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It was very touch and go for a moment there, but for the 19th straight season Purdue football will have a representative in the Super Bowl. Only five players entered this postseason with a chance, but it helped that one of those members was with the New England Patriots. Last season Rob Ninkovich got his second ring in three years. It also assured that there was at least one Boilermaker on ever Patriots Super Bowl winning team thanks to Matt Light, Rosevelt Colvin, Gene Mruczkowski, Brandon Gorin, and Ninkovich.
Ninkovich retired though, and the other four were eliminated before this weekend. The elimination last week of Drew Brees was the most painful. Thanks to New England’s comeback win today, however, rookie Jason King will represent Purdue in Minnesota. King was an undrafted free agent that spent the entire preseason in the Patriots’ camp. He was cut on September 2nd, but in early December he was re-signed to the practice squad. Since one of the representatives on this list was John Standeford, who was on the Colts’ practice squad for Super Bowl XLI (where Kyle Orton was also inactive as the Bears 3rd QB), it counts.
So congrats to Jason, as he will get a very good shot at a ring. I am also glad he made it because Purdue technically could have had a representative had the Vikings not gotten blown out tonight.
Darrell Hazell is their receivers coach.