Matt Kroul followed suit.
When Rex Ryan began his career as a head coach with the Jets in 2009, the rookie free agent defensive tackle from Iowa decided that would be the team he'd begin his NFL playing career with, as well.
"A couple teams called (following the Draft). And if I remember right, it was Cincinnati, the Miami Dolphins, and Coach Ryan and (GM) Mike Tannenbaum with the Jets," Kroul said. "Just looking at the roster and Coach Ryan in his first year, I felt like it was the most-clean slate, I guess you would say, and my best opportunity."
Ryan may have wanted to sign Kroul in hopes that history would have the opportunity to repeat itself.
"There was a guy that played for him at Baltimore when he was the D-coordinator, named Kelly Gregg. He was a 5-foot-11 old wrestler that played nose guard," Kroul said. "He gave me a bunch of films and said, 'That's who I want you to be.'
"He knew my wrestling background, and obviously watched my tape from college. I wasn't the tallest, biggest guy, but I could play like that guy. So, yeah, that was kind of the expectation."
Perhaps, but it would just have to take a little time. After setting a school record by starting 50 consecutive games, every one he ever suited up for with Iowa, Kroul found himself sitting it out by spending his first season on the practice squad.
While he wasn't spending game days on the field, he was still gaining experience and getting an education.
"You have the same pressure as you're that bottom third of that roster. You never know what week could be up, what week could be down," Kroul said. "But to just take it in and have a chance to learn from and talk to some vets and how every story is different, how they made it or how they became a starter or a role player, whatever they were, that was the positive aspect of being a practice squad guy. Just seeing how this whole business worked and how some guys make it and some guys don't."
The following year, Kroul did make it. Earning a spot on the active roster, his NFL debut came in the season opener against Baltimore. It was a new experience versus, as it would turn out, an old friend.
"I have a buddy I played with at Iowa, Marshal Yanda, who was on the Ravens at that point, and it was a lot of mixed emotions," Kroul said. "I was on kickoff return and goal line and some of the heavy packages, so it's quite the surreal feeling of you've had a year to kind of get your feet wet and understand what's going on and now it's time to perform.
"You only get so many chances, especially in the regular season, to play and put some film out there forever. So it's a cool experience, but nerve-racking at the same time."
Ryan called an audible prior to the 2011 season.
A one-man audible.
Kroul was the man.
"When we had the lockout, they drafted a first-rounder [Muhammad Wilkerson] and a second-rounder [Kenrick Ellis] as a nose guard and 3-tech," Kroul said. "I was like, 'Oh, okay. Well…' And I came back once the lockout was over and Coach Ryan pulled me aside right away, 'You kind of saw what we did in the draft.' And I said, 'Yeah, I saw that.' He saw my smirk and I said, 'What's that mean for me?'
"And he's like, 'What do you think about playing on the other side? You know, be the seventh or eighth O-lineman, and then still do some D-line stuff and help both ways in practice.'
"I said, 'What if I say no?' And he said, 'Well, then you probably won't be here.' So I said, 'I'll do whatever I can. Give me the playbook.'
"Coach was a defensive-minded guy, and he liked a certain type of D-lineman. But every year, there's turnover. And if I could play the position of two people, and they trust me enough to keep me around that organization for three years, they could kind of kill two birds with one stone. I think it is how they were thinking."
While learning the defensive playbook as a rookie, Kroul kept his eyes open and watched, hoping to learn from his veteran D-line teammates. When he was given the offensive playbook heading into his third year with New York, it was the same story with the O-linemen.
"I had Sione Pouha, who was the starter at nose, and Kris Jenkins was there. He'd already played eight, nine years. I feel like all the vets were good guys," Kroul said. "And when I jumped to the other side, (Nick) Mangold was right there. Our offense was very center-driven for obvious reasons. Mangold was definitely a great player physically and technique-wise, but mentally, Mangold was just on another level as far as reading pressures or coordinating the run game.
"That was the biggest hurdle for me, just understanding the mental side of playing center. You've got about two to three seconds to make about five decisions, and then snap the ball at the same time was definitely a learning curve in that first camp being a center and a guard.
"And Matt Slauson was drafted the year that I was a free agent. We became pretty good friends and are friends to this day. He was on the other side of the ball (at guard), so we were kind of enemies for the first couple of years, and then all of a sudden, we're in the same room. He was a really good help in being able to try and absorb that playbook as best I could."
Having to do so while being waived and then signed to the practice squad four times during his time with the Jets, Kroul experienced the nature of the business that isn't often discussed.
"I was kind of up and down. Even during my active year, I was up and down for the playoffs," Kroul said. "Would have loved an opportunity somewhere else to play too, but to stick with a team for four camps, for three years, that's pretty special in itself, too.
"I didn't view the moves as anything personal. They kept re-signing me, so they liked what I could do and liked, hopefully, my work ethic and what I brought to the team. So obviously, you're frustrated because you want to remain active and you want to play and you want to continue to move up, but it is what it is."
Following football, Kroul went back home to Mount Vernon, Iowa, where the work ethic he displayed as a Jet began on the family farm, Kroul Farms.
"I think as a farm kid, you're always drawn back to the farm. To what capacity, who knows? I think there wasn't necessarily a plan. But with my wife, Nicole, that's where we wanted to raise a family because we're both from Eastern Iowa, and felt like that was the next step," Kroul said.
"I think the whole agriculture experience, as far as you're a farmer, a lot of parallels can be drawn between football and farming. The consistency that you need to perform, and then the consistency of showing up every day."
The home farm which Kroul's parents, John and Kaylene, own and still live on, is about 450 acres. He and Nicole own 300 acres. And they rent another 500 acres, totaling the land they work to be around 1,250 acres.
Half of that are row crops and tilted ground where they grow corn, soybeans, and alfalfa. Approximately 500 acres is timber which they sell as firewood year-round, and pasture where they raise 150 head of beef cattle.
They raise pumpkins on 45 acres, sweet corn on 15 acres, and grow other garden vegetables on five acres, which they use to supply a Community Supported Agriculture program.
"We're pretty diversified and I enjoy just the variety that I get every day," Kroul said. "Dad is still full-time. My wife worked in the corporate world and now she's on the farm doing a lot of the media, marketing, customer relations, all the above. My brother's [Adam Flockhart] there and mom helps out daily. We all wear a lot of hats.
"And we have a little farm store that we pretty much open two weeks before Mother's Day and go all the way to mid-December, where we sell our products that we grow or make on the farm.
"We're located on a pretty major highway between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, about 20 minutes from each, so we have a good flow and get support from the community of everything that we do."
And now more than their Linn County neighbors can see what the Kroul family does. There are reportedly over two million farms in the country, and a television production company chose Kroul Farms to be the pilot episode of a docu series called Farms of America. It's about what it means to be a farmer and the various challenges they face, and aired recently on Cowboy Channel Plus. It will be shown on RFD-TV June 19.
Making their home 10 minutes from the farm in Solon, Matt and Nicole have four children: Leighton, Brady, Jacie, and Reese.
"It's a great place to raise a family in our minds. We're pretty biased, but we're very fortunate to have four healthy, awesome kids," Kroul said. "We love the community and the support we've had, not only through my athletic career, but now professional career in farming.
"We had the great opportunity to live in Jersey for a few years, and then my wife was in Denver for one or two, and to settle back in the community that really embraced us and our farm and who we are, that's probably the best thing (about being me today)."
