"Finishing my degree is the main thing. I have a year left. If I can take care of a couple of incompletes, it will be less than that. But it will be good to be around football again. I was starting to miss it." (HSA)
About how he will receive a tuition waiver as a student manager and be allowed to offer advice to the receivers, Lelie said:
"I definitely want to help the team out." (HSA)
HSA Note: "Lelie, who joined the Warriors as a non-scholarship player, had a record-setting collegiate career. The Denver Broncos selected Lelie with the 19th pick in the first round of the 2002 draft, the highest selection of a UH player. In 2002, he led AFC rookies in receiving yards (525). Two years later, he topped NFL receivers with an average of 20.1 yards per catch. But in 2006, he staged an infamous holdout, skipping the Broncos' organized team activities and being AWOL for training camp. At issue was not money -- although missing mandatory training camp forced him to pay back an option bonus -- but his demotion to the second string. During the holdout, Lelie refused to take calls from friends, even forwarding former UH coach June Jones' inquiries to voice mail. He eventually forced a trade to the Atlanta Falcons, triggering the spiraling of a reputation that eventually led to unproductive stops with the San Francisco 49ers, Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs."
About how he did not handle his holdout properly, Lelie said:
"I don't regret it, [but] I should have done it a different way. There are ways I could have done it to make it look as if I wasn't as selfish. I could have still gone to camp and worked with the team. ... I do regret the way I went about it, but I don't regret feeling the way I felt, and acting on it." (HSA)
About how his holdout set an uncomfortable tone with each new team, Lelie said:
"It was hard for a lot of coaches to get a gauge. All they knew was I was the guy who held out. The first perception of me wasn't right. A lot of guys thought I was a bad guy, a negative type of person they didn't want on their team. The teams I went to (after Denver), like Atlanta, didn't get warmed up to me until it was too late." (HSA)
About how the NFL lost interest in him when he did not put up numbers on losing teams, Lelie said:
"There are a million other wideouts. You get lost in the shuffle. I put it more on that than my ability. I didn't have too many injuries. I still feel fresh. I still feel I can run a low 4.3 (in the 40-yard dash), even today. But there are a lot of guys who can do that." (HSA)
About how he called Rolo, his former teammate, when it appeared his career was over and Rolo encouraged Mack to invite Lelie to serve as a student manager, Lelie said:
"It's time to move on. It's time to get out of purgatory between not knowing what to do. It kind of feels good to have a game plan in my life." (HSA)
About how he would like to teach and is majoring in history, Lelie said that his student manager stint at UH will serve as a "dry run" for possibly coaching:
"I've always wanted to work with kids, maybe mentoring. The first step is to get my degree. After that, teaching and maybe coaching. If it's something for me, I guess I'll figure it out this year." (HSA)
http://www.staradvertiser.com/sports/sportsnews/20100622_Lelie_moving_on_by_helping_Warriors.html
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