Broncos

Prepared for cbs4denver.com by Matthew J. Buettner, Web Producer.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (CBS4/DenverBroncos.com) ― Even when it seemed as though Steve Cargile's NFL career had reached a dead end in the fall of 2005, he had options.

He possessed a degree in economics from Columbia University, granting an almost certain path to Wall Street if he so desired. He'd interned in the NFL's office, learning the ins and outs of sports administration while focusing on the league's officiating department. Many of his classmates had already achieved a measure of success in their still-nascent careers in finance and real estate; surely such a rosy, secure future could be Cargile's if he so chose.

Cargile had to reassess his dreams. His phone rang, but calls from NFL teams were infrequent. During that season, only the Tampa Bay Buccaneers expressed great interest in the services of a wide receiver-turned-safety with an Ivy League background.

"It was looking kind of grim for me because I really didn't have anything else to do," Cargile said. "I almost went home and stopped playing.

"You're in a situation where you almost want to give up, where you say, 'Forget it; I'll just move on with my life and do something else.'"

It was almost a necessity.

"It was getting to the point where finances were running low, and my family was helping me out with certain things," he said. "I actually went to live with one of my good friends, Pete Hunter, who now plays for Seattle, but he invited me to stay with him so we could both work out together, so it was just a lot of blessings and I had a lot of support during that time, but everybody backed me up in what I wanted to do.

"My parents said, 'If you want to continue playing football, we'll help you continue to pursue your dream.'"

The Buccaneers gave him another chance, signing him to a future contract in January 2006. They would release him eight months later, but his performance in the preseason opened the door for more tryouts, more phone calls -- and, by November, a practice-squad contract from the Broncos that quickly morphed into a place on the 53-man roster.

With that, Cargile had found the same kind of success that some of his fellow Class of 2004 alumni from Columbia had already procured.

"When I see my friends from Columbia, they're all doing well," Cargile said. "They're all making a lot of money in finance, real estate or whatever they're doing. It just keeps me hungry -- just to go out, perform and make my friends and family proud."

And maybe a tad envious of an offseason that took Cargile to Super Bowl XLI in Miami and the NBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas, in addition to trips to see friends and family. It was in Miami and Las Vegas that he witness his first celebrity turn, discovering that the life of an NFL player has some privileges.

"You have people that want to meet you and do things for you," he said. "It's almost a backwards world -- when you think of stuff like that -- because when you're a person that has the means of doing certain things, but you're actually getting these perks, when some people who don't have the means do do that don't get those perks.

"It's amazing ... I'll cherish it."

But such ancillary benefits of playing professional football come with a catch -- you have to keep your spot in the sport. Cargile's path to NFL stability may rest in his versatility.

To increase Cargile's potential value to the roster, assistant head coach/defense Jim Bates plugged him in at weakside linebacker throughout organized team activities, while also utilizing him at safety. Cargile thus saw double duty, lining up with the second unit at linebacker and the third team in the secondary.

"He has the intelligence to play two positions," Bates said. "Our (weakside linebacker) doesn't have to be as big (as the others)."

But the key for Cargile is not to make a full-time transition to linebacker, but to be able to swing back and forth between the two lines of defense. John Lynch held a similar role for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the nascent days of his NFL career a dozen years ago, so such work has precedent.

"I think that's a compliment to what I can do," Cargile said, "and that they have belief in my ability to play multiple positions."

But it's a faith borne in the brilliant flash he displayed on special teams at Arizona last season, when he notched tackles to end three consecutive Arizona kickoff returns in the first quarter, while also deploying as a blocker to help spring kickoff returner Quincy Morgan free for returns of 38 and 64 yards.

"This is the first time I'm coming into an offseason where I actually played the season before," Cargile said, "and they actually saw what I could do on the field."

Twenty-one months ago, Cargile could have been at a dead end. Now, he has an eight-lane superhighway of possibilities stretching before him.

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