BEGGING PAYS OFF
WR WHO PLEADED FOR JOB JOINS JETS
Six weeks after Joe Anderson stood in front of the Texans’ practice facility with a sign that said “Will Run Routes 4 food,” the Jets are giving him the chance to back that up.
Gang Green signed the former Bears wide receiver to their practice squad Tuesday, a potential happy ending to one of the more unorthodox NFL job searches you will ever see.
“This is why you can’t be so quick to throw the towel in, because you don’t know when that call will come,” Anderson told The Post on Tuesday, his arrival so fresh his locker had neither his name nor jersey number.
“A lot of people don’t want to be patient,” Anderson added. “When that call came, it wasn’t no surprise. Because I had prepared for it.”
Anderson, a former undrafted free agent from Texas Southern who played in nine games with the Bears from 2012-13, also tried to help hi s case with a headlinegrabbing move last month in Houston.
Not even telling his agent before he did it, Anderson swallowed hi s pride and held up a cardboard sign in front of the Texans’ headquarters for several hours.
“Not homeless… but STARVING for success !!!” Anderson wrote, adding the social-media hashtags # Whateverittakes, #UnderDog, #IBelieve and #Hungry.
“I kept it to myself, because I didn’t want anybody to try to talk me out of it,” Anderson said Tuesday.
Although t he Texans barely even acknowledged Anderson’s ploy, sending only a low-level personnel assistant to briefly chat with him, the Jets were paying attention.
Gang Green worked out Anderson last week after getting a positive endorsement from former Chicago teammate Brandon Marshall, then signed him to the practice squad in the wake of wideout Devin Smith’s recent torn knee ligament.
Marshall told The Post he was impressed by Anderson’s willingness to humble himself with the sign.
“It’s not about football with him,” Marshall said. “It’s about his faith and his belief. I think Christians can appreciate [what he did] — to show that humility and that faith to continue to go.”
Anderson was out of football last season because of sports hernia surgery and feared he had been forgotten by the NFL, even though he still had an agent making calls for him.
With a wife and two kids to support and his love of the game still strong, Anderson felt it was time for drastic action after his phone stayed silent throughout the offseason and season’s first three months.
Even so, Anderson admitted it took a while for him to gather up the courage to hold up his sign. “I sat on [the idea] for about three days,” Anderson said. “I was hesitant because it just didn’t seem like something I would do. But I decided I might as well act on it because I don’t have anything to lose.”
While the Jets are merely hoping for depth at wide receiver, Anderson hopes his story can be an inspiration for others.
“A lot of people are afraid to ask for help when they’re in need,” Anderson said. “Help don’t always mean, ‘Hey, can you give me some money?’ It’s how low are you willing to humble yourself for something you really want. “Sometimes you have to open your mouth,” he added. “A closed mouth don’t get fed.”