"Regardless of where professional football players spend their offseason, it often becomes high-profile. From charity work to off-the-field trouble, it's all in the news.

Gary Guyton is comparatively low-profile; very low-profile. How did the Patriots [team stats] linebacker spend his summer?

"I was an office assistant, right there at the desk," said Guyton, who worked for a meager wage at Georgia Tech Research Institute. "Just a regular office assistant. Tech is my school, and I enjoyed it."

A nose-to-the-ground, old-fashioned grinder, Guyton didn't understand what was odd about an NFL player toiling at such a job. Perhaps that drive brought him to where he'll be tomorrow at 1 p.m. against the Jets.

With teammate Jerod Mayo out with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee, Guyton will don the green dot as the defensive play caller, attempting to fill Mayo's void in the middle. It is a bittersweet opportunity, one that came because of an injury to one of his best friends."