NFL draft 2022 – How George Karlaftis found his way to football between Greece and Indiana

BEFORE 2014, GEORGE KARLAFTIS never had football on his radar.

Growing up in Athens, Greece, his sporting plate overflowed with swimming, soccer, tennis, basketball, track and field, judo and water polo, in which Karlaftis fast-tracked as a young teen. Karlaftis fit in every arena. He has a confluence of gifts — size, speed, confidence and drive — that allowed him to pick any athletic endeavor and excel. But Karlaftis ultimately pivoted away from all of those sports, and toward one that rarely, if ever, came up during his childhood.

“[Football] was perceived as very dangerous, barbaric,” he recalled. “A little bit of fear tactics for us not to play.”

His father, Matt, an accomplished athlete in Greece who competed in track and field at the University of Miami, hoped Karlaftis and his two brothers would never participate in football. Matt’s only brush with the sport had led to a traumatic head injury and surgery.

“I was scared, I never really wanted to play growing up, you know, and [in Greece], it’s not really an issue,” Karlaftis said.

But when Matt died on June 4, 2014, George’s life and athletic outlook forever changed. Along with his mother and siblings, he moved to the United States, near his mother’s family in West Lafayette, Indiana. He had to process the trauma of his father’s death while beginning school in a different language, and making new friends. His athletic talent became a way to fit in. After some initial hesitation, Karlaftis began playing a distinctly American sport, and learned to love football, as he blossomed into a star defensive lineman at Purdue.

Now, he’s on the doorstep of the NFL. The draft begins April 28 in Las Vegas, and Karlaftis’ name likely will be called on the first night. Mel Kiper Jr. has the DE being selected at No. 30 in his most recent mock draft.

“To think back on how things have gone, it’s c’est la vie, right? That’s life,” Karlaftis said. “It’s been a lot, everything that’s happened, from the time I was 12, 13 years old to…