Byron Mulkey Earns Tryout with Buffalo Bills

In a story almost too wierd to be truth Buffalo athletics will put a thrid rookie in an NFL camp this year. Marcus Rivers to the Packers, Richie Smith will try out with the Jets and the Bills will go after.... Byron Mulkey!

Now almost a year after his playing career at Alumni Arena has ended, Byron has been given another shot to prove his tenacity and will to succeed thanks to an invitation to come and attend a training camp.

The one catch?

It isn’t with a basketball team.

The Wheatfield native has received a formal invitation to participate in the upcoming Buffalo Bills rookie camp. Though he has not played in an official football game since his outstanding high school career at Niagara-Wheatfield High School, Mulkey has been working out feverishly to transition his skills from the hardcourt to the gridiron. -- UBAthletics

The move is not unheard of Antonio Gates from Kent and Western Michigan’s Joe Reitz have each made the move from Mid American Conference hoops star to an NFL roster. But for Mulkey, who sat out 2009 so he could lead the team in 2010 Hoops overseas did not seem right. Byron had an offer to play professionally in Morocco, but after a he quickly returned to Amherst and started training.

The Mulkey Way?

While he returned to school to complete his master’s degree in higher education administration, he asked around to see if there was a way to scratch that itch, and found a supporter in his former head coach Reggie Witherspoon, who was able to get him in contact with the Bills. Though his former coaches at UB were surprised by the request, no one is counting him out. -- UB Athletics

Mulkey's willingness to forgo the 2009 season in order to help prevent a lack of senior leadership in 2010 became national news he started to put up an all conference season.

Mulkey played for Niagara-Wheatfield where he was a quarterback and defensive back . After earning an All-WNY honoree as a defensive back in 2005 he did get interest from the Ivy League. Princeton, Brown and Harvard all recruited him for football but with little in the way of financial assistance he decided to walk onto the basketball at Buffalo.

If this does not work out I'm sure the Sabres could use a little help..