Exit interview: Drew Fowler is #OpenToWork
The Washington linebacker goes deep on his six years with the Huskies, and his funny farewell.
At last glance, some 52,000 people had liked Drew Fowler’s farewell message to Washington Huskies fans.
Fowler, a sixth-year senior linebacker, is out of eligibility, so a return to UW was already off the table. And he didn’t use the message to declare for the NFL Draft. Instead, he declared for, in his words, “the job market.” Spencer Klein, assistant director of graphic design for the football program, added the LinkedIn logo and an #OpenToWork treatment around Fowler’s mug shot on the graphic that soon went viral.
It landed Fowler an interview on ESPN, and something like 3,000 pending LinkedIn requests.
A Bellevue native, Fowler chose to walk on as part of UW’s 2019 recruiting class rather than accept one of several scholarship offers from schools like Utah or UCLA. Throughout a career that spanned four head coaches, Fowler became one of UW’s top special-teams players and earned a scholarship heading into his final season. Also, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and a master’s in Communication Leadership.
And he should probably tweak his LinkedIn page. It is up to date, but, Fowler admits, “it’s not even ‘Open to Work,’ technically.”
I caught up with Fowler on Tuesday for a wide-ranging interview about his unique farewell message, his six years at Washington, life as a walk-on, what he learned from each of his head coaches and more. (Questions and responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.)