Raised in Howell, NJ, less than an hour's drive from MetLife Stadium, Ryan Spadola would wear Randy Moss or Michael Vick's jersey when he played in pickup football games with his neighborhood friends.
It was only a dream that someday he put on his own NFL jersey.
An All-Shore Team wide receiver, Spadola graduated from Freehold Township High School in 2009 as the school's all-time reception leader. And then going on to Lehigh University, where he'd be named first-team All-Patriot League while catching 231 passes for 3,595 yards and 24 touchdowns over his final three years. Those numbers drew the NFL's attention.
"My senior year, that summer, after I had a pretty good junior year, it was mentioned that that'd be the time when scouts would start coming in and taking a look," Spadola said. "And sure enough, scouts did come through just to kind of see where I was developmental-wise. The Jets were one of them."
The Jets were also one of the teams who didn't call Spadola's name during the 2013 NFL Draft.
"Unfortunately, even though it was kind of stated by the Jets and a couple teams that I would probably be going somewhere between the fifth and the seventh round, and they really liked me, whatever happened on their draft boards kind of altered the direction that they were going in," Spadola said.
"And after the draft concluded, the Jets, Ravens and the Colts, they were the three that almost simultaneously gave the call all offering pretty much the exact same situation in terms of a signing bonus, opportunity to play, and this is where our depth chart currently sits."
As a free agent, Spadola was now who would be making the decision about which team he'd be joining, and he chose the Jets.
"It was a combination of things, one being the proximity to home," Spadola said. "It was going to be kind of cool to have the chance to play for, let's call it, the hometown team. And then throughout that whole draft weekend, they were a team that was consistently staying in touch. That is what put the dagger in the decision."
The youngster in the receivers room, Spadola knew that if he wanted to stick around, he'd have to show the coaches what he could do. In essence, he'd have to look out for No. 1, and he did so by keeping his eyes open.
"It was a great group of receivers. We all shared and supported one another," Spadola said. "But I wouldn't say there was any one particular person that took me under their wing. Just kind of from watching all those guys and the different types of receivers that they were, I tried to take little snippets of what they were doing and incorporate it into my game."
During the third preseason game, against the Giants in the Meadowlands, Spadola had 3 receptions for a game-high 110 yards and a 22-yard touchdown in the Green & White's 24-21 overtime victory.
Following the game, he received pats on the back, congratulatory calls and texts, and an email from someone who had been in his shoes – former Jets receiver Wayne Chrebet.
"There was lots of preseason talk about myself being the next Wayne Chrebet, yada, yada. And first off, there's only one Wayne Chrebet. I think we all agree what he did in his career is nothing short of amazing," Spadola said.
"He just kind of reached out, pushing me along and congratulating me, and just kind of telling me to keep my head down and keep doing my thing and everything would fall into order. But, yeah, it was definitely cool to have a Jet legend like himself, and especially a receiver, reach out and just give me words of wisdom."
While Chrebet's words were certainly encouraging, Spadola likely wouldn't have objected to also having a horseshoe and four-leaf clover for luck since rosters had to be reduced to the 53 players who would make the team by the Tuesday afternoon before the season opener.
"On Tuesday, there were still, I would say, a handful of cuts that had to be made," Spadola said. "And even though you weren't counting, everybody who knows he's on that radar is always observing and kind of doing the math and figuring out, is it me, is it him?
"We were leaving practice, and (the receivers coach) Sanjay (Lal) pulled me over, and I'll never forget it. He wanted to be the first one to tell me that all my hard work and everything I'd done over the last weeks and months had paid off, and that I did what I had to do to essentially make the roster. And then the first people I reached out to were my girlfriend and my mom, and shared it with them. That was just a very exciting time."
After playing in three of the first four games of the 2013 season, the Jets needed a roster spot and waived Spadola, hoping to re-sign him to the practice squad. He, however, signed with Miami. And over the next four seasons, spent time on Atlanta, Arizona, and Detroit's practice squads.
A five-year NFL career, what's one of his fondest memories from where it began – with the Jets?
"Just how Rex (Ryan) ran the team. It was the only team that I've ever been a part of where the coach proactively was consistently trying to do group and team activities," Spadola said. "He was able to take what were stressful times and tough, physical times, and incorporate fun into them.
"He'd taken us out paintballing, where it was the players versus the coaches. And taken us into the city, Broadway, and incorporated what the show was that we're watching and how that could be utilized and brought into our team environment. I felt like I got spoiled the first year, expecting that's what it was always going to be. But I would definitely say it was probably one of the cooler and funner parts of the NFL journey."
Spadola's journey these days is as a project manager for a commercial construction company in Central New Jersey, Burke Construction.
"What I like most about it is every day is something new," Spadola said. "It's not kind of the cookie cutter, Groundhog Day, where it's like repeat, repeat, repeat. Every day provides a new challenge, and every day you could also see progress being made. And those are two things that I've always liked and could kind of relate to football. No two plays are ever the same, just like no two jobs are ever the same.
"And with all that, you're working with a group of people that simultaneously all work together to make sure that the job gets done efficiently, productively, and ultimately to the standards of the customer. So I think you take all the stuff that I did in football and it's kind of an easy transition to try to incorporate and move into the construction line of work."
Also choosing to stay involved in his first line of work, after Spadola retired from the NFL, he got into officiating. First at the high school level for three years, and then moving up to college football, where he's now a Division I-AA head linesman.
Away from wearing a hard hat on construction sites or a whistle in football stadiums, Spadola makes his home in Freehold, NJ, with his wife, Christie, and their nine-month-old daughter, Viviana.
"My beautiful wife and my fast-growing daughter, they both still keep me young; they keep me on my toes," he said. "And they've given me the most important job, and that's to be a good husband and a good father."
