05/15 — Jared Newberry wasn't one of the newsy stories at the recently concluded weekend rookie minicamp, but he caught the coaching staff's eye since he was one of five tryout players at the camp to be signed and the only one of the five with pro experience.

The linebacker spent time on three NFL teams' practice squads, with the 49ers last year and in 2005 with the Titans and Patriots. So of course with the Pats he first met Jets head coach Eric Mangini. Indeed, he's another one of those Core Jet Values guys.

"J-New" was a senior captain for both his high school team, DeLaSalle High in Minneapolis, and his college team, Stanford. In fact, the 2004 Cardinal media guide said that as a DeLaSalle senior, "he played every position on offense, except quarterback," and at Stanford he continued that versatility by playing ILB and OLB as well as some fullback as a freshman.

He has sung in choir. His grandfather and two great-uncles played in the Negro Leagues.

He said when he played football as a kid, he pretended to be Junior Seau. If he makes it to opening day, and if Seau does, too, the two could be on the same Meadowlands field in the Jets-Patriots opener Sept. 9.

That's a longshot. But as Newberry has said, "Anything worthwhile is worth working hard for." And as Mangini said related Sunday about longshots in general and a QB named Jay Fiedler in particular:

"At one point, an NFL coach told Jay to get on with his life's work, but he didn't let the dream die and he played a lot of good football. I think these [tryout] guys, if this is their passion and their dream, they should pursue it and we'll try to give them as much feedback as we can to help them with that."

Article: Five Tryouts Signed, Four Sent Home