Former Husky Berger Starts at Center for NFL's Miami Dolphins

Former Michigan Tech football player Joe Berger started his first career game in the National Football League on Nov. 29. The Newaygo, Mich., native, who played for the Huskies from 2001-04, started at center for the Miami Dolphins in their game at the Buffalo Bills.

Berger was an All-American and Academic All-American in his time at Tech. The former Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Offensive Lineman of the Year was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in 2005. He was signed by the Dolphins from the Carolina practice squad prior to the 2005 season and spent a season and a half with in Miami before being claimed off waivers by the Dallas Cowboys in 2006. Following the 2008 season, Berger was re-signed by Miami to a multi-year contract as an unrestricted free agent.

Until the Nov. 29 game, Berger had spent his career as a backup on the offensive line. Because of an ankle injury to starting center Jake Grove, Berger got his chance to start.

Dolphins coach Tony Sparano was quoted in a Miami Herald feature story on Berger that ran before the game as saying, “If Joe ends up starting in the game, and Jake doesn’t play, then I’m absolutely fine with that.”

“Joe’s ready to go, got a lot of work,” he said. “He’s a solid player, smart guy, going to get us lined up the right way, and I know exactly what Joe will do in the game. I think that that’s a good thing.”

The feature story on Berger from the Miami Herald can be found at the following link.
http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/football/story/1354872.html

Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, Michigan’s flagship technological university offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.