As the Commanders set their roster, an undrafted rookie had a ‘surreal’ day

As Tuesday afternoon bled into evening, Ale Kaho learned a truism about the NFL’s hardest day. “When you don’t get a phone call,” Kaho said, “that’s better than getting a phone call.”

As the Washington Commanders and the rest of the NFL pared their active rosters to 53 players, Kaho sat in his bedroom. An undrafted free agent linebacker, Kaho knew he had played his way on to Washington’s roster bubble. But all he could do was wait and wonder if he would receive the call hundreds of players like him would get, no matter how much they dreaded it.