The clichéd phrase fitting some undrafted free agents would be ''under the radar.'' Then there is Dolphins wide receiver hopeful Justin Wynn. Wynn is not just under the radar. He was under the radar's underground electrical lines.
Wynn played his post-high school football at Grand Rapids (Mich.) Community College. For one season. Back in 2004.
Real life intruded for the past three seasons, but fortune brought Wynn to the attention of the Dolphins. The capricious nature of roster life as a rookie free agent -- one of Wynn's Fort Wayne (Ind.) Snider High pals, cornerback Aaron Lane, was waived Monday after getting leapfrogged by minicamp workout cornerback Scorpio Babers -- means Wynn might be lucky to make it to training camp still on the roster. But that is a long shot Wynn appreciates as a chance to help out his family, the reason for the three-season white space on his football résumé.
''What better way to lift [my mother, Patrice Wynn,] up than just knowing I can come out, work hard, play on Sundays and take care of her,'' said Wynn, 22. ``Take all the burden off of her.''
Patrice Wynn was a Fort Wayne factory worker while her second-oldest child, and the oldest of her three sons, starred as a long jumper (Indiana runner-up in 2003) and wide receiver for Snider. Justin had been scorching the local fields for almost a decade, since he and pal Selwyn Lymon -- now also a Dolphins rookie free agent wide receiver -- would ride to youth football games together.
Wynn went to Grand Rapids CC, and his 559 yards and two touchdowns on 35 catches (16.0 average), two punt-return touchdowns and average of 14.2 yards per return were good enough for a second-team All-Region selection. But his chances of adding another season and turning it into a college scholarship ended because his family was in need.
THROUGH HARD TIMES
Over the past 30 years, kids in Fort Wayne, Anderson and many other blue-collar Hoosier cities north of Indianapolis have learned the meaning of ''layoff'' shortly after learning multiplication tables. Patrice Wynn got laid off with a full house -- then-13-year-old son Julius, 10-year-old Darius (DJ) plus a daughter who had her own two kids.
''Hard times,'' Justin Wynn said. ``But I took on the challenge. I didn't want to see my mom drown in stress.''
He worked in Kohl's, a department store, and a landscaping company while going to school at Ivy Tech. All the while, he kept working out for what seemed like an increasingly impossible dream.
At Snider, two of Wynn's classmates had been sons of well-known NFL agent Eugene Parker, who wouldn't let Wynn quit without a shot at the NFL.
''It was tough,'' Wynn said. 'Eugene was always in my ear, saying, `You've got the potential to play on Sundays. It's going to happen.' I just kept going to church each Sunday, kept believing. God blessed me.''
Another positive voice came from his old friend, Lymon, who had troubles at Purdue before being booted off the team last fall. Lymon respected Wynn's persistence too much to let it falter.
''We picked each other up,'' Lymon said. ``We never lost contact. We've been talking every day, just trying to keep him up. [I'm] trying to keep him focused like he was trying to keep me focused when I was going through a lot of stuff.''
MAKING THE ROSTER
Then the Dolphins called. Wynn said he heard that someone on the Grand Rapids coaching staff alerted a friend on the Dolphins staff. The Dolphins were happy to have another receiver with some size (6-2, 190 pounds) trying to make their roster.
''You have Selwyn in here and Wynn,'' Dolphins coach Tony Sparano said. ``They are a couple of big receivers who we brought in here. It's just the big-bodied receiver that has a lot of, we think, upside and can develop some ball skills and continue to develop as we get them on in the program a little bit.''
