Chris Hogan's Rare Path To NFL Started At Penn State
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- 12 receptions for 147 yards and three touchdowns. 28 tackles and three interceptions.
One season.
That's the entirety of Chris Hogan's college football career.
Now, six years later, Hogan is a key contributor on the Super Bowl 51 bound New England Patriots. In fact, the 6-foot-1-inch, 220-pound wide out led all receivers in the AFC Championship game with a career-high nine catches for 180 yards and two touchdowns.
Hogan, 28, grew up in Wyckoff, New Jersey. He was a two-sport star in football and lacrosse at Ramapo High School and chose to pursue lacrosse at Penn State University.
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"It was tough,'' Hogan said via The Boston Globe in June. "I loved playing both sports. When it came down to it, I felt Penn State was an amazing school. I loved the campus. And it was an opportunity to help build a rising [lacrosse] program. It was tough, but I've never regretted my decision at all.''
After three seasons of playing PSU lacrosse (first-team All-ECAC and captain as a senior), Hogan graduated in 2010 with one more year of sports eligibility due to an ankle injury that keep him sidelines during his sophomore season.
"He certainly played lacrosse like a football player,'' former Nittany Lions coach Glenn Thiel told The Boston Globe. "He was very physical and he was such an athlete. Physically, he could just overwhelm lacrosse players.''
With one more year of college sports eligibility remaining, Hogan went to Monmouth University, where he played wide receiver and cornerback and accumulated those aforementioned NCAA Division 1 FCS college football stats.
After bouncing around practice squads between the 49ers, Giants, and Dolphins as an undrafted free-agent, Hogan ended up with the Buffalo Bills in 2012.
Hogan caught 87 balls in three seasons on the field with the Bills and on March 10, 2016, as a restricted free-agent, he signed a three-year offer sheet with the Patriots for $12 million ($7.5 million guaranteed).
Now Hogan will take the field alongside, arguably, the NFL's greatest quarterback ever in Super Bowl 51 on February 5th in Houston, Texas. Tom Brady will go for his quarterback record fifth Super Bowl ring.
Hogan just wants his first.
