Before the Brown football team visited Penn in the fall, Penn senior linebacker Travis Belden shared some opinions of the Bears' star senior wideout, Chas Gessner.
"Those are the guys you like to see get their helmets knocked off or their legs broken," Belden told The Daily Pennsylvanian on Nov. 1.
Imagine what Belden thinks about Gessner now. The former Brown star beat out recent-Penn graduate Rob Milanese for a spot on the New England Patriots roster entering training camp.
Milanese was released by the Pats on July 18 while Gessner is still with the team. Milanese could not be reached for comment.
While Milanese downplayed the competition angle in an interview with the DP May 2, it appeared that the two players were fighting for the same roster spot.
Both are wide receivers and joined the team as undrafted free agents in the week following the NFL Draft on April 26-27.
Milanese and Gessner each, along with wideout Carl Morris of Harvard, have terrorized Ivy League cornerbacks for the past four years.
Last season Milanese had 85 catches for 1112 yards while, Gessner had 114 catches for 1166 yards.
As a senior in 2002 Gessner had 24 catches in a single game, tying Jerry Rice's single-game NCAA receptions record. Milanese tallied a career-high 15 receptions in his last collegiate game. This past season he also became the Penn record holder in career receptions and receiving yardage.
Despite the myriad of impressive numbers these two put up in their careers, the one that probably meant the difference in the Patriots' eyes this past month was six.
Gessner stands at 6'4" tall and towers over the 5'10" Milanese by six inches, thereby better fitting the prototypical mold of an NFL receiver. Gessner also outweighs Milanese 214 lbs. to 175.
Milanese, who was second-team All-Ivy as a senior, is the only one of the top three Ancient Eight receivers to not be with an NFL team at training camp time. Morris was picked up by the Indianapolis Colts the week after the draft and is on the team's roster now.
As former Penn defensive back and running back Stephen Faulk was released by the San Francisco 49ers in May, the only representative of the Quakers' 2002 Ivy League juggernaut with an NFL team is Vince Alexander. The strong safety joined the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent the week after the draft.
Harvard, which fell 44-9 to Penn in their much-anticipated matchup this past season, tops Penn in terms of NFL representatives. Morris is joined in the pros by offensive lineman Jack Fadule, currently of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
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