Ever wonder what it would be like to play alongside Terrell Owens, the big talent with the big mouth who is now playing pro football with the Buffalo Bills?
Well, Nick Hennessey ’09, who is in training camp with the Bills after signing a free-agent contract, can tell you.
“I’ve met him and had lunch with him one day. T.O’s quiet around the dressing room, nothing like he’s perceived to be,” Hennessey told The Salem News newspaper. “He has a reputation and all that stuff, but I haven’t seen any of that. He just goes about his business like any other guy in the room.”
Hennessey, an offensive tackle who weighs in at about 300 pounds, is hoping to make the team as it practices at St. John’s Fisher in Rochester, N.Y.
It’s still early, although there has been one positive sign: Hennessey got on the field for one series, the final one, in the team’s first preseason game vs. Tennessee, then played the entire fourth quarter of a 27-20 victory over Chicago in the Bills’ most recent exhibition.
While at Colgate, Hennessey was the first Patriot League player since 2004 to earn consensus All-America honors.
During this past season, Hennessey was named to the four major All-America teams: Walter Camp, Associated Press, American Football Coaches Association and The Sports Network. He was also named to the College Sporting News Fabulous Fifty All-Star and ECAC All-Star teams, and played in the third annual Texas vs. the Nation Collegiate All-Star Bowl.
Hennessey, of Danvers, Mass., started 34 straight games for the Raiders. Now, he’s hoping for a chance to stick with the Bills and keep playing with Owens, who he said seems like a “regular guy.”
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