BleedGopher
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2008
- Messages
- 60,698
- Reaction score
- 15,935
- Points
- 113
per Rand Ball:
On Jan. 2, 2005, the 2-13 San Francisco 49ers took on the 13-2 New England Patriots. It was the last game in the regular season for both teams that year before the Patriots gathered themselves for a playoff run that culminated in their third Super Bowl in four seasons.
Few remarkable things appear to have happened in the game. Tom Brady threw a pair of touchdowns. New England won that day 21-7, leaving the 49ers with a 2-14 record for the season. It was a forgettable game in a forgettable season for San Francisco.
But Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck remembers every minute of it.
That’s because the game was Fleck’s NFL regular-season debut and, as it turned out, the only regular season game he would ever play in.
He caught 77 passes for more than 1,000 yards as a senior at Northern Illinois (pictured above during that season), but he wasn’t invited to the NFL Combine and went undrafted in 2004. The 49ers picked him up as a free agent, and after spending almost the entire year on the practice squad he was elevated to the active roster for the final game of the season.
After becoming curious about the game one day while poking around Pro Football Reference, I had a chance recently to ask Fleck about it.
“I remember it was against the Patriots, the world champs. I didn’t even know if I was going to be active or not until 15 minutes before the game they told me I was going to be active,” Fleck said. “It’s a culmination of every bit of process, every extra minute you spent in the weight room, every second you spent working on your game, every person who’s believed in you, every person who’s provided the opportunity for you to be successful, it all runs through your mind. The 15 minutes (before the game) felt like 5 hours.”
http://www.startribune.com/p-j-fleck-remembers-his-one-shining-moment-in-the-nfl/419493603/
Go Gophers!!
On Jan. 2, 2005, the 2-13 San Francisco 49ers took on the 13-2 New England Patriots. It was the last game in the regular season for both teams that year before the Patriots gathered themselves for a playoff run that culminated in their third Super Bowl in four seasons.
Few remarkable things appear to have happened in the game. Tom Brady threw a pair of touchdowns. New England won that day 21-7, leaving the 49ers with a 2-14 record for the season. It was a forgettable game in a forgettable season for San Francisco.
But Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck remembers every minute of it.
That’s because the game was Fleck’s NFL regular-season debut and, as it turned out, the only regular season game he would ever play in.
He caught 77 passes for more than 1,000 yards as a senior at Northern Illinois (pictured above during that season), but he wasn’t invited to the NFL Combine and went undrafted in 2004. The 49ers picked him up as a free agent, and after spending almost the entire year on the practice squad he was elevated to the active roster for the final game of the season.
After becoming curious about the game one day while poking around Pro Football Reference, I had a chance recently to ask Fleck about it.
“I remember it was against the Patriots, the world champs. I didn’t even know if I was going to be active or not until 15 minutes before the game they told me I was going to be active,” Fleck said. “It’s a culmination of every bit of process, every extra minute you spent in the weight room, every second you spent working on your game, every person who’s believed in you, every person who’s provided the opportunity for you to be successful, it all runs through your mind. The 15 minutes (before the game) felt like 5 hours.”
http://www.startribune.com/p-j-fleck-remembers-his-one-shining-moment-in-the-nfl/419493603/
Go Gophers!!
