Undrafted free agents are not supposed to make waves in the NFL — especially when they’re 5-ft 10in tall.
When Wayne Chrebet joined the New York Jets out of Hofstra in 1995, he didn’t want to get his own apartment in case he was swiftly cut.
GettyChrebet defied the odds as an undrafted prospect[/caption]
The team’s practice facility was on his alma mater’s campus at that time so he crashed on a college friend’s couch.
Fortunately, head coach Rich Kotite had seen something in the young wideout and pulled him aside for a chat.
“He came up to me and said, ‘Wayne, you gotta go find a place.’ I kind of looked at him, confused, and then he said, ‘I have a feeling you’re gonna be around a while.’” Chrebet wrote in The Players’ Tribune.
He ended up spending what he calls ‘the best 11 years of my life’ on Gang Green.
Chrebet finished his career with 580 receptions for 7,365 yards — not bad for an undersized 188lb receiver who, by his own admission, ‘wasn’t exactly a burner.’
By the time he retired in 2005, he was second in franchise history for catches — playing with 13 different quarterbacks, four head coaches, and two owners.
The second of those, Woody Johnson, saw him enter the Ring of Honor in 2014 and Chrebet remains a regular fixture at games.
During his career, another passion emerged for the criminal justice graduate from Garfield, New Jersey.
“I watched more CNBC in the locker room than ESPN,” he said via Player Engagement. “I was intrigued by the market and I would talk to other players about it.”
Chrebet, who earned $22 million in NFL contracts with his hometown Jets, became a financial advisor and in 2015 joined Stifel Financial Corp from Barclays.
Per Business Insider, the six-person team he was involved in oversaw $2 billion in assets.
“I was careful with my money,” said Chrebet, who was told to put money aside by former coach Bill Parcells.
“But I had three years left on my contract when I had to retire so when suddenly those checks stopped, that was a shock. You definitely have to change your lifestyle and you can’t do impulse buying.
“And, at some point you have to cut people off. I was taking care of a lot of people. There were things I was doing that I advise players now not to do.
“You want to help people if you’re in a better situation, but you’ve got to be careful because at some point the checks are going to stop coming. You gotta know when to say when.
“There were people I helped out and then at some point I had to say, ‘I can’t help you anymore,’ and they told me I was a bad person, but I had paid their mortgage for 10 years. They get a sense of entitlement.”
Chrebet wants to help players understand how to better plan for the future and not fall into the trap of burning through all their money.
“Players get paid 17 weeks out of the year. You have to learn to budget the other 35 weeks,” he explained.
“And a lot of guys don’t know how to budget. And then for the other 35 weeks they see it go down and down and down. You can set up your account to get checks during the offseason. You don’t want to be morbid and say your career could end tomorrow, but it could.”
Chrebet has also been involved in horse racing, once owning as many as 15 steeds, and looks for similar qualities to those he displayed on the field in his stable.
“Most of the horses I have owned are warriors. They never give up, and they do whatever it takes to win,” he said after his stallion Whittingham was retired after winning 36 races.
After playing alongside new Jets head coach Aaron Glenn, Chebret thinks Johnson has got the right man to snap a 14-season playoff drought.
“I know it sounds silly, but I couldn’t sleep last night,” the 51-year-old told team reporter Eric Allen after the hire was confirmed.
“I’m so excited that Aaron got the job for multiple reasons. I could talk about him as a friend, as a teammate, as so many things that we’ve been to together, and to start as a scout and come back here as a head coach, and to know what it means to win New York, it’s just something I wanted to be a part of it.
“And I was looking at him today and reminiscing and it brought back great memories. And just from listening and talking to passion, talking about his faith and his family and everything like that, I just couldn’t be happier that he’s the new coach of the New York Jets.”
Stay up to date with the latest from across the NFL via our talkSPORT Facebook page, and subscribe to our Endzone YouTube channel for news, views and exclusive interviews as we build up to the NFL Draft.
