All in the family
Linta pursuing dream with his dad at his side
HAMDEN — The one liners were coming in at a fast and furious pace when Joe Linta began to venture down a road that few NFL player agents had ever navigated before when he represented an NFL hopeful he knows better than any of his previous clients.
Even the NFL executives who have worked with Linta for years were a tad bit skeptical when he first began to sing the praises of his son T. J. The quick-witted Linta can spar verbally with anybody so the NFL bigwigs were more than happy to return the favor.
As time went on, however, it became clear that T. J. Linta’s pro football aspirations would not be a part of punchlines for very long. More than once Linta heard the line, “how did a kid of yours get to throw the ball like that?”
T. J. Linta first got to show off that big arm when he played in the Tropical Bowl in January. What followed in the next few months has been a bit
of a whirlwind. There was a pro day with representatives from nearly 20 NFL teams held at Columbia University, a regional combine in Kansas City, months spent working out alongside fellow NFL draft hopefuls in Florida and more recently, people ranging from Tennessee Titans head coach Mike Vrabel to San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks coach and former UConn assistant Shane Day flying in to get a first-hand look at the Branford native.
“Quarterback coaches have flown in to see him and that tells you something because they aren’t doing that because they are friends of mine,” Joe Linta said.
T.J. Linta, who threw for 1,481 yards with 13 touchdowns and four interceptions at Wagner in 2018 after starting at Brown for two season, also got to take part in the local pro days with both the New York Jets and Giants as the buzz around him continues to grow.
“It really was eye opening,” T. J. Linta said. “At the pro day at Columbia in middle of March, I threw the ball really well there I thought. A lot of the scouts showed interest and since then I have met with a couple of teams and there was the regional combine in KC week before that. It’s been a good ride trying to get in front of as many people as I can. I am what I am
“I looked at game film as a scout or agent and at the end of the year I said I am not going to be apologetic, the kid is good and deserves a chance.” — Sports agent Joe Linta, father of T. J. Linta
and they just need to see that and as soon as I can get in front of someone, hopefully they will know.”
Some may know Joe Linta as the agent for veteran quarterback Joe Flacco, but some of his best work has come with under the radar prospects. Going back 18 years, Eric Johnson was a dynamic receiver who still holds Yale records for catches in a game and in a season but he also seemed like a player without a position at the next level. Working with Linta, he added some weight to his frame and was taken by San Francisco in the seventh round of the 2001 draft. Johnson finished with more catches than 30 receivers or tight ends drafted ahead of him with 82 of his 240 career receptions coming in the 2004 season. Fast forward to 2018, Linta helped former Purdue and LSU quarterback Danny Etling through the process that culminated with him being taken by New England in the seventh round. Now he is looking to do the same with his son who followed up an impressive run at Hamden Hall (playing for his father) to play first at Brown and then at Wagner as a graduate transfer in 2018.
Joe Linta was at every game that T.J. played at Wagner as a fan, but the next day he would start looking at his son’s game tape and it became evident to him that T.J. was good enough to at least get himself into an NFL training camp.
“I looked at game film as a scout or agent and at the end of the year I said I am not going to be apologetic, the kid is good and deserves a chance,” Joe Linta said. “Were he not my son, I still would have recruited him. This is not a daddy ball thing, this is legit and I’ve had a lot of people like Ron Jaworski, Chris Palmer, Jim Miller to analyze his tape and they said, ‘he can play.’ I make no apologies when I call the GMs, I don’t care if it is my kid or your kid, it doesn’t matter. I decided I wasn’t going to represent him with any less zeal than I would anybody else.”
His belief is that T. J. likely won’t be drafted but there is enough interest out there that he is confident that he will be picked up by an NFL team if his name isn’t called in next week’s NFL draft. There is also an offer from a CFL team just in case the NFL doesn’t come calling.