Former William Paterson University’s wide receiver Joel Rivera had a try out for the NFL’s New York Jets at their team Rookie Minicamp.
Rivera owns the program’s career receptions (159), yardage (2,209) and touchdowns (23) records, the single-season catches (74, 2008) and yardage (965, 2008) top marks, and the single-game receptions (16, 9/27/08 at Rowan) and yardage (226, 9/27/08 at Rowan) records after starting in 29 of 36 career games.
He was invited to play in the 2009 Tazon de Estrella’s (Bowl of the Stars) and the Division III Football Senior Classic All-Star Games.
Rivera established new school records with his 74 catches and 965 receiving yards during the 2008 campaign, earning spots on the D3Football.com All-East Region Second Team and the All-NJAC First Team. He also caught seven touchdown passes and returned eight kickoffs for 158 yards (19.8 yards/return) as a junior, and ranked first in both receiving yards/game (96.5, 30th in Division III) and receptions/game (7.4, 16th in NCAA), and seventh in all-purpose yardage (114.3 yards/game), in the NJAC.
Rivera played professional baseball in the Milwaukee Brewers’ organization after being selected in the 15th round of the 2003 Major League Baseball Draft out of Hoboken High School. After spending two years in the minors, he elected to attend college, and walked on to the William Paterson football team in 2006 after not playing the sport since early in his scholastic career.