NBCSports.com
Nick Zaccardi
Johnny Quinn, a former offseason wide receiver with the Buffalo Bills and Green Bay Packers, is the latest football player to make a U.S. Olympic Team.
Quinn was named as a push athlete on the USA-2 four-man sled Sunday night.
He signed with the Bills as an undrafted free agent out of North Texas in 2007 and was cut three days before training camp. He played in four preseason games with the Packers in 2008, catching four passes for 32 yards, before being cut.
He played in the Canadian Football League with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2009, tearing an ACL in the last game of the regular season. The Roughriders lost the Grey Cup, 28-27, to the Montreal Alouettes on a time-expiring field goal.
Quinn rehabbed at four-time Olympic champion sprinter Michael Johnson‘s athletic performance center in his native Texas but was cut by the Canadian team nonetheless.
“My football career didn’t go the way I anticipated,” said Quinn, who also sprinted on the North Texas track team. “I knew I still wanted to compete. They look for former football players with a track background [in bobsled].”
His football agent doubled as the agent for 2002 Olympic silver medalist bobsledder Todd Hays, a fellow Texan and converted college football player. Quinn began bobsledding in the 2010-11 season and became a regular member of U.S. driver Nick Cunningham‘s four-man crew this season.
“I’ve been on the other side of the fence when you get your name not called,” Quinn, 30, said. “I’ve learned getting cut three times that life moves on. I am very pleased, though, that my name was called and I get to represent the United States.”
Johnny Quinn (right) takes part in the traditional bike ride at Packers training camp. (Getty Images)
The only NFL player to previously compete in a Winter Olympics was Herschel Walker, according to sports-reference.com. The Heisman Trophy winner finished seventh in two-man bobsled in 1992.
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