This feature was originally published in the football game-day program for Columbia on October 15, 2022.

by Joe Juliano
 
Grit. Perseverance. Tenacity. They are the qualities that have helped four Penn players in the pursuit of their goal of playing in the National Football League (NFL), stepping around obstacles and chasing new opportunities when previous ones ended.
 
The oldest of this Quakers quartet—offensive lineman Greg Van Roten (Wharton '12) of the Buffalo Bills and linebacker Brandon Copeland (Wharton '13) of the Baltimore Ravens—are both in their eighth seasons in the NFL and have combined to play for a total of 10 teams after going undrafted following stellar collegiate careers.
 
The youngest, defensive lineman Prince Emili (Wharton '21), who signed with the Bills as an undrafted free agent following April's NFL Draft, has discovered how tenuous job status can be in the "Next Man Up" world of the NFL. In the first five weeks of the 2022 season, he was elevated twice to the active roster of the Bills and played two games; spent one week on the team's practice squad; and the other two weeks went unemployed, including last Sunday (Oct. 9) after Buffalo released him earlier in the week.
 
Then there is wide receiver Justin Watson (Wharton '18), a three-time unanimous All-Ivy honoree, the first Penn player to be selected in the NFL Draft in 16 years, going to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the fifth round in 2018. But he, too, knew how hard he had to work to reach that next level. He played for four seasons with the Bucs, earning a Super Bowl ring following the 2020 season, and now is a member of the Kansas City Chiefs.
 
All four know how valuable their Penn experience was as they followed their dream.
 
"They prepared me just for life," Watson said. "Our strength program was phenomenal, and the coaching staff was great. I was learning to be a pro in college. We didn't have a training table; we had to schedule our own classes and make our own schedules. So I think a lot of things that they taught us to get through the Ivy League season really helped us once we became pros, and it was kind of all on your own as a professional."
 
Copeland, a three-time All-Ivy selection who was part of three league championship teams, learned much about leadership as the sole captain of the 2012 Quakers. After falling short of the 2011 title, he was determined that he and the other seniors went out on a high note.
 
"I wanted to make sure we got that competitive edge back," he said. "I remember during that (2012) training camp, during competitive periods we would implement up-downs or running or certain things, and I remember all the older guys, the seniors, getting upset with me. I knew it was for a good reason, and I think all those guys loved me and thanked me to this day.
 
"Translating that into the NFL locker room, there's a lot of things you have to make lonely decisions about. You've got to do a lot of work to stay here, especially this long. You've got to make a lot of decisions that people don't necessarily understand in the moment, a lot of sacrifices that people don't understand in the moment. Penn prepared me to be able to make those sacrifices."
 
For Emili, his success was attributable to getting out what he put in with the Quakers.
 
"Everyone knew my goal was to play professionally, go to the next level," he said. "The coaches were willing to do extra work with me, watch extra film with me, help me out with extra rehab. The Penn staff was there for me every step of the way and very important to me achieving my goal."
 
Penn head coach Ray Priore noted these four players "are a little different."
 
"They're not just interested; they're truly committed to the process," he said. "They know what they want, and they passionately go after it. It's a mindset that all four of these young men have. We've had other guys who have tried, but these four who have made it have really had that little sparkle that they were not going to be denied, they were going to work and utilize all the resources that they have—strength, conditioning, nutrition and everything else—to do it. It takes an incredible amount of hard work to get and achieve what they've done.
 
"I think all four of those young men can truly attest to being the ultimate student-athlete," he continued. "All of them crushed it in the classroom and obviously they're doing it on the field, and they did that for all four years of college. The thought process is you have to sacrifice one for the other. Those four young men have proven you don't have to sacrifice anything."
 
Penn's footprint in the NFL also is reflected by one of its own players now in the head coaching ranks. Kevin Stefanski, a two-time honorable mention All-Ivy from the Class of '04, is in his third season heading the Cleveland Browns, where he won league Coach of the Year honors in 2020. He also spent 14 seasons on the coaching staff of the Minnesota Vikings.
 
Priore says he stays in close contact with Stefanski.
 
"It's fun to watch him grow," he said. "As a player, he was the smartest kid on the field, as a freshman and for four years. His knowledge and how he's grown in his career has been great and another way for us to say the sport can be an opportunity for you at Penn. We have others who are doing things as well. I'm very, very proud at what Kevin has accomplished in his early young professional career as a head coach."
 
You could tell Watson, 26, was going places after his freshman season of 2014, when he set pass-catching records on his way to becoming arguably the greatest wide receiver in the history of the Quakers' program. After he learned that he had come close to being named Ivy League Rookie of the Year, he felt he had a real chance at the NFL, but he didn't want to share those thoughts right away.
 
"I figured that there's one or two guys every year that come out of the Ivy League," he said, "and so if I'm one of the top two freshmen this year, then if I keep improving, then maybe I could be one of those guys. So I didn't tell anyone after that first year but that was kind of on my mind, that's what I wanted to do when I was done with my four years of college."
 
As NFL scouts visited him in his later years, he liked the fact that it showed his teammates that a career at the next level was possible. He completed his senior season at Penn and then played in the East-West Shrine Game and the Reese's Senior Bowl, two prestigious platforms to give scouts one final look at his skills.
 
"Those were two big weeks for me," he said. "If you go to a 1-A school, you kind of have four years to show you can play against big-time talent. I felt like I had one or two weeks to showcase what I could do. So those two weeks, I knew they were make-or-break weeks to show that I could really play against that level of talent."
 
Watson ended up playing 40 games with the Bucs, playing mostly on special teams but also catching 23 passes, before undergoing knee surgery in 2021, his final season in Tampa. After he signed in 2022 with Kansas City, he said it was "the best my body has felt since college," and he showed it by catching a 41-yard touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes on a Thursday night against the Los Angeles Chargers.
 
The longevity of Van Roten and Copeland is admirable considering they have been in and out of work multiple times but keep grinding. Van Roten, 32, who can step in at center or either guard position, has been with Green Bay, Carolina, the New York Jets and the Bills with a two-year stop in the Canadian Football League with the Toronto Argonauts. He has played in 82 games in the NFL.
 
Copeland, 31, who has 85 NFL games under his belt, began his pro career with the Ravens, then spent time with Tennessee, Detroit, the Jets, New England and Atlanta before returning to Baltimore this season.
 
"They're passionate, they're extremely dependable, they're versatile," Priore said. "They've got the savvy and I think they're able to plug in to so many different places."
 
Van Roten, an All-Ivy performer in 2010 and 2011, said the fact that Penn brought in highly ranked recruiting classes every year sharpened his competitive edge, something that helped him as he embarked on the world of the NFL.
 
"You need to perform well and raise your game to succeed and keep your job," he said. "So that starts your freshman year and all the way through your senior year and then you get to the NFL and you're a rookie. Then your next year you hear about how all these kids coming out from college are the next best thing and you go all right, it's really no different. You've got to keep working hard to stay where you're at."
 
Following graduation, Van Roten found work with the Packers where he played 10 games in two years. After being released, he spent a portion of the 2014 offseason with Seattle but didn't stick and found his only opportunity in 2015 to be the CFL. Playing with the Argonauts—which he called a bare-bones operation with minimal pay for first- and second-year players—gave him renewed fire to get back to the NFL.
 
He returned to the league in 2017 with Carolina. Perhaps the highlight of his career was playing every offensive snap at guard with the Panthers while starting all 16 games in 2018. After three years, he went to the Jets, and now is with the Bills. The secret to his longevity?
 
"I think grit," he said. "That's a word that's always come up in my career, just kind of embracing the monotony of the hard work, never getting bored with it. It's crazy to look back on my career and see how long I've played and how many different teams and different systems. I feel like I'm always growing as a player, and I felt coaches really appreciate that and that's kind of helped me stay in the league for as long as I have."
 
Copeland also has persevered throughout his career. He has played a full 16-game NFL schedule in four different seasons. Although he didn't have a job when the 2022 season began, he was signed by the Ravens to their practice squad in Week 3 and played in the next three games. He said the key is staying strong mentally.
 
"I was on the street, or the couch as they say, since last season," Copeland said. "Then I got called here, signed on a Wednesday and ended up playing that Sunday.
 
"The journey is not for the faint of heart. To sum up the journey, the NFL is a business. While you want to take decisions personally, you've got to understand that this is a business and there are certain decisions made that are above you. So you need to stay strong and secure mentally and know that you can play this game, so that when you get your opportunity you can take full advantage of it."
 
Copeland has returned to Penn in the off-season to teach a course about financial literacy that he has dubbed "Life 101." He also is part of a new "Shark Tank"-style real estate show called "Buy My House" that debuted last month on Netflix.
 
Emili, 24, continues to fight for his dream. In addition to being on and off the Bills' roster, he has gone through workouts with the Los Angeles Raiders and the Cleveland Browns. He said the uncertainty has "forced me to just have faith in what God has in store for me," and that the key is to maintain his patience and focus.
 
"Patience is everything," he said. "It's what will allow your discipline and your motivation to not run dry. You can stay locked in and focused for one week, and then after that week you don't get phone calls and you wonder, 'What am I doing all this for? Am I wasting my time?' But you have to keep going forward toward your goal, so I'd say patience is paramount."
 
No one said it would be easy, but the Quakers who aspire to the NFL continue to persevere.