File Under: minicamp, Cole Konrad, Tommy Rowlands, tryouts
05/12 — Head coach Eric Mangini's cross-training tendencies extend beyond bringing in boxing maven Teddy Atlas to work with his players and speakers from different sports to talk with them. It also has prompted him to invite in a couple of NCAA heavyweight wrestlers for tryouts to become New York Jets.
And not just any big bodies. Cole Konrad is fresh off of the conclusion of his stellar career at Minnesota — in March he won his 76th straight bout for his second straight NCAA heavyweight title and also helped the Golden Gophers clinch the team championship. He's listed as an offensive lineman.
Tommy Rowlands actually is a full-time Ohio State assistant wrestling coach who is training for the 2008 Beijing Olympics after winning NCAA heavyweight titles in 2002 and 2004. He comes in as another Buckeyes linebacker, although he didn't take the same route as Anthony Schlegel.
There are no guarantees that either athlete — or any of the other 28 tryouts at the New York Jets' training complex this weekend — will be signed after the New York Jets' rookie minicamp concludes Monday and brought back to training camp. But the experiment is intriguing.
"It's hard to say," Konrad said of his chances of becoming a pro football player after last playing the sport as a high school freshman. "Football is foreign to me right now, just like it would be for a lot of these guys if they tried wrestling. Everything's new to me. I hope I end up having what the Jets are looking for. ... But I don't think they would've wasted their time bringing me in if they didn't think it was worth it."
Konrad has one thing not a lot of young football players come to their first minicamp with, which is a slightly cauliflowered left ear, an occupational hazard among matmen. He also comes with the University of Minnesota's Male Athlete of the Year award. And the Jets have given him the smallest of cracks in the NFL door.
A Catchy Chant
It didn't take the new members of the Green & White long. As the group of draft choices and free agents made their way to their meeting rooms on the second floor of Weeb Ewbank Hall, one unidentified aspirant could be heard saying: "J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets!"
Randy Lange Said:
"Shawn, after Sunday's first practice, head coach Eric Mangini said of Tommy Rowlands and Cole Konrad: "The evaluation of what you're looking for in terms of progress is a little bit different. What I like about these guys is they are in a completely foreign environment, but yet they are not fazed by it. They are going to go out and compete like crazy because that's how they are wired and that's a great characteristic. I don't want to give anybody an edge going into the [World Championships, which both will participate in]. I think they are pretty comparable.""
Shawn Said:
Tue, May 15, 2007 - 5:48pm EDT"How did Tommy and Cole do in camp? Tommy is a freek of nature for a NCAA heavyweight wrestler, fast , agile, he wrestles like a 140 pounder. He and Cole could easily be the 2008 Olympic Champions in the heavyweight division."
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