By Tom Rock
Welcome to rookie camp, where the questions fly fast and furious (and not only from us reporters). Almost all of the players in the locker room – over 40 of them – spoke about the mental rigors that the coaching staff is putting them through, complete with pop quizzes and out-of-the-blue observations. It’s part of finding out who has the mental makeup for the NFL. Sort of like the first day of military boot camp, or at least what I’ve seen of that in the movies.
Anyway, spoke with the Jets four draft picks and they were well-coached on not divulging too much information. That’s fine. The real interesting conversations occurred with guys you’ll probably never hear from again, at least not in terms of the NFL. For this mini-camp, the Jets brought in two championship wrestlers, a Polynesian fire dancer and a college basketball player.
The two fascinating figures were wrestlers Tommy Rowlands and Cole Conrad, neither of which has played any organized football since ninth grade. They are currently ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, in the heavyweight division and are both training for the 2008 Olympics. Rowlands said his phone rang three days ago with an invite to the Jets’ camp, and he was convinced it was a prank. Conrad said his knowledge of football is so limited, he had to be shown how to get into a three-point stance. The Jets knew the level of football intuition they were getting with these guys, they are just seeing if there is any football potential. Rowlands said he wasn’t even sure how to put on football pads, an obstacle he won’t have to hurdle for a while the team goes shorts and helmets for this event. By the way, the Jets have Konrad working at offensive line and Rowlands at outside linebacker.
Maybe instead of showing boxing fights on Saturday nights before games this year, Mangini will show some wrestling take-downs.
Then there’s Leonard Peters, the safety from Hawaii who has made the YouTube rounds with his “fire-knife” dance. He actually has a chance to make the team – or at least make the cut and get an invite to the full mini-camp in June – and seems to be a fascinating character. He had the Troy Polamalu hair hanging from his helmet and said he got to know the Steelers’ safety because the U. of Hawaii football players are used for security during the Pro Bowl and Peters spent a few days with Troy and his wife.
And of course, Jesse Pellot-Rosa, a guard on the VCU basketball team that beat Duke in this year’s NCAA Tournament (he was giving some of the guys in the room who had Duke on their bracket a hard time). He hasn’t played football since prep school, even though he figured he would be a football player in college rather than a hoops star. He’s a receiver this weekend.
Besides the four draft picks and the tryouts, the Jets signed 14 players as rookie free agents: Jesse Allen (FB/6-0, 247/Va. Tech); Alvin Banks (RB/5-10, 225/James Madison); Mike DeVito (DT/6-3, 298/Maine); Caleb Hendrix (DB/5-10, 185/Southern Miss.); Matt King (DE/6-3, 242/Maine); Dominic Moran (OL/6-5, 303/Western Michigan); Dustin Osborn (WR/6-0, 194/Colorado State); Leonard Peters (S/6-1, 199/Hawai’i); Brett Ratliff (QB/6-4, 224/Utah); Nick Smith (OL/6-6, 320/San Diego St.); Kyle Steffes (RB/5-11, 2-9/North Dakota State); Jason Trusnik (DE/6-5, 250/Ohio Northern); Andrew Wicker (OL/6-5, 295/Mississippi); Mark Zalewski (LB/6-2, 234/Wisconsin).
A few weeks ago, GM Mike Tannebaum looked into the camera and told all of the undrafted and available players that they should be expecting a call from the Jets. He wasn’t kidding. A fascinating mix of personalities and backgrounds are here for this weekend – and we haven’t even seen any of them play yet!!! The sad part is that most will likely be long gone when training camp starts.
Or, quite possibly, Olympic wrestlers.