In an interesting move, Eric Mangini is breaking out the wrestling mats for Jets' rookie minicamp this year.
Among the 51 rookies attending Jets' minicamp are Cole Konrad and Tommy Rowlands, the two top ranked heavyweight wrestlers in college. Both wrestlers are also considered gold medal contenders for the 2008 Olympics.
Konrad and Rowlands were invited to camp by Mangini, a wrestler in high school, despite the fact that neither has played organized football since 9th grade. And neither was expecting a call to minicamp....
"I thought it was a prank call," Rowlands said, laughing. "When I returned his call, it was a voice mail and it said he was from the New York Jets, so I figured if someone was pranking me, they're going to great lengths to make the joke work. At that time, I knew it was real."
I credit Mangini for thinking outside of the box, but it generally isn't good for a player to not play any organized football for nearly a decade and then jump right into the NFL. Even if these guys are superior athletes, that jump from junior high football to the NFL is tends to be a drastic one.
2 comments:
Mangini isn't thinking outside the box. Belichick already did this with Stephen Neal, who has had some success for the past two years.
Carlton Haselrig was a Pro Bowl OL for Pittsburgh in 1992 and he never played college football. 3 time NCAA HWT champion.
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