NATCHEZ — May 10 is a day Ole Miss’ Ja-Mes Logan talks with his brother, Nook Logan, about every day.

Nook, the man who inspired Ja-Mes to play football, was a multi-sport athlete at Natchez High School before playing professional baseball with the Detroit Tigers and Washington Nationals.

Like Nook, Ja-Mes aspired to be a baseball player and even played his first-love, basketball, in high school. Because the family moved to Texas for Ja-Mes’ freshman year, Nook inspired him to play football at Westfield High School in Houston. He suited up for football in 10th grade, and he’s been playing ever since.

“Football is just a better game,” Ja-Mes said. “The play of the game is so much different. The crowd is much more hyped, and it’s easy to see why.”

Ja-Mes didn’t always feel that way. Nook said his brother wanted to quit football in 10th grade to pursue basketball. Nook spelled it out for Ja-Mes as best as he could, telling him his best bet to play professionally would be football or baseball.

“I was like, ‘why don’t you play football,’” Nook said. “Basketball is the toughest to play professionally. There are only 60 draft picks and there are 50 states with programs.”

The switch could find Ja-Mes being drafted by an NFL team on May 10 when rounds four through seven take place. That’s where he figures to be after his pro day at Ole Miss.

“The majority of the feedback I received was that I could be a potential late rounder, possibly getting drafted in the fifth to seventh round,” Ja-Mes said.

After running the 40-yard dash, doing broad jumps, bench pressing and running multiple drills for 26 NFL scouts, Logan found himself in Ole Miss’ wide receiver room with a head NFL scout.

“I didn’t meet with anybody after my pro day except for Nick Caserio with the New England Patriots,” Ja-Mes said. “We watched my film and talked about the do’s and don’ts and why I did one thing or another.”

Until that day comes, Ja-Mes will work out on a regular basis to keep his body in shape, and he’s been preparing mentally as well.

A couple of weeks ago, Logan picked the brain of Super Bowl winning quarterback Eli Manning on Ole Miss’ campus.

“He was just helping me with the playbook,” Logan said. “I know they have a lot of plays in the NFL, but I don’t think I’ll struggle to adapt to the playbook because I played for two offensive systems at Ole Miss. I played in the pro-style set under Houston Nutt and Hugh Freeze’s offense after.”

Nook said as soon as he and Ja-Mes moved to Houston, they would watch Houston Texans’ football games and Ja-Mes would only halfway pay attention. After he started playing football and received a new playbook on a weekly basis at Westfield, his mentality changed.

“We would be sitting there and he would call out audibles that Peyton Manning was calling out,” Nook said. “He was calling the defenses out before Peyton even got to the line.”

Ja-Mes is preparing mentally to be drafted and to enter free agency in the NFL.

He’s been talking to players that have done both. Former Trinity Episcopal Day School’s Stevan Ridley has chatted with Logan about being selected, while Natchez High School alumnus Rico Richardson has mentored him about going through the free agency process. Ridley plays running back for the Patriots, while Richardson is a wide receiver for the Houston Texans.

Logan said his agent is in frequent talks with teams as the draft inches closer, and Logan hopes to score some private workouts with teams before that May weekend.

“My plan is to have workouts with teams in April,” Logan said. “We’re still working on when and where though.”