For NFL Hopefuls, It's a Hard Knock Life

With training camp in full swing, the heat is on for players and coaches alike. What I find most intriguing this time of the year are the roster cuts.

One day you hear how a fourth string tight end has been cut, only to find out five days later the team has re-signed him.

It has got to be nerve-wracking to be told that you are being cut, clean out your locker, and turn in your playbook. Then you get home and get the call saying they want you back.

Each year players go through this ritual. With teams only allowed to carry 80 players at the start of training camp, coaches and general managers must make a choice. Sometimes it can be easy, but sometimes the choice can be a difficult one.

Even veterans can find themselves on the chopping block.

Shaun Alexander is a prime example. Two years ago he was the league's MVP. Injuries and sub-par performance made him expendable.

How can a player go so quickly from being on the cover of Madden to sitting at home waiting for a team in need of his services to call?

When you talk about the shelf life of players, the average is seven years.

Running backs take a pounding week after week, and it's only a matter of time when those poundings take form.

As for quarterbacks, it's amazing how the great ones play for so long, and even after their prime some can still hang on as backups.

Yesterday, I was watching the 1999 wild card playoff game between the Packers and the 49ers on the NFL Network. It was great to see Steve Young, Terrell Owens, and then the great one himself Jerry Rice run onto the field.

It got me thinking: Terrell Owens has had some kind of a career.

Catching passes from Hall-of-Famer Steve Young, lining up opposite Jerry Rice, and now at age 34 still playing the game at a high level and doing what he does. How many players have come and gone in the NFL since then?

It can be a wild journey trying to make it in the NFL. You just never know what will happen. A few have achieved greatness, a few more have left their mark, but for the rest, they were only a name on a roster for a short time.

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