Tony Tye, Post-Gazette Joe Freedy's journey from the football sidelines at the University of Buffalo to the chapel at St. Paul's Seminary in Crafton, top, has been both unusual and inspired. Click photo for larger image.

As the quarterback of the NCAA Division I University at Buffalo football team, Joe Freedy knew the playbook better than anyone.

But it was another book -- one that explained the significance of the Catholic Mass ("The Lamb's Supper" by Scott Hahn) -- that led Freedy to his most surprising call.

Before his final year at Buffalo, Freedy, who is from Bethel Park, began telling family and close friends he had decided to become a priest.

"It was definitely eye opening," said Chris Shelly, a Buffalo linebacker and Freedy's roommate for five years. "Not very often does your starting quarterback say 'I'm going to be a priest.' What if Terry Bradshaw or Tommy Maddox had said: 'Hey, I'm going to be a priest.' "

Freedy, now a second-year student at St. Paul's Seminary in Crafton, was the Bulls' starting quarterback from 1999-2001. Those were Buffalo's first three years playing Division I football in the Mid-American Conference. Buffalo football goes back to 1894, but the school played at the Division III and I-AA levels from 1977-1998.

The move up in class presented Freedy and Buffalo an uphill challenge with plenty of potholes along the way.

Few blamed the former Bethel Park High star for the team's 5-28 three-year record. Freedy finished No. 3 in career passing yards at Buffalo with 5,892. As a senior, he was fourth in the MAC in passing yards with 2,077, completing 187 of 371 passes with 10 touchdown passes and was intercepted 15 times. Two of the quarterbacks ahead of him were Marshall's Byron Leftwich (4,132) and Miami (Ohio's) Ben Roethlisberger (3,105).

"Certainly Joe did not have the arm strength or size of Leftwich [now the Jacksonville Jaguars' starting QB] or Roethlisberger [considered one of this year's top NFL draft picks]," said Charlie Donnor, 55, who served as Buffalo's offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach during Freedy's first two years as a starter. "But he was definitely a legitimate Division I quarterback -- no doubt about it.

"He was very accurate, showed good leadership, played intelligently. And, it wasn't easy for him. We had some very good players, but we didn't have all Division I players. If the supporting cast had been better, maybe Joe would have done a little better."

Freedy said the losing seasons at Buffalo, including nine losses by 30 points or more, led to much reflection but had little to do with the decision to pursue the priesthood.

"Whenever you're going through tough times, as small as losing a football game is, it makes you reflect," said Freedy, 24.

"Hurt, pain, suffering makes you reflect. As small as it is, when you're in college and involved with it, it's a big thing to you.

"But I don't think I ever let the football consume me, let it cause me to lose perspective. It didn't cause a huge conversion."

Father Freedy at QB

Reading a religious book that his dad left for him during Christmas break had a much bigger effect on Freedy choosing a different game plan.

"In high school I was into football and image," Freedy said. "I'd put in an hour Sunday [at church] and as soon as I hit the parking lot I forgot about God until next Sunday.

"Then, my dad gave me the book explaining the Mass. I read it and I was blown away. It really explained what Mass was all about. I started wanting to go to Mass more, pray more. I started going to Mass on weekdays.

"The way I explain it is if someone never watched football and went to a game without knowing the rules and the strategies they probably wouldn't enjoy it. When I learned what was happening at the Mass, when I knew it mentally, when I could equate its rules and goals, I enjoyed it more."

Shelly, a Shaler High graduate, said Freedy's calling to the priesthood had an immediate effect on his life, too.

"Basically, Joe was my partner in crime in college," said Shelly, now an insurance agent in Buffalo. "We hung out together, we partied together. I just didn't understand [his decision] at first. I couldn't understand all the changes he was going through. It was the same Joe, but he had matured, calmed down. When this first happened my reaction was: 'Who am I going to go out with on Saturday night now?' Wherever he went, I went."

Shelly said Freedy's decision "didn't really create a buzz on the team" during his final season there or any sort of a "distraction."

"We did joke around and call him Father Freedy a lot," he said.

Paul Vecchio, Buffalo's assistant athletic director for communications, thought Bulls football players and coaches "were in awe, amazed that [Freedy] made the decision [to become a priest] and was going to go through with it. Joe was such a natural leader, a guy everyone respected. If anything, after word of his decision got out, he was more respected.

"Joe really had a change in lifestyle," added Vecchio. "He was much more spiritual [his final year], and less an outgoing guy who wanted to go out to parties."

Vecchio calls Freedy one of his "favorite" athletes whom he has come across in his job.

"When he played quarterback here, he absolutely got beat up," Vecchio said. "We weren't a very good football team. But, he kept getting off the deck. That was sort of his mentality on the football field and in life. He just wasn't afraid of whatever battles were ahead of him."

The natural leader

Now the challenge is to become a priest in what many, including Freedy, describe as a "tough climate."

The former quarterback is in a six-year program with ordination scheduled for June 2008.

Freedy, who has a communications degree from Buffalo, will receive a master's in philosophy from Duquesne University in May. He also is taking theology of the priesthood and Latin classes at St. Paul's.

In August, Bishop Donald Wuerl will assign Freedy to either Saint Vincent College in Latrobe or the North American College in Rome, Italy, where he will spend the next four years studying theology, scripture and preaching.

Father James Wehner, the rector at St. Paul's, said the seminary, located next to Bishop Canevin High, definitely will miss Freedy when he takes off on the next four years of his journey. Wehner describes Freedy as a "natural leader" who has that unique personality to rally everyone at St. Paul's around "an activity, a concept, a mission."

With 815,000 Catholics and 215 parishes (over six counties) and facing a future priest shortage, the Pittsburgh Diocese needs priests.

The highly publicized church sex scandal has brought much criticism in recent years. But it didn't dissuade Freedy from pursuing his calling.

"There are some cases out there that are sad. But I know that is not what the priesthood is all about," said Freedy, who has high praise for the priests he has been around both in Pittsburgh and Buffalo.

Those who know him best believe Freedy will do great work in the church. And also will change perceptions.

"The Catholic faith needs someone like Joe," Shelly said. "He didn't come out of high school saying, 'I'm going to be a priest. I'm going to be a priest.' He had life experiences. He was a Division I quarterback. He's been through it all. He's done it all."

Wehner would concur. He takes a group of seminary students to two or three parishes in the Pittsburgh area each Sunday. Wehner introduces the future priests and the seminarians then speak briefly to the congregation.

"I always introduce Joe as a former starting quarterback at Buffalo," said Wehner, 35. "And I notice after Mass there's a lot of kids going to his line. 'You were a quarterback?' they ask him. There's an appeal there. The kids can relate.

"Here's a young fellow who lived the worldly life. He had been a college quarterback. He had a girlfriend. Then after those experiences and some soul searching, his faith and spirituality led him to pursue the vocation of priesthood."

Jim Hofher, who has been Buffalo's head coach since 2001, said in 25 years of college football coaching (11 as a head coach) Freedy is the first of his players to make the "lifetime commitment to become a priest."

Hofher, who coached Freedy for only one season, said the main attributes he brought to the quarterback position were "physical and mental toughness."

Off the field, the Bulls' coach describes Freedy as "thoughtful."

"The typical college athlete is worried about school and where's the party going to be this weekend," Hofher said. "Joe, you could see, was a very giving person."

Hofher said after Freedy had made the decision to pursue the priesthood "there was a peace about him. There was no conflict in him. No thought of 'Am I doing the right thing?' He was totally at peace with his decision. And I truly feel he'll be outstanding as a priest."