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Kole Ayi knows there are two sides to life in the NFL: the glamorous side and the side
he’s lived.
There’s Super Bowl excitement and playoff money and adoring fans. Then again,
there’s insecurity, packing boxes and moving bills. In one year, Ayi has had all of
them — and then some.
The former University of Massachusetts linebacker signed with the Rams as a rookie free
agent in May 2001. Not only did he make the team, he led their special teams through the
first seven weeks of the season. Then Rams management tried to sneak Ayi through waivers
for the purpose of briefly putting him on the practice squad so another position weakened
by injury could be temporarily shored up.
The New York Giants claimed Ayi, and for three weeks he was on their roster before
they, too, tried the same thing. The Rams called Ayi’s agent and said they would not
put a claim in because, at the time, they had the best record in football and hence, would
not get his rights if another team claimed him, but the Rams made it clear they would
re-sign him if he cleared waivers.
Thinking he had, Ayi was at Newark Airport later in the week ready to board a plane
back to St. Louis when his agent got a call from Nancy Meier, the personnel department
secretary for the Patriots.
Thinking it was her alter ego in St. Louis, ex-Patriots employee Debbie Pollum,
Ayi’s agent told Meier that Ayi was getting on the plane. Surprised, she said,
"To where?"
When told St. Louis, Meier informed him Ayi had been claimed by the Patriots at 3:59
p.m. that afternoon, one minute before the 4 p.m. deadline. So Ayi shifted flights, lost
his luggage and landed in New England. As luck would have it, who were the Patriots
playing the following Sunday?
Purely coincidentally to be sure, it was the St. Louis Rams.
Ayi was activated that week, and his brain was thoroughly picked by New England’s
coaching staff, as any would do in such a situation. He was injured in that game but was
on the active roster one more week before being put on injured reserve for the remainder
of the season, a situation that left him in the oddest of circumstances.
Because he had been active for seven weeks in St. Louis but only two in New England
when the two teams met again in the Super Bowl, Ayi was not entitled to a share of the
Patriots’ winnings. He received half of the Rams’ runner-up share. Hence,
although Ayi was a Patriot that afternoon, he stood to profit more if St. Louis won.
At the time, Ayi said he was rooting for the Patriots above his own self-interest,
making him the ideal Bill Belichick player. Ayi wanted the ring more than the cash, and he
got his wish. But, oh, what might have been.
"If I’d been on the active (roster) one more week for either team, I would
have gotten a full (Super Bowl) share,’’ Ayi said. "The way it ended up, I
got a full share from the Patriots for the Oakland (second-round playoff) game and a half
share from the Rams for the NFC championship game and Super Bowl. I got all those checks
about the same time. It was kind of weird.’’
What was particularly weird was that he also found a game check from the Giants in his
travel bag around that time and ended up depositing paychecks from three NFL teams on the
same day in his local bank.
"The teller looked at me a little funny,’’ Ayi recalled. "This is
not the way I dreamed it would be as a kid thinking about pro football, but I got all the
major things already. I got a Super Bowl ring, playoff money and a job. There’s a lot
of guys who would love to have any of them.’’
What Ayi also had, albeit briefly, was a new contract tendered from the Patriots, who
offered the minimum salary in June. After signing it, he resumed his offseason workout
program, secure in the knowledge he’d be in Smithfield, R.I., battling for a job with
the Patriots this summer.
Then his phone rang again.
Barely a week later, Ayi was traded back to the Rams for the oft-swapped conditional
draft choice. Once again, he found himself preparing to join the team that paid him for
the Super Bowl he didn’t play in. When he arrives in St. Louis, he won’t be
wearing a Rams NFC championship ring, but New England’s Super Bowl model instead.
Strange, this football business.
"It’s great to have work, but I wish I could stay in one place and
play,’’ Ayi said. "When I got the call to go see the personnel director
(New England’s Scott Pioli), I was stunned.
"I’ve learned that’s not the best person to have calling for you. I
didn’t see how you could get cut before training camp even starts, but I didn’t
know what to expect anymore. When he told me the Rams wanted to trade for me and he
thought it was the best thing, because New England has a lot of veterans who can play
special teams, it felt good to know I was wanted.
"But I’ve learned just because you’re wanted doesn’t mean
you’ll be wanted for long.’’
Ayi learned that the hard way. For a time last season, he was paying for apartments in
St. Louis and New Jersey while living in a hotel room near Foxboro, a circumstance he
avoided with this latest shift by moving into a place whose landlord understood why he
needed a month-to-month lease.
Ayi is not one to complain much about his fate, but it is an example of the downside of
life on the fringe of professional sports. The other side. The side that’s more real
than what you see on Sunday afternoons.
While outsiders perceive Ayi’s as "the Life,’’ that is not true for
the majority of athletes trying to hold on to their dreams in the NFL.
While the money is good, the existence is tenuous at best and temporary in all cases.
Last year, the 24-year-old linebacker worked in three different cities, began to take with
a large grain of salt everything he was told by whoever was employing him for the moment,
and shipped his belongings enough times to earn a plaque from Atlas Van Lines.
He’s been on the Rams, thought he was going back to the Rams, been paid by the
Rams when he wasn’t a Ram, felt he was done with the Rams and now is going back to
the Rams.
On the surface, Ayi has a job that will pay him the $300,000 minimum in only his second
season in the business.
He owns a Super Bowl ring, shares of playoff bonus money from two teams and another
chance to make it in the NFL.
Under the surface, he knows he has to pack his belongings for the fifth time in a year
this month without having the slightest idea what city he’ll unpack them in.
Such is life on the fringe of the NFL. It’s a life of cardboard boxes, easily
broken dreams, odd circumstances and slim hopes that tomorrow will be different.
"Thanks for the story,’’ Ayi said recently. "Maybe one of these
days you’ll write about how I’m playing.’’
Maybe. Then again ...
Ron Borges is a columnist for the Boston Globe. |
