From JMU to NFL, Jordan trying to prove he belongs

PHILADELPHIA

What do these NFL big names Terrell Owens, Jared Allen, Brian Westbrook and Tony Romo - have in common besides their big names?

None played college football at its highest level. That's no huge deal; neither did Walter Payton or Jerry Rice. But it's a timely reminder that the NFL's woods are always full of guys from what we still know as Division I-AA.

The people who run pro teams need no reminding if you can play, you can play. Akeem Jordan can play. The linebacker out of I-AA James Madison University is one of the smaller names, though. Maybe that will change.

Jordan, in his second year with the Philadelphia Eagles, is working like mad to make it happen. Right now, he's the only former JMU player in an NFL camp. And last year, Jordan became the first ex-Duke to start an NFL game since 2000.

"I came in here last year with the attitude, don't go home saying I could've done something differently," says Jordan, a 23-year-old from Harrisonburg who grew up in JMU's shadow.

"If it called for me to jump over somebody to make the tackle, well, I didn't want to be sitting at home saying, 'Aw, I could've done this or that to make the team.' "

So Jordan jumped early, often and conspicuously.

A practice-team player early, Jordan was promoted to the "varsity," so to speak, in late October. He participated in nine games, yet still wound up fourth in special-teams points, as calculated by the Eagles' particular measurements.

Tuesday, as the Eagles' prepared for tonight's preseason game at the New England Patriots, Jordan, 6-foot-1 and 230 pounds, was listed as the Eagles' backup weak-side linebacker.

And he was discussed by his position coaches as a man in a hurry.

"He's just a guy who knows how to play football," said Rory Segrest, Philadelphia's special-teams coordinator. "He ends up in the right spot, he takes coaching well, he always has a high motor and does things the way you ask him to do it.... He could do a great job for us."

According to Jim Johnson, the Eagles' respected defensive coordinator, "We have three starting linebackers, but he's right in there as the No. 4 - and he could be No. 3 at any time... with one injury. I have a lot of confidence in him."

That would be music to Jordan's ears if he lifted his head long enough to hear it. Not a chance. Jordan's arrow may be headed north, but he's barely a year removed from being an undrafted free agent.

His roots are humble, if not his ambition.

"I was just trying to be one of those guys who made it to a camp," says Jordan, who in part chose JMU - larger schools asked him to attend prep school first, he says - to be near his daughter, now 7.

"Anything could change. I wouldn't say I was confident. I mean, I'm still trying to make the team. I have to go out everyday and perform to the best of my ability."

Jordan set a significant bar at JMU. He was the Atlantic 10's Defensive Player of the Year as a senior, as well as runner-up for the award given to I-AA's top defender.

In the Eagles' last game of 2007, a victory over Buffalo, Jordan played up to his resume. He started at linebacker and made 14 tackles - and chipped in five more on special teams.

It was a good place to start. Now, the building continues. For if the Eagles are to regain a perch atop the daunting NFC East - an 8-8 record put them in the cellar last year - an unheralded linebacker from Harrisonburg could have something to say about it.

"I knew playing in the NFL was gonna be hard, but it's even harder than I thought," Jordan says. "I've been in the system a year, and I have better study habits, so it's kind of easier.

"But basically, you're here all day, then you go home and you gotta study more. It's really an all day, every day thing. But it pays off in the end."

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518 or tom.robinson@pilotonline.com