Cole Konrad grappling with basics of football

It must have been surreal, right? Cole Konrad nodded.

"The whole time, I was thinking, 'What am I doing here?' " Konrad said Tuesday morning, a little more than 12 hours after getting back from participating in a New York Jets minicamp -- his first weekend of organized football since ninth grade.

Konrad's wonderment didn't stem, however, from a feeling that he didn't belong. The 6-3, 275-pound wrestler, who won the second of his back-to-back NCAA heavyweight titles as a senior with the Gophers in March, just really couldn't believe everything that was happening. Every step of the way was a "really?" moment.

Jets head coach Eric Mangini was on New England's staff when Stephen Neal, a former NCAA and world champion wrestler, started a successful transition to skilled NFL lineman. So the Jets called Gophers coach J Robinson to gauge Konrad's interest.

"J sent me a text message," Konrad said. "I kind of thought he was joking around."

But Konrad figured he could use a mental break from wrestling -- he'd been training in Colorado for the World Team trials that start next month in Las Vegas -- so last Tuesday he told the Jets he would accept the invitation. Friday, he was on a plane. By Saturday, he was playing right guard against NFL draft picks and rookie free agent hopefuls.

"I told them, 'I don't know football, so don't expect me to know anything,' " Konrad said.

The coaching staff assured him that all they wanted to do was look at his potential. And, it seems, Konrad has quite a bit of it -- maybe enough to make a serious run at football.

"I told them up front that wrestling comes first through 2008," said Konrad, who hopes to compete in next year's Summer Olympics in Beijing. "They told me to stay in touch during my wrestling career, and that when it's over they might like to bring me back in."

Three days

The schedule Saturday and Sunday started at 6:30 a.m. and went something like this: special teams meeting; offense meeting; on-field work; media requests; position meeting; on-field work; strength/stretching; then more meetings and film study that lasted until at least 9 p.m. The mental work was the hardest part, he said.

"I couldn't believe how crazy and complex the plays are," Konrad said. "And you're learning the whole play, not just your part. That was definitely the most challenging part."

The workouts, Konrad said, "weren't that big of a deal." He was a standout among linemen in conditioning drills, and while many other players were sucking wind, Konrad was wondering when the real work would start. After running the fastest 40-yard dash among the offensive linemen -- though Konrad didn't want to brag and declined to say how fast -- Jets assistant coach Bryan Cox told him to "chill out," Konrad said, because he was going to have to run 20 of them. Konrad shrugged his shoulders.

"They give you plenty of time between them," he said.

That's the mentality that has made the wrestler-turned-football player more than just a novelty act. Konrad said Brock Lesnar, another former Gophers heavyweight champion who tried out with the Vikings as a defensive lineman in 2004, advised him to work as an offensive lineman instead. Konrad's roommate during the camp was Tommy Rowlands -- another former wrestler from Ohio State who was being worked out at linebacker.

"They're going to go out and compete like crazy because that's how they're wired," Mangini told the Associated Press, "and that's a great characteristic."

Konrad, even more so than the vast majority of athletes, hates the idea of failure. In fact, he dismisses its very existence. When asked how he would have felt had he gone to the minicamp and been terrible, Konrad said the thought never entered his mind.

"When you're a top athlete, you're going to have the same mentality no matter what the sport is," Konrad said.

Having that mindset, Konrad said he is not going to pursue football unless he thinks he can be an elite player -- and not until he's exhausted his wrestling career. He understands it would be a long process, and he knows the minimum salary in the NFL for a rookie this season -- $285,000 -- is hard to ignore. But topping out as a big guy cashing large paychecks as a backup does not interest him.

"I'd go crazy," he said, "if I was the 50th best at anything."

Konrad kept some souvenirs from the experience -- cleats, gloves, and some Jets T-shirts he plans to wear with pride. If nothing else, it was a weekend he would have been crazy to pass up.

"How many people get invited to an NFL minicamp?" Konrad said. "I really just wanted to see how well I could do."

Then again, it could end up being much more.

"I think I did really well," Konrad said, grinning once again.