The National Football League holds its Combine every March in Indianapolis. The league’s annual meat market gathers up many of the top college football players in the country, and gives every NFL team a chance to measure, weigh, time, test and interview them.

SMU cornerback Bryan McCann didn’t really expect to be invited to the Combine. He wasn’t.

Bryan McCann chose SMU in part because the Ponies' coaches didn't give up on him when he broke his leg as a senior in high school (photo by Travis Johnston).

“That’s the story of my life,” McCann said. “Growing up, everyone kept saying I was too small. When I told my friends I was going to play Div. I — Div. I football — they laughed at me. When I got hurt in high school, people said I’d never get a chance to play in college.”

McCann’s ability to handle adversity started long before his arrival at SMU, though, or even his high school career. When he was just a year old, doctors cut his chest open to operate on McCann, who was born with a hole in his heart.

“My parents were told I wasn’t going to be able to run,” McCann said. “I guess that’s why I don’t listen to what people have to say about me.”

To say McCann learned to run would be a gross understatement. When he started playing football as a child, he played against kids a year older, but his speed allowed him to thrive. When he was a 5-foot-2, 97-pound sophomore at Putnam City (Okla.) High School, his coach played him exclusively on defense, for fear that he McCann would get hurt by large, aggressive defenders.

A year later, in a tied game against rival Putnam City West, McCann followed his coach up and down the sideline, continually pestering him for a chance on offense. Finally he was sent into the game, and with his team facing third-and-18, the coach called a reverse into the short of the field for McCann … who took the ball 87 yards for a touchdown.

McCann left every player in the nation behind when he ran a 4.28 in the 40-yard dash on SMU's Pro Day (photo by Travis Johnston).

“On the next series, my quarterback hit me for a 50- or 60-yard touchdown,” McCann said. “After that, my coach thought, ‘we might have something here.’”

During the summer after his junior season, McCann worked out like never before.

“I worked out for a couple of hours in the morning and a couple of hours in the afternoon, and then I worked in the gym from 4-8 every day,” McCann said. “That was my summer before my senior year. I wasn’t hitting any parties or anything — I was working out.”

The work paid off. McCann started his senior season playing on offense, defense and special teams. He scored on the offensive side of the ball and returning kicks, while continuing to shine in the secondary.

The first school to contact McCann was SMU, but after the sizzling start to his senior season, he started to get attention from some college football heavyweights, like Miami, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State.

That all changed when McCann broke his left leg in a game against his father’s alma mater, Lawton High School.

“It was a clean break,” he said. “I heard it break, but I didn’t think it was broken. I don’t know — maybe it was the adrenaline rush or something. I even tried to jog to get back into the game.”

McCann said that the diagnosis of his injury caught him off-guard, and raised doubts in his mind about whether his athletic career would continue.

“I went home that night and watched a movie with a friend of mine — had my feet up, and it hurt, but I was relaxing,” he said. “The next morning, my dad said we ought to go get it looked at, so we went to the hospital. After they took the X-ray … I don’t know, I was thinking it would be two or three weeks, and I’d be back. Then the doctor said I had broken my fibula, and it’s going to be three — everything slowed down — months.

“My eyes filled up with tears. The doctor walked out of the room, and I just sat there with my dad. I said, ‘it’s over.’ I thought there was no way I’d still get to play in college.”

McCann’s father, Juarez, began calling the schools that were recruiting his son. One by one, they started to back off. SMU didn’t.

Secondary coach Derrick Odum said McCann's strength, speed, intelligence and coachability make him worthy of a shot in the NFL (photo by Travis Johnston).

Defensive ends coach Eric Roark was recruiting McCann for the Mustangs, and called McCann shortly after Juarez McCann called him.

“They were playing Texas A&M that day, and he called me when he was on the field,” McCann said. “He told me ‘don’t worry — you’re going to get better, and we still want you.’ That told me a lot about the coaches here.”

Not all schools gave up on McCann, who chose the Mustangs over offers from such places as Northwestern and Stanford. He started for three-and-a-half seasons, and finished his career as the career leader among active Conference USA players with 11 interceptions. He earned honorable mention all-conference honors on defense and special teams as a senior.

But while McCann has been a solid starter for the Ponies since midway through his freshman season, he really opened a lot of eyes April 1 at SMU’s Pro Day. McCann measured in at 5-10 ½ and weighed 183 pounds — respectable size for an NFL cornerback. When the participants and scouts walked outside, on to the field at SMU’s Gerald J. Ford Stadium, he got everyone’s attention when he ran a 4.28 in the 40-yard dash. He had a light wind at his back, but that time was the fastest run by any player in the country this year. For good measure, he ran a 4.32 into the wind.

“I don’t know if that day got him drafted,” SMU secondary coach Derrick Odum said, “but he sure performed well. He has a shot.”

Numerous NFL teams have shown interest in McCann. The Cleveland Browns worked extensively with him on Pro Day. He and his representatives — former SMU receivers John Biggins and Brian Berry — have heard from numerous teams, including the Dallas Cowboys, San Diego Chargers, San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders, New York Giants, Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Detroit Lions, Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans and Minnesota Vikings. Long assumed to be a free agent candidate, league sources have said that at least three teams now have McCann on their draft boards.

To McCann, the chance is all he wants. The fact that he is on the cusp of some kind of chance with an NFL team — either as a drafted player or as a free agent — “hit me about two weeks ago,” he said.

“I got a letter from the Philadelphia Eagles that said, ‘If you’re not drafted, we want you to join our team as a free agent.’ That letter is going to be framed in my house until the day I die, because it’s a reminder of all of the work I put in to get where I am, and to get the chance to go up another level.”

The letter signifies to McCann that the end result is bigger than the accolades that are bestowed upon some during the journey. He never earned All-State honors in high school, or first- or second-team all-conference honors at SMU, yet here he is, waiting to see where he’ll end up.

Odum has coached several players in the past who made it to the NFL, and he said McCann has the tools to join them and succeed at the game’s highest level.

“Bryan is stronger than most people think,” Odum said, “and he’s a speed guy, a very bright guy, and he’s coachable. You put all of that together — plus the fact that he’ll play on special teams, and play well — and I think he has a real shot. Whether he gets drafted or goes as a free agent … I don’t know. If it gets late in the draft, into the sixth or seventh round, it’s almost better to go undrafted. That way, you can really study the teams and see where you fit best. So we’ll see.”

McCann said that given a choice, he’d like to play for the Dallas Cowboys, since they’re closer to his family than any other NFL team, and Dallas is where his life is. But if the Cowboys don’t pan out, he doesn’t really care where he goes, as long as he gets a chance somewhere. He also said that unlike some of the players who were selected Thursday on the first day of the draft, he is not planning any wild celebration.

“I hope I’m about to sign a contract,” he said. “I’m getting ready to hit that playbook and get in a film room. If I get picked up, there will be some smiles and hugs from my family and friends, but that’s it.

“It’s time to go to work.”