OSU Football: Blackmon, Weeden and state pride

The first day of the NFL Draft is in the books, and a pair of Oklahomans is already off the board.

Justin Blackmon is headed to Jacksonville, and Brandon Weeden is going to Cleveland.

Good for them.

Good for us.

I know that these two guys have become the faces of Oklahoma State football over the past two years, but let’s not forget that they are Oklahoma natives, too. These are players who grew up in our fair state. These are guys who call Oklahoma towns their homes, Blackmon claiming Ardmore and Weeden claiming Edmond.

Just as it was a few years back when Oklahoma City natives Sam Bradford and Gerald McCoy were picked in the first round, it’s a big-time feather in this state’s cap to have a pair of first-round draft picks.

Consider this: the state with the most former high school players drafted last night was Texas with five. Tennessee followed with three. After that came six states with two draftees — Alabama, California, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio and North Carolina.

That’s some pretty salty company.

Florida has always been considered a football hotbed, and Ohio, California and Alabama have been pretty solid themselves over the years. For Oklahoma to be in the same group with them, that shows that we’ve got good football players coming from here, too.

What’s more, Blackmon and Weeden are two players who will do us proud beyond getting drafted in the first round. They are good character guys. Yes, Blackmon had that misdemeanor DUI a couple years ago, but as we saw before and as we’ve seen since, that misstep was the exception not the rule with him. I have no doubt that Blackmon and Weeden are going to go to their new cities and become not only good players but also good citizens.