time,” he said just after his selection. “From the moment I went to college to right this moment it’s just been a crazy process. I’m glad to be a Bronco, I think a lot of hard work is paying off. It’s just the beginning of a new chapter, I can’t wait to get up there and get into the culture there and just become part of the team.”

A team that Gotsis noted as having the “best defense in the last 30 years or so,” an astute observation for a guy who hasn’t been following the game for even half that long.

“I watched the Super Bowl and I watched the way they played with pride and passion,” he recalled. “They play for each other and I think that’s the most important thing at the end of the day, they won that Superbowl as a unit, the whole defense won that Super Bowl.”

Adam Gotsis didn’t know a thing about American football until his teenage years, “Now, I have a chance to play at the highest level on the best team in the world.”