Wayne Chrebet
| No. 80 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Wide receiver | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Date of birth: | August 14, 1973 | ||||||||
| Place of birth: | Garfield, New Jersey | ||||||||
| Height: | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||||||||
| Weight: | 188 lb (85 kg) | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| College: | Hofstra | ||||||||
| Undrafted: | 1995 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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| Receptions: | 580 |
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| Receiving Yards: | 7,365 |
| Touchdowns: | 41 |
| Player stats at NFL.com | |
Wayne Chrebet (born August 14, 1973) is a former American football wide receiver who played 11 seasons for the New York Jets of the National Football League from 1995 to 2005.
Chrebet played high school football at Garfield High School, a public school located in heavily suburban Bergen County.
After graduating from Garfield, Chrebet remained in the tri-state area, attending Hofstra University on Long Island. Chrebet would enjoy a very productive college football career. Playing from 1991-1994, he set several school records, which include the single-game receiving yards record (245), touchdowns in a game (five), season (sixteen) and career (thirty-one). A four-year letter-winner, he twice led Hofstra in receiving yards, and during his 1994 Senior season he became the first player in school history to amass 1,000 receiving yards in a single season. He also etched his name in the NCAA Division I-AA record book by receiving five touchdowns in a single game, tying a record held by future NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice.
Hofstra has honored Chrebet for his outstanding college career. He was inducted into the Hofstra University Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006 as part of its inaugural class, and his jersey #3 was retired.
Despite his collegiate success, the 5'10" Chrebet was not regarded as an NFL prospect, and went undrafted in the 1995 NFL Draft. He secured a tryout for the Baltimore Stallions of Canadian Football League, but was cut after one day.
Chrebet's big break came when he was granted a walk-on opportunity with the NFL's New York Jets, who at the time trained at Hofstra's campus. His chances of remaining on the team for long were nothing short of astronomical: he entered training camp 11th of 11 on the Jets' wide receiver depth chart; NFL teams rarely carry more than five receivers into the season. In an incident that would later become iconic, Chrebet was stopped and detained at the front gate on his first day of training camp by a security guard, who thought Chrebet was too small to be a real player. A Jets team official was summoned to verify he was an authorized walk-on and could enter the training complex. With a stellar performance in training camp and the preseason, Chrebet managed to make the team's final 53-man roster, the first Hofstra alumnus to make an NFL team in three decades.
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