It has been over a year, but one Stony Brook football alumnus has another chance at living a dream—an eighth, actually.
The Buffalo Bills signed former Seawolves star running back Miguel Maysonet to the team’s practice squad on Friday, the eighth NFL team to give the Riverhead native a shot at playing professional football.
The 2012 Walter Payton Award runner-up became the second Stony Brook graduate to currently have an NFL contract. Will Tye is on the New York Giants active roster.
Coming in second for the award made Maysonet the second-best player in the entire Football Championship Subdivision.
“I’m proud of those guys. You know, they work hard and it’s a boyhood dream when you grow up,” Stony Brook football head coach Chuck Priore said. “You would like the opportunity to put that jersey on. So I’m just proud of them.”
Maysonet spent three years at Stony Brook after transferring from Hofstra University when its football program was disbanded. Maysonet holds most offensive records for the Seawolves, running for 4,725 yards in his Stony Brook
career, totaling 5,331 all-purpose yards and 53 combined rushing and receiving touchdowns.
Kevin Norrell, a former Seawolves wide receiver, also spent time with the Bills in 2013 before being released by the team.
“It’s honestly just a true testament of hard work and staying with it,” Norrell said. “He just worked his tail off and knew someone was going to call. All he had to do was be ready.”
Norrell acknowledged that it may not have been easy for Maysonet to go for over a year without being on a team, but that there is always a goal to work toward.
“Like Miguel just did,” Norrell said. “It’s just work, work, work, work, work and when you get your opportunity, you have to make it pay off.”
