Perseverance pays off for Cowboys receiver Jesse Holley

The sight of Dallas Cowboys receiver Jesse Holley getting behind San Francisco’s defense in Week 2 and turning a deep pass into a 77-yard gain in overtime — the most memorable play in a 27-24 victory — prompted a corresponding route at the NFL Network headquarters in Culver City.

Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin burst out of his office at the studios and ran whooping down the hall.

“I felt like a father watching his son,” said Irvin, who’s hoping for more of the same Monday when the Cowboys play host to Washington on “Monday Night Football.”

Much of the focus in Dallas over the last week has been on the health of quarterback Tony Romo and whether he’ll be able to endure the pain of cracked ribs (and a punctured lung) enough to play against the Redskins. But the Holley story too has captured the imagination of those fans.

For good reason. Holley’s path to the Cowboys was anything but typical. In 2009, the onetime cellphone salesman was the winner of Irvin’s reality show “4th and Long” — pro football’s answer to “American Idol” — and was invited to training camp. He wound up making the practice squad, then last season worked his way onto the 53-man roster as a special-teams standout.

Then, late in the game at San Francisco, injuries to Dez Bryant and Miles Austin created an opening for him at receiver. Holley made catches of 11 and eight yards on consecutive downs in the 10-play, fourth-quarter drive that set up the tying field goal. Those were the first catches of his pro career.

Irvin, who watched the early games with his fellow NFL Network analysts but retired to his office for the Dallas game “because I needed some one-on-one time with my Cowboys,” peeked out his door then hollered, “ ‘4th and Long’ in the house!” when Holley made his first catch.

Minutes later, as Holley was dashing toward the goal line in overtime flamboyantly raising the ball just before he was tackled short of the end zone, Irvin was yelling something else.

“My first thought was, ‘Jess, put that ball away! Don’t you fumble that ball!’ ” Irvin said. “If he’d have fumbled, he wouldn’t get in that locker room quick enough before they had his stuff out of that door.”

Clearly, Holley understood the importance of the moment.

He told KESN radio that “my bags would have beat me back to Dallas” had he blown that play.

The come-from-behind victory was huge for Dallas, which opened with a three-point loss at the New York Jets that included two crucial Cowboys turnovers late in the game. Had Holley not made that big play in overtime, the injury-riddled team might have limped away at 0-2 in advance of its home opener.

Holley might have come out of nowhere, but it’s not as if he was a complete newcomer to football. He played at North Carolina, where he led the Tar Heels in receiving his junior season. He was also a member of the school’s 2004-05 basketball team, which won the national championship.

After he wasn’t selected in the 2007 NFL draft, he signed with Cincinnati as a rookie free agent, was cut in training camp, then put on the practice squad. He was released from that in October to make room for another player.

The following year, he spent a month on the roster of the Canadian Football League’s BC Lions.

Realizing his dream of playing football was probably over, Holley later worked as a security guard and phone salesman.

Then came Irvin’s reality show, which aired for one season on Spike TV.

Irvin said Holley’s story “is harmonious with my Hall of Fame speech,” which focused on his own story of overcoming doubters.

“People had told him, ‘You’ll never do it. You can’t do it. You don’t measure up,’ ” Irvin said.

And, like a proud father, Irvin feels some personal satisfaction too.

“You want to affect people’s lives,” he said. “With all the messes that I’ve had and bad decisions that I’ve made, I don’t want to go to God, and he says, ‘What did you do?’ And the best thing I have are Super Bowls and championships. He’ll say, ‘Get on that elevator and push “down.” ’

“But now he’ll say, what did you do? And I’ll offer up Jesse as a witness and let him speak for me. Hopefully, that will get me on that elevator pushing the ‘up’ button.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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