Cason at loss for words, not much else

Round Collar Antoine Cason's voice said that he was “at a loss for words” and “speechless.”His smile, packaged with an unflinching gaze, a charming cadence, the unquestionably certain way he stood, said he had it all under control.If the cornerback out of Arizona is as smooth on the field in the NFL as he was on his first day as a professional player, the Chargers made a fantastic first-round pick and their pass defense will benefit greatly for years to come.Every draft pick attempts to impress in his first public appearance after being drafted. Some fail; others are simply transparent. Cason nailed it.Based on yesterday's noon gathering and widespread accounts of who he is, he is clearly all the Chargers purported him to be when they took him Saturday, explaining he was a “leader” and a “character guy.”First off, the kid can play. There is every reason to expect he will be the Chargers' third cornerback come September.He made 15 interceptions in four college seasons, third-most by an Arizona player. Of those, 10 were off quarterbacks who are in the NFL or were drafted this weekend.New teammate Jacob Hester, the Chargers' second pick in this year's draft, remembers this of the game in 2006 when Arizona played LSU, then quarterbacked by eventual No. 1 draft choice JaMarcus Russell.“He intercepted a pass against us,” Hester said.Were the Chargers to oppose Green Bay, new Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers would remember the two picks Cason had against him when Rodgers played for Cal.Not that genetics alone makes a first-round talent, but Cason was accompanied to Chargers Park yesterday by his father, Wendell, who played three years in the NFL in the 1980s. Antoine Cason came to a Chargers game this past December to see his cousin Aevion play for the Detroit Lions. Another cousin, Ken-yon Rambo, played four years in the league. At a dinner party for Cason on Saturday in his hometown of Long Beach, more than a dozen Cason kin with Division I football experience celebrated with him.Blessed for sure, blood alone is not what got him here.What his dad did in an NFL career that ended a year after Antoine was born seemingly pales next to the intervening 20 years of Antoine's life. Wendell and his brother run a trucking business. The family is tight-knit and blue-collar.“We do it the old-fashioned way,” Wendell said yesterday. “Things don't come set on the table for you. You've got to get the food.”Antoine Cason originally planned to take six units over the Internet this semester as he lived in Florida training for the NFL Combine and other predraft workouts. He took just one class.“With all I had going on this spring, I didn't want to be in something and not pass it,” he said.He now needs one class – a three-unit elective – to graduate. It's a good bet he'll do it, since he went back to school for his senior season despite the fact he might have been a first-round pick last year.“You graduate college,” he said. “The sound of 'I graduated,' that just sounds right. I've conquered whatever I've done. I start something, I want to finish it.”