Robert O'Neill Was Thinking About Redskins Draft Before Operation To Kill Osama Bin Laden

Before heading out on the operation to kill Osama bin Laden in 2011, Robert O'Neill had one burning question on his mind: Who will the Washington Redskins take in the NFL Draft?

On Wednesday's episode of OutKick's The Ricky Cobb Show, the former Navy SEAL recounted the days leading up to the dangerous mission. 

"We trained for about two weeks," O'Neill said. "We went to Afghanistan to stage, and it was a weird time being in Afghanistan. I remember watching the NFL Draft, and I was on a treadmill thinking… ‘The Redskins need an offensive tackle. Who are they going to…?’ And then on the treadmill, all of a sudden, realizing that it doesn't matter to me, I guess. I'm going to be dead next week."

O'Neill thought this was a "one-way mission" — that he wasn't going to come home. But he was motivated by the desire to avenge the Americans who lost their lives in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"We're going for the people who didn't need to die on 9/11, for the first people to fight Al-Qaeda, toe-to-toe to the death, and that was the passengers on United 93. We're going because of that," O'Neill said. "You know, we could not go. You could take yourself off at any time, if you're afraid, if you want to see your kids. But like the Braveheart thing, you know, you could live for a while, but then on your deathbed, would you give every day that you live from then until now for one shot at this? And we all did. We all wanted it. 

We talked about it… We know we're going to die, why are we going? And we went back to 9/11. It's like, well, when we die, it's going to be together. So this is just an awesome story, I guess."

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Robert O'Neill speaks onstage during a book signing and lecture at Richard Nixon Library.

(Photo by Phillip Faraone/Getty Images)

Fortunately, the mission didn't play out the way they all feared.

O'Neill was part of the SEAL Team 6 unit that carried out the operation to kill bin Laden, code-named Neptune Spear. That's when two helicopters transported 23 SEALs, an interpreter and a combat dog to carry out a raid on bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The mission was successful, as the SEALs killed the world's most wanted terrorist in his third-floor bedroom.

O'Neill later took credit for the kill shots, although this claim has been disputed.