Steve Bartkowski arrived in New York, went to his hotel room and waited. Intimidated not by what was going to happen in mere hours but by the city of New York, Bartkowski didn’t want to get lost or mess anything up.
So he stayed put. The Cal quarterback was about to become the No. 1 overall pick in the 1975 NFL draft and unlike today, where tens of players and their families wait in green rooms to hear their names called and proceed to hug or fist-bump commissioner Roger Goodell, Bartkowski was on this adventure solo.