DENVER — One Sunday before Super Sunday, the Broncos will be flying into our town, and on that dream flight will be a long-shot practice squad dreamer who played football at Fordham named Greg Wilson.
“It just really is a blessing from God, to be honest,” Wilson told The Post with a chuckle. “A week into my rookie year and I’m heading to the Super Bowl. … Words can’t even describe it.
“I can only thank John Elway and John Fox for the opportunity, and the whole Broncos organization.
“Kind of to piggyback on that, coming back to New York, it’s a pretty great honor to be able to represent Fordham, not only as just an NFL player, but just the fact that school is being represented in the Super Bowl. I just think that that’s a pretty high honor to have.”
Wilson was at work as a temporary employee in the sales department at Sunrun, a solar company in San Francisco, when the call came last Wednesday from his agent, Brad Berkowitz.
“What are you doing right now? Go home, pack a bag, because you’re flying out tonight to Denver,” Berkowitz said.
“I just couldn’t believe that it was happening,” Wilson said. “I was so excited.”
At 6 a.m. last Thursday, Wilson was picked up by a Broncos staffer at his hotel and taken to the team’s practice facility.
“I met Peyton Manning,” Wilson said. “I met all the big-name guys in my first meeting around 7:30 that morning, once I went through my physical and signed my contract and all that.”
Wilson actually had met Manning a few weeks earlier at his one-day workout for the Broncos.
“It was pretty surreal, that’s for sure,” Wilson said. “He walked into the meeting room and I was sitting down in front. And he walks in, just taps me on the shoulder. I stand up, he goes, ‘Hey Greg, Peyton Manning. Good to have you here,’ and that was about it.”
Fox introduced Wilson to the team after practice.
“I felt like I ran good routes … a little tough adjusting to the atmosphere [at] first, but nothing too big there,” Wilson said. “I gave the defense good looks preparing for New England, obviously.”
Wilson, 23, grew up in Danville, Calif., a Raiders and Tim Brown fan.
“It was always a dream when you’re a kid, and you’re watching it on TV, it’s always like, ‘Man, it’d be so cool to do that,” Wilson said. “But it’s always such a far-fetched kind of dream, and you know, when you’re that young, you don’t really know if it’s going to happen or not.”
He was a 1,000-yard receiver at San Ramone Valley High.
“At the time, I was 5-10, 155, I’d say,” Wilson said. “I was still fast, had great hands, but just lacked in size, so I thought my career was over.”
His next stop was at Diablo Valley College, where he was forced to deal with the loss of his grandfather and role model, Bob.
“I’d put on probably a good 20, 25 pounds, eating, getting in the weight room,” Wilson said. “Went to my junior college coach said, ‘Hey, I know I haven’t played in two years, [but] can you give me a shot?’”
The coach gave him a shot.
“That’s what led to me getting to Fordham,” Wilson said.
Welcome to The Bronx.
“Coming from California, it was definitely a huge transition. I had never been to the East Coast before, before my official visit,” Wilson said. “Being right there next to Times Square is just almost surreal, just ’cause it’s something I always saw on TV and never really been there and all that.”
He made the most of his opportunity.
“I learned that there’s a pretty great tradition there,” Wilson said. “Through the academics and the football program — obviously there was a little bit of a down period when I had gotten there — but there’s a lot of pride, I know that, and a lot of tradition, and I think being there and helping being able to turn that program was a pretty big deal. They’re starting to get on the map and I think that’s pretty awesome.”
Wilson graduated Fordham in May with a degree in business management and a minor in law and ethics
“I went up a local Pro Day for the 49ers,” Wilson said. “I got an undrafted free-agent offer to go there for rookie minicamp. They had another minicamp maybe two or three weeks after that that I got invited back to.”
Then the day after Thanksgiving, Wilson awakened to a text from Berkowitz saying: “This is very important, call me ASAP.”
“He said, ‘Hey, the Denver Broncos are about to call you. They want you to go in for a workout,’ ” Wilson said. “Even just hearing that I was so excited just because it was so late in the year. [I] just wasn’t expecting that.”
The Broncos had themselves a 5-foot-11, 187-pound would-be Rudy.
“I’ve always been knocked for my size. I’ve always been on the smaller side,” Wilson said. “I’ve always felt like I’ve been the underdog everywhere I’ve been.”
Wilson was an eyewitness to the AFC Championship Game on the Broncos sideline.
“To go from the week before sitting on my couch watching the game, and now I’m standing there on an AFC Championship-winning team in front of 77,000 people … it was really just a blessing,” Wilson said.
And he had a bird’s-eye view of Manning at work.
“It was everything as advertised as you’d see on TV,” Wilson said. “From growing up, watching him, to all of a sudden he’s my teammate: Like I said, it’s just a blessing. … It’s just very surreal.”
Wilson has been studying Wes Welker.
“I sit there, and during practice, ’cause I’m obviously running the scout team for our defense, so when he’s on the field running offensive plays, I pretty much just sit there, and I’m glued to him just watching every single thing he does,” Wilson said. “And then when they switch periods and go from offense to defense, I just go and I try and translate exactly what I saw there into what I do, as well as obviously in the meeting rooms, watching him on film and hearing what input he has. I just try to be a sponge and soak up everything I can.”
On Super Bowl Sunday, Greg Wilson will be standing on the Broncos sidelines at MetLife Stadium with Peyton Manning and Wes Welker.
“It’s a dream come true, and it’s even hard to think about it until I get there,” Wilson said. “I’m just trying to soak it all in. And hopefully I can earn a permanent spot here for next season.”
Any chance he will be catching a Manning pass in practice in the meantime?
“I’m hoping so, I’m pulling for it … try and sneak in there somewhere and hopefully snag one,” Greg Wilson said, and laughed a Super laugh.