There's no offseason for NFL players like Pierce
The majority save their interest for the games, injury reports and practice field gossip during the fall.
The middle of May? It's a time to recharge, beat the rust off the golf game and figure out what to do with the kids once school's out.
Not so for Brett Pierce, who like the majority of players in the NFL, is guaranteed nothing but a chance to make next season's roster.
March to August -- dead time for football fans -- is the most meaningful time of the year to Pierce.
Pierce, a Columbia River High School graduate, is depth chart material. He's the player willing to run full speed into a kickoff wedge, long snap on punts, perform on scout teams during practice.
Anything to make a difference. Almost anything to make the team.
The time for the NFL's Pierces to impress is the offseason.
NFL teams, with a few exceptions, don't guarantee contracts, although 15 to 20 players on a given team know they're valuable enough that they'll make the squad.
It's Extreme Makeover the rest of a team's 53-man roster.
As much as half a team's roster can change during the course of an offseason.
For example, of the 53 players on Seattle's roster at the start of the 2005 season, only 30 played for the Seahawks in 2004.
Pierce, a 6-foot-5, 265-pound reserve tight end, has made it the past two seasons, most with Dallas. He's hoping for a third year with the Cowboys, or another team if they'll have him.
So, while NFL fans are vacationing from their sport, Pierce is trying to be seen -- by coaches. In the weight room. The film room. Anywhere around the team's practice facility where it might look that he's trying to acquire an edge the Cowboys could put to use.
NFL players are required to attend 40 offseason workouts. For the Pierces, 50 is better. Sixty, better squared.
The coaches "like it when you're around. The more people who see you working out, it shows you care," Pierce said.
Showing up in the weight room isn't enough.
"The coaches talk to the strength coach a lot. They have a lot of influence with the position and head coaches," Pierce said. "So you better show a desire to work."
And you'd better not be thin-skinned, either. From March to June, teams stockpile players through free agency and the draft. What ends as a 53-man regular season roster -- including eight practice squad players -- is a process that begins with more than 100 players at the outset of training camp.
Pierce, Dallas' third tight end a year ago, will be one of about eight tight ends Cowboy coaches look at during mini-camp later this month and training camp in July.
The draft didn't bring good news to Pierce when Dallas selected Notre Dame's Anthony Fasano during the second round.
"He's going to play next year regardless. Your first and second-round picks play; they have to," Pierce said. "So that pushes me down one more level."
If there was any comfort for Pierce during the offseason, it's that the Cowboys are looking at using two-tight end sets next season. That means Dallas could place four tight ends, perhaps even five, on its 2006 roster.
Where Pierce stands in the Cowboys' pecking order, he's not sure. Having a coach like the secretive Bill Parcells doesn't help.
"He's infamous for not letting people know," Pierce said.
Planting roots in the community is a gamble for someone like Pierce. For living quarters, he rents a room from one of the Cowboys' team doctors, rather than lease a condominium or buy a house.
"Tomorrow, I could be gone," Pierce said.
The insecurity doesn't bother Pierce. He's willing to risk the instability for an opportunity to make an extraordinary paycheck and play a sport he loves.
"I don't sit down and worry about it, because in the end, it comes down to whether you can play or not," Pierce said.