It was not the time for brags or bluster. Even 35 years ago, Eric DeCosta was fully invested and immersed in the NFL draft. Friends in his Massachusetts neighborhood knew it was one of the rare times during the year that DeCosta wasn’t coming outside for a wiffle ball game or a football toss.



On draft days, DeCosta and his father, Joe, were in front of the family television, any player information they could scrounge up on handwritten notes at the ready. They’d talk strategy, break down teams and prospects and watch the draft unfold.



They were the definition of armchair general managers, except 12-year-old Eric interrupted the proceedings one year to tell his father that wasn’t always going to be the case.



“Dad,” DeCosta told his father. “I’m going to be running a National Football League team someday.”



“I’m telling you, this is something he dreamed of as a kid,” Joe said. “Of...