Southeast grad hopes to win Super Bowl ring

~ Dan Connolly has spent the season on the Patriots' practice squad.

You won't see Dan Connolly on the field during Sunday's Super Bowl.

But the Southeast Missouri State product will have a vested interest in the outcome as he watches from the New England sideline in street clothes.

A victory over the New York Giants in Phoenix would complete a record-setting 19-0 season for the Patriots.

And it would earn Connolly a Super Bowl championship ring.

"Everybody in the organization would get one," Connolly said. "It would be pretty neat."

Connolly, an offensive guard, is in his first season with the Patriots. He has not suited up for a game all year.

Instead, the 6 foot 4, 313-pounder toils in virtual anonymity as a member of New England's practice squad.

Connolly practices alongside regular roster players during the week. In fact, he does just about everything a regular roster player would from Monday through Friday.

But on game days, practice squad players wear street clothes and watch from a team box, from the sidelines or from the stands.

"Basically the only difference between being on the active roster and practice squad is you just can't play," Connolly said. "I go through the exact same practices, the exact same meetings. I do all the preparation the other guys do."

Not that Connolly is complaining. After being cut by the Jacksonville Jaguars just before the season -- he originally made the team as an undrafted free agent in 2005 -- he was happy to hook on with the Patriots.

"I worked out with them [New England] the first week of the season, and they signed me on Monday after the first game," he said. "I think it worked out pretty well for me."

In addition to the 53 players on the active roster, each NFL team has a practice squad consisting of eight or nine players.

Practice squad players are paid considerably less than active roster members -- a minimum of $4,700 per week, although that is not guaranteed from week to week -- and are not eligible for long-term benefits or an NFL pension.

But a practice squad player can be elevated to the active roster at any time, and is also free to sign with any other club at any time.

Injuries during a season often allow a practice squad player to make the jump to the active roster. It just so happened that the Patriots stayed relatively injury-free on the offensive line, and were able to compensate for the injuries they did have.

"We've had a few injuries on the offensive line, but we've got a lot of depth there, so they didn't need to activate me," Connolly said.

During Tuesday's telephone interview from Phoenix, Connolly had just finished participating in Super Bowl Media Day.

He laughed when asked if he was besieged for interview requests along the lines of quarterback Tom Brady or some of the Patriots' other stars.

"Compared to the other guys, I'd say it was pretty low key for me," said Connolly, a St. Louis native who was a four-year all-conference player at Southeast from 2001 through 2004. "But I did do a couple of interviews with some St. Louis people."

Connolly chuckled again when asked if Patriots coach Bill Belichick is as cold and humorless as he appears during interviews and press conferences.

"He's a tough coach and he expects a lot out of you. He lets you know when you make a mistake," Connolly said. "But we get to see a different side of him. A lot of times we get to see him as kind of a light-hearted guy."

As for Brady and some of the Patriots' other notable stars, Connolly said: "They're a great group of guys, a pretty humble group of guys. It's a good, close-knit team."

Connolly, who was married last February, said he has enjoyed living in the Boston area.

"I'm a cold weather guy and I like to have all the seasons, all the snow," he said. "I love the history that's in the city of Boston. The great restaurants. My brother is a chef at a restaurant there, so it's been nice to be around him."

At one time Connolly thought he might be in Jacksonville, Fla., for a while.

After making the Jaguars as an undrafted free agent in 2005, he spent his entire rookie season on the active roster and saw limited action as a backup. Media reports indicated that Jacksonville's coaches thought highly of him.

But he suffered an injury before the 2006 season and spent the entire campaign on injured reserve. That evidently set him back, and he was among the Jaguars' final cuts before this season.

"It was definitely disappointing," he said. "I felt like I had a good rookie year and I was feeling good going into this season."

Connolly likes the way things worked out, although his ultimate goal is to again make an NFL team's active roster, whether that is with the Patriots or some place else. He plans to discuss a possible future with New England following the season.

In the meantime, Connolly relishes the chance to be a part of history -- even if it's only a very small part. No NFL team has gone 19-0 through the regular season and playoffs.

"It's really exciting to be a part of this," he said.