When most players get released during an NFL training camp, especially undrafted free agents, that pretty much closes the book on their career in professional football.
The book on John Bock, though, is that he wasn't like most players.
A center/guard signed by Buffalo out of the University of Louisville in 1994, after he was cut by the Bills, a team 98 miles north, the CFL's Toronto Argonauts, wanted to sign him to a two-year contract.
"It was so late in their season, if I would have done that, it would've been for almost no money," Bock said. "And so I wound up taking a chance to go to the World League and then I didn't have a two-year obligation. I only had the one year and I could come back to the NFL."
Spending that one year with the Amsterdam Admirals, Bock played every snap at center and was also their long snapper.
"I was always pretty confident, but what it did was, it gave me a lot of experience. And I got a chance to be seen," Bock said. "My rookie year, I got a $500 signing bonus from Buffalo. And by the time I came out of the World League, I had 13 different offers, and my signing bonus wound up to be like $100,000.
"So I had 13 teams that liked me, and the Bills and the Jets kept going back and forth. The Jets would make an offer and the Bills would match. And then the Jets would make another offer and the Bills would match again. Finally, I told my agent, 'Tell Buffalo double the price or I'm going to sign with the Jets because Buffalo cut me and the Jets want me.'"
Having gone through Buffalo's mini-camps and training camp, a World League training camp, a season with Amsterdam, and then going on to New York's training camp, it could have seemed like Bock was always in shoulder pads.
Spending so much time in the trenches, it would have been understandable if he had been a little banged up or at least a little tired. But he was neither.
"I think I was just so fired up to have the opportunity, I didn't get tired," Bock said. "I think I played every snap in preseason or at least played into the fourth quarter because we didn't have a center other than me. I was in really, really good shape. I was probably a little light, but I played so much football that year, it was the best thing for me.
"I was a young kid just hoping for an opportunity. The Jets gave me that opportunity and it gave me a tremendous amount of confidence. It gave me the confidence that I belong here. I could do this. I could play at this level."
After playing in the first two regular-season games, Bock was inactive or did not play in the next six. But when the Jets traveled to Indianapolis for their Week 9 game against the Colts, he was in the starting lineup at center and also a little lighter in the wallet.
"I'm getting my first start and I'm in USA Today because I got my family 50 tickets for the game. I went to Indiana State, my family's from Chicago, and I went to Louisville. So everybody I knew was at that Indianapolis Colts game. My first game, I lost money. I think my paycheck was $6,000 and my bill was $7,500. It was the last time I bought anybody tickets," Bock laughed.
"(New York's quarterback) Bubby (Brister) talked (head coach Rich) Kotite into letting us use the shotgun, and Kotite goes, 'If you throw it over Bubby's head, you can hike back to Terre Haute, Indiana.' But I got my first start. And at the end of the game, probably the biggest compliment I've ever got is (Colts' veteran defensive tackle) Tony Siragusa coming up to me and saying, 'Great job, rookie. Great job.'"
Bock spent just the one year with the Jets. And while they finished at 3-13 and miles away from the playoffs, it was a journey which he treasures.
"We didn't win a lot of games, but it was a great team. We all got along. We were all friends," Bock said. "And the organization did great things. They took us all out to different things like the Ice Capades so our families didn't feel left out. The best memory of mine about New York is just the way the organization treated all of us."
Going on to play six seasons with Miami, what makes Bock most proud of his career?
"I think that people doubted what I could do, and statistically, I was probably one of the best guards in the National Football League in pass blocking. I think Sporting News had me No. 3," he said. "I played against six guys in the Hall of Fame, and just played as well as I could and as hard as I could on every play. I think it worked out to a good career.
"But I wish I could have stayed healthier. Every time I was about to break out, it seems like I got another injury. And the odd one is, my career basically ended in that (October 2000) Monday night (40-37) overtime loss to the Jets when I was with the Dolphins.
"The Jets had come back and tied it up in the fourth quarter. I was also on kickoff return and was leading the sideline on the kicker. I hit John Hall and went down. And when I went down, Laveranues Coles jumped on my back and hit me with a forearm, and it snapped my whole shoulder.
"I mean, I did everything to my shoulder: rotator cuff, labrum, broken humerus, dislocation. The surgery took eight-and-a-half-hours to put it back together. That was the injury that basically ended my career. It was a bad one. I forgave Laveranues, though."
Leaving the field, but not the game, Bock went on to become a coach in 2001.
"I helped start the Florida Atlantic University football program with Howard Schnellenberger," he said. "We had nothing but ex-pro guys coaching for Howard. All of us either played for him or coached for him with the (University of Miami) Hurricanes or Louisville or the Miami Dolphins. I coached there four years, and we were the fastest team to move to Division I. We were the fastest team to go to the playoffs. And we were the fastest team in NCAA history to go to a bowl game.
"Then I went into business and ran a real estate hedge fund. I sold my company in 2010. And then in 2014, I was the head coach in Brooklyn for the FXFL, where we won the league championship. And all my coaches were ex-players either from the Jets, the Bills, or the Giants."
Now enjoying retirement, Bock has two older daughters from a previous marriage: Brittany and Ashley; and two grandchildren: Sophie and Theodore.
"Ashley was born when I was playing for the Bills. My first game ever, (the preseason opener against Washington on) Monday night, and (head coach) Marv Levy says, 'Your wife is going into labor. What do you want to do? Do you want to go to the hospital or play?' And I go, 'Well, it doesn't do me much good if I don't have a job,'" Bock laughed.
"So they let me play the whole fourth quarter, and I have a great game. They give me the groundskeeper's 1972 pickup truck, and gave me a police escort to the hospital. And because it was Monday night, all the guys from the Bills showed up while my wife was going through labor, having pizza and beer in the waiting room."
Bock and his wife, Jennifer, who make their home in Fort Lauderdale, FL, have two children: John II and Brooke.
"They're both athletes in college," Bock said. "My son's an All-American at FIU. He's a junior center and guard. And my daughter's a track captain at Bryant University and throws the hammer. And now other than that, I'm trying to be like Jimmy Johnson a little bit. I try to fish and travel as much as I can."
