“Nostalgic” match for Joe Gaziano in the Patriots-Jaguars match

Jacksonville Jaguars defensive end Joe Gaziano campaigned a little harder to play this week.

Gaziano doesn’t always get a chance to dress on Sundays since he’s one of 16 players on Jacksonville’s practice squad. But with the Jaguars in London to face the New England Patriots, the team Gaziano knows very well from growing up in Scituate, Mass., he wanted the opportunity to be on the field even more.

“Internally, yes. I go the extra mile to try to give myself an advantage if the coaches see it,” Gaziano told NESN.com.

Well, Gaziano got his wish.

The Jaguars elected Saturday to elevate Gaziano and running back Jake Funk from the practice squad to the 53-man roster for the game against the Patriots. It’s the first time Gaziano, who signed with Jacksonville midway through training camp and remained with the franchise after being waived in late August, has been elevated this season.

This sets the stage for Gaziano to make his Jaguars debut against the team he supported as a kid. The 28-year-old has only played against the Patriots once in his previous 23 career NFL games, during the 2022 season when he was a member of the Los Angeles Chargers.

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Having the opportunity to face New England carries more weight for Gaziano, especially with the thoughts of those great Patriots teams and players – he admired Richard Seymour, Rob Ninkovich, Vince Wilfork and Andre Tippett in particular – than he saw coming back towards him.

“Every year we play them, it’s funny to me because a lot of guys ask me, ‘Oh, did you grow up being a Patriots fan?’ I just laugh because of course I did,” Gaziano said. “You grow up being a football fan in Massachusetts, it’s like going to church on Sunday, you listen to the Pats game. It’s still funny to me and that’s how my love for the game grew watching that era. … Lots of great history with the Patriots. And definitely going against them brings back those memories and thinking about myself as a kid, growing up in New England and idolizing all those guys that wore the silver helmet and pants.

Gaziano didn’t just remain a Patriots fan, shaping his own football path that led him to the NFL. After playing at Xaverian, where he was named the 2014 Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year, he had a standout college career at Northwestern. He holds the Wildcats record for most career sacks (30).

But that wasn’t enough for Gaziano to hear his name called during the 2020 NFL Draft. The 6-foot-4, 280-pound defensive lineman joined the Chargers as an undrafted free agent and played in a career-high 14 games for Los Angeles during the 2021 season. been much harder to find since then, as Gaziano only played in five games for the Chargers in 2022 and took the field in just two games for the Atlanta Falcons last season.

Gaziano then joined the Jaguars after performing well in an offseason workout with the team. It is also helped Ryan Nielsenwho knew Gaziano from his lone season with the Falcons, took over as Jacksonville’s defensive coordinator this season.

Gaziano is trying to make the most of the opportunity in front of him and he can certainly do that against the Patriots. He acknowledges that there is an added significance facing New England and there is the fact that he knows many of the players on the team, like David Andrews and Deatrich Wise Jr., from having worked with them during the offseason upon his return to the Boston area.

Gaziano will try to balance it all, but will put most of his feelings aside for the Patriots once the game starts in an effort to do his job.

“It comes down to the fact that it’s like every other week it’s an opponent. They have a lot of great players and our team is going to face them and we’re going to try to get a victory in this game,” Gaziano said. “At the same time, I know a lot of Patriots guys because I spend every offseason in Boston at practice. … It adds that extra element of almost nostalgia of me as a kid growing up and learning football and watching football on Sundays with my dad and the ups and downs of winning and losing.

Being on a practice squad is not the ideal version of football for players. Sometimes it’s all work and no play since the coveted playing days aren’t guaranteed.

Gaziano doesn’t seem to care, because somehow he’s gone beyond what he set out to do all those years ago to Xaverian. He has learned to appreciate every moment of the NFL that comes his way. And there’s no doubt that Gaziano will try to hold on to Sunday’s game against the Patriots as long as he can.

“You have to pinch yourself at some point to realize how lucky I am to have the opportunity and the career that I’ve had,” Gaziano said. “As for fifth grade, if you had told me about the skinny kid coming out of Xaverian who was maybe 245 (pounds), if you had told him he had a five-year career in NFL, I would have given you a big hug.”