Last year, I attended Dallas Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, CA and a certain guy in a plain blue sweatshirt caught my eye during practice on a particularly hot California afternoon because he was so good in drills. And yet, that guy, as good as he was, had no jersey on like the rest of the players. “Who is that guy?”, I asked. I was simply told, “That’s the guy who won Michael Irvin’s reality TV show.”
Yes, I am talking about Cowboys Wide Receiver Jesse Holley who was already a fan favorite after winning Michael Irvin’s Fourth and Long reality television show. Before the show, Holley had given up on his dreams to play football and was working two jobs around the clock to make ends meet. Then, he got a surprise call from Hall of Famer Michael Irvin to star in his reality show. For winning, Holley got a roster spot on the Cowboys’ training camp last year to try to make the team. He made the practice squad last year and the team this year.
But Jesse became a true Holley-wood story Sunday when he replaced an injured Miles Austin against the San Francisco 49ers Week 2 of the NFL season and caught his first passes ever in the NFL! Holley, who just a few years ago was working security at night and selling T-Mobile cell phones by day in Durham, N.C., not only helped the Cowboys come back from behind and tie up the score in regulation time but also caught a 77-yard pass on the Cowboys’ first play in overtime, setting up the Cowboys’ game-winning field goal from the one-yard line. Now, that’s Hollywood! Well, except in Hollywood, San Francisco 49’ers safety Donte Whitner would not have caught Holley from behind at the 1-yard line and Holley would have scored the winning touchdown. But, the last-second stop did make things more of a nail biter while we all crossed our fingers and toes that the field goal would go through. And no one, espcially not Holley, is complaining about the outcome.
“When you’ve got a guy like Miles Austin ahead of you, showing you the way, you just follow his lead,” said an emotional Holley, who cried several times in postgame interviews. “This guy’s out there on literally one leg. He’s making diving catches, contorted catches. If you can get a tenth of what he does out there on the field, you’re one hell of a player.”When he went down, it was next guy up,” Holley said. “I’m just blessed that that next guy was me. Coach [Jason Garrett] made a statement in the [pre-game] meeting that this [California] was the land of opportunity, and you never know when that opportunity is going to come. I didn’t see the field for three quarters and then the fourth quarter came.”
Holley’s unexpected heroics Sunday prompted owner Jerry Jones to say: “It felt good. I know Michael [Irvin] is smiling. It’s not from above. It’s straight into the TV set, but we’re both smiling; Michael and I when Jesse Holley made those plays. Michael and I are smiling. Michael told me (the winner of the show) wouldn’t embarrass me if I put him on my squad. I said, ‘Michael, you are going to get us all run out of town’. But I know Michael if there was any BS to it, he would have figured another way to do it. But (Holley) has never embarrassed me.”
“My life has been a battle, so it doesn’t change now,” Holley said. “If you don’t like competition, you’re in the wrong sport. Anybody that knows me personally knows competition makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck, and it makes my blood boil. At the end of the day, if a guy is better than me, he damn well deserved it, and he earned it.”
