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."