"I'd like to see him go up to Canada and play," Restic said last week. "The important thing now is that he play this year--it will really hurt his chances if he has to sit out a year because right now he's feeling he can make it as a quarterback. And I think he can."

As a last resort, Crone says that he will consider playing with several of his former teammates, including former quarterback rival Rod Foster and halfback Ted DeMars, with the New England Colonials.

Just the fact that Crone did so well in an NFL training camp will help boost the reputation of Harvard football with the pro teams who may be reluctant to take a chance on Crimson players, Restic says.

"I'm getting the impression that we have a lot of people with good pro potential here. I think that many of our guys are starting to assess things and decide that they can play football and get some good money before going to grad school," Restic said.

In the event that Crone doesn't sign with another football team for this season, he says that he will find a job and apply for admission to business school.

Looking back at Harvard and his Crimson football career, Crone says that it is too early for him to tell if he would choose the same path if he had to do it all over again. Naturally, any football player with professional aspirations is at a disadvantage if he chooses to attend Harvard. The program here is not as intense, nor is the sport taken as seriously as at the big football schools.

"The biggest problem is that it's really hard to get drafted as a high pick if you're coming out of Harvard--you've got to have fantastic statistics. If you're one of the top five draft picks pro teams will give you a long look, but if you're not, they don't let you make any mistakes."

Few people will claim that he was drafted because of "fantastic" statistics. Crone, the only Ivy League quarterback picked by the pros in the draft last year, finished seventh in Ivy League passing last year, completing the lowest percentage of passes and throwing the most interceptions enroute to breaking the Harvard career interception record. He also ran 56 times for 140 yards.

By any standards, Harvard has had some superb athletes in the past, many of whom have had excellent potential in professional sports. Eric Crone will not be remembered as Harvard's greatest football player--for all his potential, his Crimson career was spotty--but he has certainly demonstrated that he, and a lot of other Harvard gridiron heroes who have chalked up even more impressive statistics, can play with the "big boys." When they want to.