The New York Times-20080126-Reprising Anonymous Role in Another Super Bowl

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Reprising Anonymous Role in Another Super Bowl

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Giants tight end Jerome Collins will be attending his second consecutive Super Bowl next week in Arizona. A member of the Indianapolis Colts last season, Collins has a Super Bowl ring and has pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars in winning team playoff shares over the last two postseasons.

Not bad for a guy who has not played a single regular-season down in the N.F.L. since he left college at Notre Dame three years ago.

Collins is part of the Giants' 53-man active roster and practices with the team, usually as part of the scout team that mimics the opposition's offense. Every week, there is the possibility that he will be active for that game, but Giants Coach Tom Coughlin has not yet put Collins in uniform.

The drill was the same for Collins in Indianapolis last season, except that he was active for two regular-season games but did not play.

Still, he is one of only two members of the Giants to be officially part of a Super Bowl champion. The backup center Grey Ruegamer played for New England during its victory over St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI.

We call him our good luck charm, Kevin Boss, the Giants' starting tight end, said of Collins. We all know about Jerome and last year's Super Bowl win.

Collins, 25, smiles at the notion that he is anyone's charm.

I want an opportunity to play in this league and I want to show I deserve it, he said. I guess being a member of back-to-back Super Bowl winners would be a selling point.

Collins did not have any chance of playing in last year's Super Bowl because he tore his Achilles' tendon in the last weeks of the Colts' 2006 regular season. Cut by Indianapolis after its Super Bowl victory, Collins landed with the Giants and spent several weeks on their practice squad, a group that cannot be made active for a game. When the Giants' Jeremy Shockey broke his leg in mid-December, Collins was signed to the active roster.

He is not holding out much hope that he will be active for the Super Bowl on Feb. 3.

For someone who hasn't played in a long time, it would be pretty special for my first game back to be the Super Bowl, Collins said. But it doesn't look like it's going to happen that way. I'll tell you, for as long as I've been waiting, if I got to play I'd be hitting people with a lot of pent-up aggression.

Michael Matthews is the backup tight end behind Boss, used mostly for blocking.

Collins did get into preseason games for the Colts in 2006, but his last non-exhibition game was with Notre Dame during the 2004 season. Collins, who is 6 feet 4 inches and 267 pounds, has lived a nomad's existence since, typical for a pro football player on the fringe of the N.F.L.'s top tier of talent.

He was a fifth-round draft choice of St. Louis in 2005 but was waived after training camp by the Rams, who kept him on their practice squad. A year later, St. Louis cut him and he joined the Dallas Cowboys' practice squad. His stay in Dallas was short, however; a month later, he was signed by the Colts.

My assignment is do a good job imitating the other team's tight end, Collins said. Hopefully, if I do my job right, they are better prepared and I've developed my own skills, too. That's the only way I can show that I might belong on the team and get to play. I absolutely feel like I'm contributing.

Plus, I always prepare myself to play. You have to do it that way, because what if they need you that week? That's one way to stay focused -- you scare yourself into being ready.

As an active roster player, Collins will attend next week's media sessions as well as team meetings and functions. Last season, because of his season-ending injury, he was not involved in those day-to-day details.

I admit my situation is a little unusual, Collins said, standing in the Giants' locker room Friday afternoon. But I'm looking forward to going back to the Super Bowl. I look across the room at a guy like our punter, Jeff Feagles, who's played 20 years in the league and he's going to his first Super Bowl.

Here I am 25 years old and I've been with two Super Bowl teams. I can't complain.

[Illustration]PHOTOS: Jerome Collins, right, and Amani Toomer. Collins is one of two Giants to have been a member of a Super Bowl-winning team.(PHOTOGRAPH BY JULIE JACOBSON/ASSOCIATED PRESS)(pg. D1); Jerome Collins, left, with Brandon Jacobs. Collins was added to the Giants' active roster after Jeremy Shockey broke his leg.(PHOTOGRAPH BY JONATHAN DANIEL/GETTY IMAGES)(pg. D3)