Description:
The astonishing thing about wide receiver Wayne Chrebet's young career with the New York Jets has nothing to do with his 75 catches in 1998 or his 18 career TDs going into the 1999 season. It's that he has a career in the NFL at all. Chrebet is the prototypical sports overachiever, the guy who's told at every stop that he's too small, too slow, too this, too that, but his secret is he never listens. He just goes out and proves them wrong. A standout football and basketball star in high school, no major college took notice. At Division 1-AA Hofstra College, he caught five TD passes in his final game to tie one of Jerry Rice's records, and the pros turned the other cheek. "I just wanted a chance," Chrebet writes poignantly. "I'm the kind of guy, if you give me a crack, I'm going to turn it into the Grand Canyon." On draft day, no cracks appeared. Chrebet stared at the TV in agony as, round after round, team after team passed him by. Inconceivably, he watched a receiver who missed the entire college season with a broken leg get the call--"At least I have two healthy legs here"--while his own phone is ominously silent. "None of them thought I was good enough." Which, in all good prototypical-sports-overachiever tales, is just what Chrebet needs for inspiration and incentive. At last, the sad-sack Jets--perfect irony for Chrebet, a lifelong Giants fan--leave the door slightly ajar, and the rest is history. Of the receivers who entered the NFL in 1995, including the 31 draftees, Chrebet's stats put him second. His team, after years in the doldrums, is a contender again. "If you're given the opportunity," he stresses, "you might as well take advantage of it." Every Down, Every Distance is a nice example of what can happen when you do. --Jeff Silverman
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