15, 2022.ĭolegala dressed for two CFL games in 2022, making one start, and is now competing for the No. He subsequently spent time with the New England Patriots, Green Bay Packers and Miami Dolphins before signing with Saskatchewan on Feb. In 2020, Dolegala was among the Bengals’ final cuts. He was on Cincinnati’s 53-man roster throughout the season that followed. He’s nice.”ĭolegala secured an NFL job - an especially impressive feat for an undrafted rookie - after throwing for 254 yards in the Bengals’ 2019 pre-season finale. “That boy looked good,” Bengals running back Joe Mixon told John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer on June 13, 2019. The NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals took notice, signing Dolegala in late April of 2019. Over four years as the starter for the Central Connecticut Blue Devils, he established school all-time records for passing yards (8,129) and aerial touchdowns (48). Then he was off to Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn. In one season of prep-school football with the Milford Falcons, he threw for 2,276 yards and 20 touchdowns in 11 games. I’m just very, very blessed to be out here.”Īn earlier blessing was a stop in New Berlin, N.Y., home of Milford Academy. “My mind was all over the place when that happened, so I never take a day for granted. I was like, ‘Am I going to play football again?’ “There was a minute where I wouldn’t say I was depressed, but I was down. “I tore the labrum in my throwing shoulder in my senior year of high school, so all the big (college) offers I had from Division 1A, they all kind of got thrown out the window,” he said. Francis High School in Hamburg, N.Y., until being injured in Week 3 of the 2013 season. “I got some really good coaching back home,” he noted, “and it kind of took off from there.”ĭolegala excelled at St. He was initially an offensive tackle - his strapping size being impossible for coaches to ignore - but soon moved to quarterback. “We were meeting all those guys when we were just five or six years old.”Īround that age, Dolegala began playing football. “He did a really good job of taking us to training camps, just like this,” the 6-foot-7, 242-pound Dolegala recalled. Bemiller joined Kemp in the shrine in 2015, when Dolegala had another opportunity to meet his grandfather’s teammates from the Bills and share another football-related bond. In 1992, Jack Kemp was among the charter inductees into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame. “I heard that last year, actually,” said Dolegala, who debuted with the Green and White in 2022. 1 quarterback was Jack Kemp - whose son, Jimmy Kemp, was a signal-caller with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 1996. In both championship years, the Bills’ No. He helped them win AFL titles in 19, earning league All-Star honours at right guard in the latter season. 30 at age 84, spent his entire pro football career with the Bills. “Football has been in my blood as far back as I can remember.”īemiller, who passed away on Nov. He passed that on to us grandkids, for sure. “His stories were great and he just had a great experience. “Gramps played from ’61 to ’69,” Dolegala said at Griffiths Stadium on Tuesday. The throws were followed by a throwback for Jake Dolegala.Īfter Tuesday’s session at Coors Light Riders Training Camp, the 26-year-old quarterback was asked about his late grandfather’s accomplishments in professional football and his enduring influence.Īl Bemiller was an early-era standout for the Buffalo Bills during their American Football League days.
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