Dream returns for subject of`Invincible'

NEW YORK-- Vince Papale once lived a dream. Now he's living a second dream by revisiting the first.

A substitute teacher and bartender who never played college football, he tried out for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1976 and made the team at age 30. His unlikely story has inspired ``Invincible," starring Mark Wahlberg as Papale and Greg Kinnear as then- Eagles head coach Dick Vermeil.

``It is a second dream," Papale, now a youthful 60, says of the movie. ``I've been reinvented. . . . What's great about it is I'm now talkin' to another generation."

Papale was down on his luck in the '70s, when big Northeast cities like Philadelphia were suffering tough economic times. He got laid off from his teaching job and was scrounging for more hours behind a bar . His wife moved out, leaving a note saying he'd never amount to anything or make any money.

With the dissolution of the marriage and dim job prospects, Papale says: ``I was feeling rejected. I wasn't feeling real good about myself."

For sports fans, Papale's phoenix-like ascendancy was amazing because, aside from a brief stint in the short-lived World Football League , he played just one year of high school football. He went to St. Joseph's University on a track scholarship. He was 5-foot-7, 160 pounds when he was 18. No college was going to beat down his door to offer a football scholarship. But by college graduation, he was 6-foot-2, 185 pounds.

Mostly he played rough touch football with his friends. His favorite scene in ``Invincible" shows them playing in the mud: ``It just showed the pure innocence and joy of playing. "

The movie takes liberties with Papale's story. For instance, he didn't meet wife Janet (played by Elizabeth Banks) during his playing days. They recently marked their 13th anniversary.

But Papale understandably focuses on what the movie conveys about his life.

`` They captured the true nature of what I had to go through when I was on the field," he says. ``The football action is absolutely dead-on, from the training camp and some of the shunning and hazing that I took from my eventual teammates."

Vermeil is depicted in the movie as a new coach willing to shake things up -- and take a chance on a walk-on. In real life, it was Vermeil's open tryout that led to Papale's opportunity.

`` He was a big Italian kid that could run [the 40-yard dash in 4.5 seconds]. He was a graceful athlete. He could change direction easily and efficiently. And he had a tremendous passion to play," Vermeil recalls .

That passion translated into Papale fearlessly covering punts and kickoffs. The movie shows Vermeil overruling the majority of his assistant coaches , who wanted to cut Papale.

``When it came down even between him and another receiver/special-teams player {lcub}at the final cut] we kept him because of his charisma, and his appeal to the South Philly fans where the stadium is, and then to his talent as well," says Vermeil .

Papale played in the NFL for three years. But he wasn't set for life. His first year's salary was $21,000, though that was nearly double what his last teaching job paid. In his final year, he pulled down $45,000.

When his playing days ended, he became a part-time sportscaster for a Philadelphia TV station, then was let go in a management shake-up. He wound up as regional sales director for Frito-Lay, then worked on a couple of radio stations. These days, he works for Sallie Mae and gives motivational speeches. He beat colorectal cancer five years ago and has become a spokesman for awareness about the disease. And having children relatively late in life, he sees his job now as being a ``full-time dad."

Papale's feel-good story was largely forgotten until NFL Films did a feature on him that aired on ESPN four years ago -- and Hollywood took notice.

``I just want people to like the movie, that's all," Papale says, ``and to come away feeling good about themselves and this character ."