Player goes from Camp Lejeune to Giants rookie camp

From the Halls of Montezuma to the Giants' rookie minicamp . . . with a few stops in between.

At an age when most NFL players are thinking about retirement, 33-year-old former Marine Brandon Crawford is about to take the first steps in his professional football career.

Crawford, who had hoped to be drafted by a team this weekend but wasn't, has been invited to the Giants' rookie minicamp later this week. It has been an unorthodox route to say the least, but just because he will have most of the competition bested by about a decade when they suit up for practices doesn't mean Crawford is giving anything away.

"All I wanted was an opportunity," Crawford told the Muncie (Ind.) Star Press. "This is surreal now. I'm just trying to take it all in."

Crawford was recruited by several smaller colleges out of high school, but a brush with the law made those teams rescind any scholarship packages they had on the table. After working on an assembly line with his brother, Crawford enlisted in the Marines at the age of 23. In 2003, he was honorably discharged and attempted to re-ignite his football career.

He finally landed at Ball State, where he began his collegiate career in 2006 as a 29-year-old freshman. He started all 39 games for Ball State in the last three seasons and was named to the All-MAC second team in both 2008 and 2009. Last season, when he was a senior, he was older than five of the assistant coaches on the Ball State staff.

While most teams admired Crawford's determination, not all were willing to invest in him. Certainly none did in the draft. But the Giants, who have a history of connections with the military - from naming Lt. Col. Greg Gadson as an honorary captain during the Super Bowl run to inviting Gen. David Petraeus to training camps to a USO Tour in Iraq made by Tom Coughlin last summer - decided to give the 6-3, 272-pounder an opportunity.

That doesn't mean Crawford will be on the field for the Giants come September. In fact, he might not even make it to next week. The Giants are well-stocked at defensive end (including first-round draft pick Jason Pierre-Paul) and understandably would shy away from developing a player who, by the time he is NFL-ready, could be in his late 30s. As it is, he'll be 34 by the time the season starts.

But if Crawford does in fact make it to an NFL roster, he would, according to the Ball State Daily News, be the oldest rookie in the league since 35-year-old Otis Douglas played for the Eagles. That was in 1946.