When people tell Alex Buzbee that he can’t do something, it only motivates him to do more. The 2007 Georgetown graduate has had quite a journey since his final football season as a Hoya.
Buzbee was a defensive end for Georgetown, and he knows that football is his calling – no matter what anyone else tells him.
“Ever since my senior football season was over and I started trying out for professional teams, I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Buzbee says. “And even though there were many naysayers along the way, these people only motivated me to go further. I love proving people wrong.”
And proving people wrong is exactly what he did. Not many would have thought that with a 1-10 season his senior year, a Georgetown football player would have the slightest chance to play on Sundays in the NFL.
Buzbee discussed the series of events that followed his last season on the Hilltop. During the spring semester, he attended the Washington Redskins’ local tryout and held his own. After the NFL draft came and went, without his name called, Buzbee attended a rookie mini-camp and excelled even more. As a result of this camp, the Redskins signed him as an undrafted free agent, which meant he would partake in the team’s regular training camp. A strong summer earned him a spot on
Washington’s practice squad. He jumped at the opportunity.
“This was such a great feeling to know that I was part of the Redskins,” Buzbee says. “I thought [the practice squad] was a good fit for me at the time because I didn’t feel ready to play on the team. I wanted to work on my skills and catch up to the new speed of the game.”
After the 2007 season, Buzbee felt very confident in his professional future – the defensive end had spent an entire NFL season working on his game every day in practice against elite offensive linemen like Chris Samuels and Jon Jansen.
“The coaches were really positive after my first season on the practice squad,” Buzbee says. “I was very confident going into the 2008 season knowing that now I was moved to the active roster of the Redskins. However, a tragic injury stopped me in my tracks on the very first practice of [the 2008] season.”
Buzbee went down with a tear in his Achilles tendon, an injury that requires months of difficult rehab and strength training. Buzbee was crushed, and for a while he remained upset and depressed. But in time he realized he had to do something about it.
“I finally looked in the mirror and asked myself what I was going to do,” Buzbee says. “And then I made the decision to try and make a comeback and play football again.”
With the help of the Redskins’ medical staff, Buzbee was able to recover quickly, and he felt that he was able to regain his leg strength.
While Buzbee was rehabbing, however, Washington decided to move on. The organization signed two more defensive ends, and just like that, his spot had been filled.
“My back was against the wall,” Buzbee says.
Despite the Achilles’ injury that effectively ended his tenure with the Redskins, Buzbee hasn’t quit. He is currently living back home in northern New Jersey and trains every day at Seton Hall Prep, where he played high school football. He still has an agent, who has been in consistent contact with NFL teams in the hope of finding him a contract.
“I’m not quite ready to give up on the NFL,” Buzbee says. “I want to try one more year. I know that some of those people who are on the team, I am just as good as or better. . I want to try again.”
At the end of every season, NFL rosters expand from 53 to 80, meaning that hundreds of players will get the chance to prove themselves. If Buzbee does not catch on with a professional franchise, he plans on moving to Canada for a year and playing in the CFL. The plan would be to perform well in Canada and come back in 2010 to make another run at the NFL.
“I got one taste of the NFL,” Buzbee says. “And I definitely want some more.”
eredith Cox is a senior on the women’s basketball team and a consistent contributor to Hoya Insider. Inside Look appears in every other Friday issue of Hoya Sports. “
