The True Story of Patrick In Houston

On a hot and muggy August Friday afternoon, the phone buzzed in my office – it’s Mrs. SaveTheDraft - our crack-shot customer service representative.

"A Patrick in Houston, TX has called whose draft was that night, and no one had remembered to order a draft kit. He is wondering if there was any way we could get him a one of ours."

What!? Save this poor soul's draft and deliver today? 1,200 miles away? Do we wear capes or something? I told her to go outside, get some fresh air. We could not help Patrick in Houston, Texas. There are some men you just can’t reach. (Cool Hand Luke anybody?)"

I hung up and began to shut my own computer down for the weekend – then, suddenly it occurred to me that we actually did have a member of the SaveTheDraft.com team in Houston, Texas. This native New Orleans Cajun just might be savvy enough to pull this off, if all the moons lined up.... Naaah - he is at the top of some skyscraper in downtown Houston, coming up on Happy Hour here on Friday as I was - and I don’t even know if he has any kits. Although....I do recall sending him some materials to make his sales calls to the local sports bars in the area months ago. What the heck - I'll text him.

--"Schmidty. Do you have any draft kits at all?"

--"1"

--"Call me."

Like some sort fantasy football draft saving superhero – our man readily accepts the challenge, despite our customer being 26 miles away.

A flurry of phone calls and text messages later, only hours after placing his call to our headquarters 1,200 miles away, Patrick is hand-delivered the lone available draft kit in the Texas city of 5 million.

While we are certain to have gained a lifelong customer in Patrick, we often wonder if he now will forever believe in Santa and that draft kits can be parachuted in within hours of his needs, as it was in the dog days of August 2009.

And, just in case he does - we're gonna arm Schmidty who leapt tall buildings with a single bound with a few more kits next year.