Gaffney has grabbed the spotlight again

FOXBOROUGH -- It was crunch time and you don't easily forget the details of such a situation when you're a football lifer.

Six years later, Steve Spurrier hasn't.

"We're losing, 23-20, at Tennessee, we haven't been doing much at all, and we're down at about the 4-yard line," said Spurrier, his University of Florida Gators staring at a clock that showed fewer than 20 seconds to play. In Knoxville, Tenn., they turn out in full force, so there were more than 108,000 people screaming as the Gators huddled near the sideline.

"I'm making up a play and I call for a 'little hitch' in the end zone. I looked at him and said, 'Jabar, you take it,' " and all these years later, Spurrier has no qualms about what he had done at that instant.

"I put him on the spot."

It is where Jabar Gaffney wanted to be, so when he made a sliding catch of a quick dart thrown by Jesse Palmer, absorbed hits by a couple of Volunteers, and held on for the dramatic victory, the freshman had landed on more than a spot.

"That game put him on the map," said Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Lito Sheppard, Gaffney's teammate at both the University of Florida and Raines High School in Jacksonville, Fla. "Once he made that catch, he took off. I have to tip my cap to Coach Spurrier for giving Jabar a chance."

More accurately, Spurrier deserves credit for giving Jabar not just one chance, but a second one, and having watched what he did with it in two high-octane seasons in Gainesville, Fla., well, it's hardly a surprise to see what has taken place the last two weeks of the NFL playoffs, another second chance gone well for Gaffney.

"I'm obviously very proud of him," said Spurrier from the University of South Carolina, where he recently completed his second year as coach. "I was out recruiting a wide receiver over the weekend and conveniently all I had to do was hold up the front page of USA Today."

Prominently displayed was the story of New England's dramatic 24-21 win over the San Diego Chargers, a game in which two of Spurrier's former Florida receivers, Gaffney (10 for 103) and Reche Caldwell had a touchdown catch each while combining for 17 receptions and 183 yards. Teammates at Florida in 2000-01, Gaffney and Caldwell both left school early and were second-round draft picks. Gaffney went with the 33d pick to Houston, Caldwell 48th to San Diego, and if they hadn't turned heads in their first four seasons in the NFL, it is all academic now, for they are one win from a Super Bowl berth and a media frenzy that will put them in a blazing spotlight.

Crazy world, this NFL? Indeed, it is, only Sheppard isn't shocked by the 18 catches Gaffney has made in New England's two playoff games, after having made just 11 in 11 games since being signed as a free agent Oct. 9. He is not some sort of reclamation project from the scrap heap. Gaffney, said Sheppard, belongs.

"It's funny, but I always knew he could play," said Sheppard, who vividly recalls the night in 1997 his best friend made the touchdown catch to give Raines the Florida state high school championship. "What he needed was the right opportunity, he needed the right situation. Now he's showing everyone he can play this game."

In a fashion that has come to typify the Patriots, Gaffney is a hard man to find, even on Wednesday and Thursday, when the locker room is open to the media. Gaffney has talked sparingly since coming to New England, and like many of his teammates, not at all this week, but yet his story is intriguing.

The "right opportunity" and "right situation" that have come to describe his status with the Patriots seemingly had been part of Gaffney's football life years earlier, first at Raines, then at Florida, but with some bumps.

At Raines, "they had another kid [Sheppard] who was catching everything thrown his way, so Jabar just wasn't a top dog," said Spurrier. In fact, the coach wasn't even sure he was going to offer Gaffney a scholarship, at least until mid-January of 1999.

"Is that late [in the recruiting process]? Yes, it is, and I think his mother tried to talk him out of Florida," said Spurrier, who had signed Sheppard months earlier. "But Jabar had his mind made up. He was going to go to Florida."

The kid wanted to be part of an impressive family legacy, for his father, Derrick -- who played wideout for the New York Jets -- played for the Gators in 1976-77. So, too, had uncles Warren Gaffney (1976-78) and Johnny Gaffney (1978-81), and another uncle, Don Gaffney, got it all rolling from 1973-75 in historic fashion. Don had been the first black quarterback in school history and Jabar took enormous pride in that. So when Spurrier relented and offered a scholarship, the young man from Raines seized upon the opportunity -- only to squander it less than a year later.

Jabar Gaffney was a redshirt freshman on the Gainesville campus when he got caught stealing cash out of the locker room while the state high school football championship was being contested. To this day, Spurrier calls it "one little problem," but being the no-nonsense guy he is, the coach acted swiftly. He pulled Gaffney's scholarship and dismissed him from the team without having played one down.

The blow stretched throughout Gaffney's family, but Spurrier contends "they handled it in a positive manner and in no way did they blister me for doing what I did." Instead, the coach heard from his Gators. "Three or four of them came to me and said, 'We'd love to have Jabar back, but it's your call.' They got me thinking and they were right. The kid had paid a big price. He had become sort of an outcast. He had to pay his own way [the scholarship had been rescinded], but I let him walk on."

That was the summer of 2000 and when the season ended, Gaffney -- helped immensely by the dramatics in Knoxville -- set records with 71 catches, 1,184 yards, and 14 touchdowns. He worked brilliantly with quarterbacks Palmer and Rex Grossman, and alongside Caldwell (49 catches, 760 yards, 6 touchdowns). But more than anything, Gaffney won over Spurrier.

"We make mistakes all the time," said Spurrier. "But I repeat, he paid a big price. He was determined to come back. He could have transferred and gone to a lot of other places, but he wanted to play at Florida."

In 2001, Gaffney had another stellar campaign -- 67 catches, 1,191 yards, 13 touchdowns -- and so, too, did Caldwell (65, 1,059, 10). They both decided to enter the draft early, setting in motion an odyssey that has seen them get lost in the shuffle that is the NFL world, only to reemerge as teammates possibly riding a Super Bowl train to Miami.

Caldwell's four years in San Diego were quiet, but that's to be expected in an offense built around All-Pro tight end Antonio Gates and All-World running back LaDainian Tomlinson. Three months after he concluded the 2005 season with 28 catches for 352 yards and one touchdown, Caldwell joined the Patriots as a free agent.

Gaffney? His road was a bit rockier. Once considered a cornerstone of the Texans' offense along with quarterback David Carr -- both of them were drafted in 2002 -- Gaffney was considered expendable thanks to the emergence of Andre Johnson, who is one year younger. Being released seemed to be a blessing, for it led Gaffney to Philadelphia, where he figured to be teammates once again with Sheppard and All-Pro safety Brian Dawkins, who had starred at Raines years earlier. But a week before the season opener, the Eagles released Gaffney.

"He's always had great spirit," said Sheppard. "In college, it wasn't about a scholarship with him. What he wanted was to be part of things at Florida. When his heart is in it, he can't be denied and I saw that with him [when the Eagles cut him]. He went back home [to Jacksonville] and worked out harder than ever, waiting for the next team to call."

Five weeks later, the Patriots were on the line and Gaffney was headed north. Nothing he did in the regular season (three catches against the Jets Nov. 12, three more Dec. 24 at Jacksonville, five other games in which he had just one) could have led people to predict the sort of stuff Gaffney has scripted the last two weeks. But if you had, Sheppard insists he would have believed you.

"He's got great hands. He can catch, by far, better than any receiver I've known," said Sheppard. "I'm glad to see him get the chance."

The second chance, that is.

Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.