The Joe Pellegrini Story

Joe Pellegrini '79 has taken a job in a field not uncommon for a geology concentrator--he is studying and moving rocks.

Except that Pellegrini's rocks measure 6-ft., 4-in. and 270 lbs. and play defensive line in the National Football League.

Pellegrini, who now thinks economics might be more appropriate preparation for the NFL, has earned a job as an offensive lineman for the New York Jets. He enters the ranks of a rare species--Harvard grads in the pros--joining offensive lineman Danny Jiggets of the Chicago Bears and punter Pat McInaly of the Cincinnati Bengals.

What makes Pellegrini so extraordinary, however, is not that the Hingham native is the first backup for one of the best offensive lines in football. The most interesting part of his story is that he has not played a down of football since his junior year at Harvard in 1977.

Why? you might ask. Was he injured? On probation? No. The saga of Joe Pellegrini's layoff begins at the end of his junior year, when Pellegrini--who also competed in track and field at Harvard--started throwing the discus at a world-class standard. He was invited to work out under the tutelage of a German coach for the next year. Pellegrini began to entertain thoughts of making a trip to Moscow for the 1980 Olympics. He decided to accept the offer to train in Europe.

Pellegrini first went to Coach Joe Restic, on whose team he had been a two-year starter, and explained his decision. He left thinking he had an understanding with the coach that he would be allowed back on the team when he returned.

The next two years helped form what it is now almost a motto with the lineman: politics should stay out of sports. Not only did President Carter end Pellegrini's Olympic dreams because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, but Restic refused to invite his former starter back to training camp for the 1981 season because of a policy that prevents players who take a year off from returning to the football team.

"It is a policy of mine because it is not fair to the many others who have stayed with the program," Restic explains.

The 1980 Olympic boycott did affect Pellegrini, who qualified for the U.S. trials, but he feels other athletes who had trained for years were the real sufferers "for a meaningless political show of strength." He had football to fall back on, or so he thought.

Restic didn't budge from his decision even when a delegation of Pellegrini's teammates went to the coach. "Mr. John P. Reardon [athletic director] told me to wait a couple of weeks for Restic to change his mind," Pellegrini remembers, "but by that time I was hurt and frustrated and just wouldn't have wanted to play."

The disgruntled athlete nevertheless graduated from Harvard with respect rather than bitterness for the school's athletic department. As far as football goes, though, Pellegrini says he regrets his lack of communication with Restic. "That's probably as much my fault as his, though," he comments. "I learned a lot under him and have a good deal of respect for him and his assistants."

Restic returns the compliment: "Joe was a very good, quick football player who could have a promising future in the pros."

Pellegrini continued training during his senior year, pausing momentarily in the winter to get married and pick up a business partner all in the same ceremony. He and his wife are in the rehabilitative real estate business of buying property and building or fixing houses for resale. The business supported him during his Olympic training, and he has kept it going. In fact, as he was interviewed in the Jets training camp on the grounds of Hofstra University, he was waiting for a call to close a deal.

It was his wife, a couple of old Crimson teammates, and a professional scout who encouraged Pellegrini to give the pros a shot. "I had always thought about it, but after the layoff, I had my doubts," he said. The Jets were one of three teams willing to give him a chance, and he reported to their training camp last summer.

Jim Royer, the Jets' Director of Pro Personnel, put Pellegrini's chances of making the team at 10,000 to one, but Pellegrini received some much overdue luck by injuring his back in last year's exhibition game against the Giants. Such an occurrence may not at first seem like luck, but it allowed the Jets to put Pellegrini on the shelf last year, and give him another shot this summer, at a time when his services were more in demand. He quickly recovered from the back injury and became a practice player with the Jets for all of last season.

After injuries to starting center Joe Fields and backup Guy Bingham, Pellegrini has become a needed commodity, though the football strike has temporarily delayed his chance to display his talents.

Layoff Helped

Pellegrini thinks that four-year layoff from football helped him "because it made me angry enough to want to prove that I could play." He adds that when he went to training camp last year he had two stigmas to overcome: being a free agent and, most of all, coming from the Ivy League.

Pellegrini need not feel alone, however. The Jets lead the NFL in one category: most players culled from the "golden eight." In addition to Pellegrini, middle linebacker John Woodring hails from Brown and quarterback John Rogan (cut in camp this year) and running back John Nitti come from that football factory in New Haven. Where they received their schooling is not lost on the foursome.

"We're smarter than the rest of the guys. We try to keep away from them," Woodring says completely deadpan.

Pellegrini adds, "The guys are great but in the locker room they all talk about how they played in the Rose Bowl or the Cotton Bowl. We like to joke that the Yale Bowl is the only bowl we got near to." "Some of the players like to tease me by saying I'm a preppy even though I was the farthest thing from a preppy at Harvard. Many others can't believe I went to Harvard." The former Kirkland House resident, however, does not think that playing in the Ivy League with deemphasized programs and no spring practices hurt him as a player. "I would have the same intensity no matter where I played. Football is football. When you put on the helmet and chinstrap and go out to play, it's the same rules and the people hit just as hard."

He looks back to his years in Cambridge with predominantly good memories. "The friends I developed on the team I will have for life," he says, adding, "Kirkland House was fun...maybe too much fun.

"The education I received and the people I came into contact with were the things that made Harvard special," he continues.

"I look back and wish that I had taken six courses a semester instead of four. Harvard is a series of events, experiences, and education that you just can't get anywhere else."

Pellegrini wants to continue that education and has applied to the business schools of Wharton, Columbia, and NYU so he can start on an MBA program in the off-season. "It's not one of those 'what am I going to do after football' decisions--I have been supporting myself in real estate since 1978, but I want to learn more," he says.

This strong work ethic has propelled Pellegrini into the NFL. His teammates have noticed it. Nitti says that Pellegrini is "one of the hardest workers I've seen in football whether it be in practice or in the weight room." Nitti, however, can't let that comment through without a jab: "Joe's only problem is that he cannot talk right. The first time I heard Joe talk he asked if he should move the ball to the farty-yahd line--the whole team fell over laughing."

Rogan added: "Joe's a great competitor but being from Harvard he just doesn't know how to win--Nitti and I are trying to teach him."

Nevertheless, Pellegrini says he is having more fun playing football than ever before. "The ideals of college football are fine where everyone makes the squad," he says, "but there is something special about fighting for a job."

And pro football has turned out to be simpler, too.

"I understand the Jets' offense ten times more than I understood the Multiflex," Joe Pellegrini says. "Maybe that's because it's now my job, so I had better know it."