Former Storm practice squader joins Sippio with Chiefs

Tyrone Timmons was sitting in front of the computer at his job as a technician at a flight simulation company when the unknown number flashed on his phone.

It was 3:48 p.m. last Thursday.

Exactly three hours later, the former Tampa Bay Tech star was at Tampa International hopping a flight to Kansas City and hoping that maybe, just maybe, his shot at the NFL had finally arrived.

"It was a crazy feeling," said Timmons, who led Tampa Bay Tech to its last playoff appearance as a senior in 2001.

Today, that crazy feeling paid off.

Less than a week after the Kansas City Chiefs summoned him for that impromptu workout, the team signed Timmons to its practice squad, bringing him tantalizingly close to a dream that has eluded him since graduating from Mississippi Valley State in May.

A quarterback throughout his high school career, Timmons switched to wide receiver three days after arriving on Mississippi Valley State's Bena, Miss. campus. During his junior and senior seasons, The 6-foot-3, 210-pound Thonotosassa resident combined to catch 105 passes for 1,674 yards and 15 touchdowns.

During his junior season, Timmons had a chance to work out with MVS's most famous alumnus, a former NFL wide receiver by the name of Jerry Rice.

Rice, who starred for the Delta Devils from 1981-84 before moving on to a Hall of Fame career with the San Francisco 49ers, spent a day working with Timmons 1-on-1.

"He said, 'You've got everything it takes to be a NFL receiver, you just have to get it in your mind," Timmons said.

Nevertheless, Timmons went undrafted this past spring, despite predictions from several scouts that he'd be taken in the seventh round. He participated in the New York Giants' rookie camp, then had a brief cameo with the Buffalo Bills before heading back to Tampa to join the practice squad of the Tampa Bay Storm.

By the time the Storm's season ended in June, he had all but written off the NFL. Timmons, who has a degreen in electronics, returned to CAE/USA, a Tampa flight simulation company where he had interned during college. All was quiet until last week, when the Chiefs called and invited him to work out.

Less than a week later, he's in Kansas City, preparing for this week's game at San Diego and learning from fellow Arena Leaguer Bobby Sippio, who is a member of the Chiefs' active roster after a stellar AFL season in Chicago.

Life as an NFL practice squad player is a tenuous one. An injury to an active-roster player can mean either immediate unemployment or promotion to the active roster. Players make around $5,000 a week, and do not dress in uniform on game days.

Still, it's a big step up for Timmons.

Right now, he's studying his play book - the Chiefs are an I-formation team who rely primarily on two and three-wide receiver sets, compared with the shot-gun, spread offense Timmons ran in college - and living in a Holiday Inn in Kansas City. The team pays for his digs for a week. After that, he's on his own.

Whatever happens, he knows he has both his electronics degree and the AFL to fall back on.

"It's crazy," he said. "That's just how it works sometimes."

--DAVID MURPHY

dmurphy@sptimes.com