Vince Papale the guy who lived the NFL dream for rest of us

In the pantheon of Hollywood underdogs between “Rocky” and “Rudy,” there is Vince Papale who remains very real, so no quotation marks necessary.

He’s neither fiction nor a footnote in Notre Dame’s overwrought mythology. Not that “Invincible,” the 2006 movie that traces his rise from bartender to Philadelphia football icon, is the whole truth and nothing but.

But it is the truth, as near as Disney allows you to it.

Any historical adjustments he can fill you in on himself come Super Bowl Sunday. He’s the featured guest at Northern Quest Casino’s party that starts at 2 p.m., where among other things he’ll probably be called upon to preside over the trivia contest.

Here’s one to get them started:

If “Invincible” is based on Papale’s unlikely pro football story as every Eagles fan’s favorite special teams kamikaze, on whom did Papale base his ambition?

“I wanted to be the next Bobby Picard,” the soon-to-be 62-year-old Papale revealed.

Now that’s an interesting coincidence, since Picard was an unlikely enough NFL story himself coming out of the school down the road, Eastern Washington University. Once a skinny receiver out of Omak, Picard set a slew of Eastern receiving records before becoming the school’s first alum in the NFL – sticking with the Eagles for three years as a hellbent special teamer.

Then Eagles’ new coach, Dick Vermeil, left Picard unprotected in the 1976 expansion draft.

“And when he went out to Seattle, that was the position I was going for,” Papale said. “He was so great. He was an animal. He wasn’t afraid of anything. Later that season, the Eagles brought him back and I thought maybe my days were numbered. But by then I’d played a few games and Dick told me I wasn’t going anywhere.”

Papale’s admiration for Picard was based on eyewitness information. After all, before he made the Eagles’ roster, he was a season-ticket holder – $100 for a perch in the 700 level of Veterans Stadium during the Eagles’ dismal Age of Aquarius years.

Which, of course, was just one of the elements that made his story so irresistible – to Philly and, later, Hollywood.

Most of those details you probably know. The movie, which starred Mark Wahlberg as Papale, has grossed more than $100 million in combined box office and DVD sales.

Papale was 30 when he caught Vermeil’s eye in an open tryout and then survived the coach’s gruesome first training camp. He had played just a year of high school football and none at all in college – he was a pole vaulter at Saint Joseph’s. He’d taught typing to students at Interboro High School, poured drinks on weekends and played rough-touch football in bar leagues for joints like Cannon’s Café. Later there was a season in the minor Seaboard Football League – and a part the movie skipped, two years with the Philadelphia Bell of the wild World Football League.

“Some of the characters in that league were right out of Central Casting,” Papale said. “NFL wannabes, dropouts and rejects. But I was 28 years old and that was my proving ground. And I think it gave me enough of pedigree, though I still had to prove myself to Vermeil.”

He also had to prove himself to his teammates. Their hostility as shown in the movie was if anything nastier in fact. Either they viewed Papale as a publicity stunt staged by their unpopular new coach, or simply didn’t want a buddy to lose his job to someone they considered a sandlot player.

But the fact is, Papale wasn’t Vermeil’s publicity stunt as much as he was a psychological stunt.

“What I did validated him in a lot of ways – his approach, that is,” Papale said. “We had so much in common, our backgrounds and families. I had that same fire and intensity Dick had. And I think he felt the guys had been a little full of themselves, lethargic – that it was their right to play in the NFL.”

Vermeil had just managed to turn the Eagles into winners – for the first time in 12 years – when shoulder injuries ended Papale’s career in 1979. A year later, the Eagles were in the Super Bowl.

“Dick kept saying, ‘It’s the Vince Papales of the world who set the tempo’ at the Super Bowl,” Papale laughed. “And I kept saying to myself, ‘Then why the hell aren’t I there?’ “

He doesn’t ask anymore. Watching the game from Airway Heights is as good as being in Arizona if there are people to talk to and stories to share. Papale couldn’t possibly relish his role as underdog emeritus any more than he does – insisting that while the combines and scouting will never allow another Vince Papale to reach the NFL, “They’re out there all over the place in other arenas.

“I tell people it’s not a football story – it’s about overcoming odds and obstacles. It can be anyone’s story.”

Of course, he’s also seen the movie 32 times. Maybe he still can’t believe it himself.