Former North Carolina Tar Heel football star Jesse Holley was working at a security monitoring company and hawking cell phones for T-Mobile when he got the call that he'd be competing on Spike TV's football reality competition "4th and Long."

Holley got on the show and won it Monday. By beating out 11 other hopefuls, Holley, who'd played briefly for Cincinnati in the NFL with another stint in Canada, earned a second football life. He earned the final roster spot to the Dallas Cowboys training camp, which begins July 28 in San Antonio.

Holley, effervescent and chatty as always, spoke to The N&O from Dallas on Tuesday, and shared stories about proving his mettle for Cowboys' great Michael Irvin, smiling pretty for the cameras. deciding whether or not to cut off the
dreds he's been growing for years, and getting a new nickname to replace the perfect-for-primetime, "Hollywood."