Andrew DePaola never had a serious backup plan.
At 26 years old, nearly five years after he graduated from Rutgers, he hadn’t yet found a way to stick on an NFL roster. He began to wonder whether the years he had spent pursuing his dream would ever pay off.
DePaola sat at the breakfast counter in his parents’ Maryland home in early 2014 and pondered his future. He worked on and off at Best Buy and his family’s restaurant to make ends meet while training to stay ready for whatever opportunity might pop up. He had already spent two offseasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and been cut both times before the 53-man rosters were finalized.