Another Mountain Climbed For Holley
July 21, 2009
By Turner Walston Holleywood has arrived in Dallas. Last night on Spike TV's 4th and Long with Michael Irvin, it was revealed that Jesse Holley had captured an invitation to training camp with the Dallas Cowboys. Over the course of 10 episodes, countless drills, scrimmages and live games, the former Tar Heel rose to the top of 12 competitors - six wideouts and six defensive backs - to win the Cowboys jersey. Each of the players vying for the tryout had their own unique backstories. Some had played in the Canadian Football League. Others came from Arena Football, which has suspended play in 2009. Holley was labeled as a `former basketball star,' on the show, from his two seasons moonlighting as a reserve for Roy Williams' Tar Heels. He said all of the participants had labels that they had to overcome. "Everybody had to be categorized as something," he said. "People that know Jesse Holley, and see what I can do on the football field know that basketball is something I did, but football is something I do." Spike TV highlighted Holley's outspoken personality. The network's promos for the show featured him screaming "He can't guard me!" after scoring a touchdown in a scrimmage. "Some of those guys felt that I talked too much," Holley said of his competition, "but I always felt that if you can back it up, you can say what you want." Tar Heel fans will remember him imploring ESPN's Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso to "break a pencil in three and chew on it, because we beat Miami when everybody said we couldn't," in 2004. It was that very personality that earned him a shot in the first place. Kevin Best, director of football communications at UNC, received a phone call last summer from a show staffer looking for a player with a good personality that had just missed the NFL. "The casting director said that Kevin gave him one name, and one name only, and that was my name," Holley said. "I have to give a huge, huge thanks to Kevin Best for even keeping me in mind, two years after I'm out of school."
Since taping the show, Holley has been back and forth between Dallas and Chapel Hill preparing for training camp. "I'm really trying to grasp everything that I can on the offense, and continuing to work hard to get in shape and get physically ready," he said. Holley recognizes that upon entering training camp, he may have a target on his back coming directly from a reality show. "For guys who think that I'm just a joke, or a gimmick, or a guy from TV, they'll line up against me or next to me and see how hard I work and see that I am truly what I say I am." Current Cowboys Jonas Seawright and Gerald Sensabaugh played with Holley at Carolina (for more on Holley's thoughts on the '09 Tar Heels, follow the THM Twitter page) and are aware of his abilities, he said. "For those guys who don't know, trust me, they'll quickly find out." Beating 11 guys for a training camp spot was difficult, but making the Cowboys' 55-man roster will be even tougher. "It's definitely an uphill battle," Holley said. "But I've overcome greater odds. My life story is how I've continuously overcome odds. This is just another stepping stone, another mountain to climb." Full episodes of 4th and Long can be viewed at http://www.spike.com/show/31809 Turner Walston is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter. |
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