The NFL regular season was coming down the home stretch, and Noble hadn't even earned the right to watch games from the sideline. His television and some good home cooking had to suffice.

Then the call came -- a member of the 49ers administration.

"They called me and said, 'You in shape?' I lied of course and said, 'Yeah,' " Noble said.

"I had accepted it. When I got called back in it was a shocker."

Still in shock, Noble hopped on a plane the next morning at 6 a.m. and was in pads practicing with the 49ers that afternoon. Quite a swing of emotions for the lineman who figured his NFL, better yet, his entire football career had swirled down the drain.

"I was just trying to figure out what I was going to do with myself," he said. "I was weighing my options, seeing if I wanted to give up football."

The call made up his mind for him.

Now entering his third season of professional football after being picked up as a free agent by the 49ers in 1997, Noble has undergone some changes. For one, he no longer is with the 49ers, having signed an off-season contract with the Dallas Cowboys.

Secondly, he grew -- a lot. Stigmatized as an underdog to make the NFL because of his 6-foot-2, 260-pound frame coming out of college, Noble hit the weights, drank protein shakes and ate -- a lot. Noble is not taller, but has added 30 pounds and now hovers around 290.

There is, however, one constant in Noble's career. For the second straight season, Noble will spend April through July playing in the NFL Europe League.

Along with quarterback Mike McQueary, the only other former Penn Stater on an NFLEL roster, Noble is already in training camp in Orlando, Fla., for the NFL developmental league. Originally called the World League, when it began in 1991, NFL Europe has become somewhat of a farm system for NFL teams to give second- and third-team players more seasoning before NFL training camp begins in August. Last year Noble and quarterback Wally Richardson were the only former Lions in the league.

McQueary, who started one season for the Lions in 1997, has been allocated by the Oakland Raiders, the same team that cut him last season, to play for the Scottish Claymores. Noble, meanwhile, is back for a second season with the Barcelona Dragons.

"Brandon Noble's a complete football player. And a great person, just a great human being," said Dragons Jack Bicknell, coach of Barcelona since 1991 and college coach of Buffalo Bills quarterback Doug Flutie at Boston College. "I was shocked that we got him back."

The return to Europe was a surprise for Noble as well, who felt he played well enough in training camp to make the 49ers.

According to Noble, injuries allowed him to break in with the second and first teams when the Reaper -- Noble's pet name for the guy who informs players they've been cut -- came calling.

"I was playing well. It really caught me by surprise," Noble said of being cut. "It makes you real hungry. You want to prove to these people, to yourself, that you can still play football. It's tough. If you're not drafted, it's tough to get in the league."

If you're 6 feet 2 inches and 260 pounds it's even tougher. Despite only two sacks and an interception last season, Noble's quickness in Barcelona impressed. Bicknell even occasionally used Noble as a blocker on offense and named an offensive play after him -- the Noble pass.

Despite still feeling some of the disappointment associated with not having made an NFL team, Noble knows he can still capitalize on this opportunity.

He will return to a defense that allows him to pass rush and use his quickness inside, a team that now offensively boasts former Nebraska and St. Louis Rams running back Lawrence Phillips. Oh, and he now will have a chance to chase his old teammate -- McQueary -- around the backfield.

"I'm looking forward to hitting him," Noble said.

McQueary, on the other hand, is more focused on first making the team, and secondly on beating out former Auburn standout Dameyune Craig for playing time.

"So far it's pretty much like work," McQueary said from his hotel in Orlando. "Training camp is the hardest part of the season, because you're cooped up in a hotel, you practice two times a day . . . so far it's going all right."

All right is better than non-existent, which summed up McQueary's opportunity to show his skills at last year's training camp in Oakland. He said he pretty much was a body on the sidelines, watching and waiting.

Now in the second of the NFLEL's three-week training camp, McQueary is getting more reps and shedding some of the rust that built up this offseason. McQueary returned to State College this past fall and worked with his father at Internal Medical Associates of State College PC, 1850 E. Park Ave., while also helping out with the Penn State football team's study hours.

If McQueary makes it through training camp, he will get to visit with an uncle of his in Scotland, not far from the Claymores' home city of Glasgow. He said his family and girlfriend would also make the trip to see him play.

Then, and only then, might he think about a showdown with Noble and Barcelona, the first of which is scheduled for Sunday, March 9 when Barcelona travels to Scotland (the two teams also clash in preseason action April 3 at Orlando's Orange Bowl, but Noble said players can't hit quarterbacks in the preseason).

"(Noble) was a big-time player out there last year," McQueary said. "It's kind of weird when you play against guys you hung out with for four or five years. Me and Brandon Noble have probably shared a few beverages together. Then you've gotta play against them."

Viewing access to Noble and McQueary's ventures in NFL Europe will be improved from a year ago, since FOX, which has aired NFLEL games since 1995, recently signed a two-year deal with the league to air three regular-season games as well as the World Bowl -- NFLEL's version of the Super Bowl. The coverage will be an expansion over the one game per week that aired on FOX Sports Net last season.

"This is a positive development for the NFL and the Europe League," NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue said in a press release. "With FOX making NFL Europe League games available on television here in the United States, fans will be able to watch pro football year round and see many young NFL players."