By the end of the weekend, training camps will have opened in every league precinct. While some teams continue to fine-tune rosters with 11th-hour contracts for serviceable veterans, there is a sobering reality for many players left orphaned by free agency.

In many cases, their careers are over, the alleged panacea of free agency having turned into the NFL equivalent of sticking a needle into a balloon. Some expectations have been cruelly dashed and players who four months ago viewed free agency as a potential mother lode are scrambling now for jobs that pay the league minimum.

By unofficial count, there are three dozen players who started a minimum of eight games in 2001 but who remain unemployed.

	Jamal Anderson played in only three games last season before suffering a knee injury.

"It's a monumental letdown for these guys, really, a possible psychological trauma," acknowledged agent Angelo Wright, who this week found a home in Denver for former Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Sinclair, released by Seattle early in the spring. "They think they're going for a magic carpet ride and instead they have the rug yanked out from under them."

There is still demand for a few players -- defensive tackle Sam Adams, wide receiver Antonio Freeman, offensive guard Matt Campbell, to name a few -- but there are not a lot of job openings right now, and the supply outdistances the demand.

In a few cases, like that of tailback Ricky Watters, continued unemployment is a factor of his dissatisfaction with the finances offered him. But most players still in the remnants of the free-agent pool haven't had an offer to reject. And several of them are players who, at this point of their careers, still have some productive seasons left.

They may not be big names -- guys like safety Chad Cota, linebacker Bernardo Harris, offensive tackle John Fina, cornerback Jimmy Hitchcock, tailback Jamal Anderson -- but they still could contribute to some team. Few of them, though, will get the opportunity. It is hard to imagine, for instance, that the Saints this week signed the venerable Terry Allen as a backup to tailback Deuce McAllister and didn't consider Anderson.

At least Anderson, who wants to extend his NFL tenure but is also considering a career in television, has options. That is hardly the case for most of the unemployed veterans. Most of the out-of-work players will spend the early days of camp scouring the newspapers in their home towns, looking for any word of an injury that might force a team to go back into the market. Sinclair got his job with the Broncos, for instance, because Denver was forced to release second-year defensive end Paul Toviessi.

The bottom line, though, is that it's a maddening waiting game for players accustomed to being in camp by now.

"You don't think it's going to end like this," said Hitchcock. "You figure there is going to be some team that will call you. But the (silence) is pretty frustrating."

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