SmashMouth

A football player like James McClue will find inspiration wherever he can get it.

From Delvin Breaux, he learned to appreciate the grind of semi-pro football. From a less-known player named Joe Anderson, he learned of the idea he tried Monday outside the New Orleans Saints facility.

McClue, a 26-year-old St. Augustine product studying visual arts at Dillard University, spent about 20 minutes outside the team facility Monday with a cardboard sign that read "Will (lock) down receivers 4 food!!!"



"I really want to play for the Saints," McClue told NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune by phone. "They need DB's."

The idea was similar to what Anderson did last summer, when he held a sign outside the Houston Texans facility that said he "will run routes 4 food," only to be added to the New York Jets practice squad in December.

McClue is not the first player to copy what Anderson did. A former college football player tried the same outside the Cleveland Browns facility, and the Browns asked to see his game film.

That, for McClue, would be progress.

"I haven't heard anything from (Saints) management," he said.

Nor did he necessarily expect to. A third-year semi-pro defensive back now with the Greater New Orleans Jaguars, McClue said he understood the long odds of gaining a tryout with an NFL team, let alone cracking an NFL roster.

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