Vandervelde back with Eagles, again and again

There are no direct flights from Davenport, Iowa, to Philadelphia and, very obviously, there isn't a straight route for Julian Vandervelde to find a permanent landing spot in the NFL, either.

Vandervelde, a guard/center who was selected in the fifth round of the 2011 draft, has been waived or released by the Eagles five times. Of course, he also has been re-signed by the Eagles another five times, including Tuesday when the injury to offensive lineman Andrew Gardner ended Vandervelde's most recent hiatus, which had lasted exactly one week.

With the exception of an unhappy month in 2012 when he was claimed off waivers by Tampa Bay, then released, then signed to Tampa's practice squad, then released from that, all of Vandervelde's career transactions have been with the Eagles. All told, he has been acquired or dispensed of 13 times by the organization.

"I don't know what the record is for transactions between a single player and a single team, but I'm going for it," said Vandervelde, who turns 28 next week. "I must be doing something right. As long as I'm still around, I've got a chance to show them what I've got, and to improve and better myself. I'm still living the dream every day."

Vandervelde didn't even leave Philadelphia during the latest crimp in the dream. Getting home to Iowa requires a connection through Chicago, Minneapolis or Dallas - "Philly to Dallas to Iowa makes no sense" - and rather than fight the crowds arriving for the pope's visit, he decided to hang around for a while. Plus, he had just signed an apartment lease with Brett Boyko, a practice squad tackle, and didn't want to leave his new roommate holding the bag.

When he had been previously waived, two days after the end of the exhibition season, Vandervelde went home to train for the Celtic Festival & Highland Games of the Quad Cities, where he intended to compete in the caber toss, which essentially involves throwing a telephone pole into the air and trying to make it flip and land perfectly upside down. This, as you can imagine, does require training, but Vandervelde's was interrupted by his first recall this season by the Eagles.

An injury to backup center David Molk brought Vandervelde back to Philadelphia that time, but a week later injuries at the inside linebacker position led the team to re-sign Najee Goode, and Vandervelde was the odd man out in the numbers game. Then Gardner was injured against the Jets and Vandervelde, who watched the game from his new apartment, started staring at the phone.

"You never know what's wrong based on watching it on TV," Vandervelde said. "I was thinking, 'Oh, he rolled his ankle. He'll be fine. He'll come back in.' Then he doesn't, and you think, 'Well, it's precautionary. [Matt] Tobin's started before.' Me and Gardner roomed together the entire summer. I feel terrible about what happened. Unfortunately, it's the nature of the business."

Vandervelde's agent texted him on Monday that he would be returning to the Eagles and he reported and was assigned a new locker. He has been stationed in almost every part of the locker room during his time with the team. When he took the No. 61 jersey off the hanger in his locker before, he noticed that the name hadn't been removed during his time away. Obviously, the equipment guys can count transactions, too.

"Guys came up to me and welcomed me back and shook my hand," Vandervelde said. "Ced [Cedric Thornton] said, 'Oh, hey. What's up?' I don't think he knows I was gone."

The best news, at least from Vandervelde's perspective, was that his return didn't trigger another body composition test, which is usually required for players coming in the door.

"That stupid body fat test," Vandervelde said. "You sit there with your shirt off and they pinch you in all the worst places. Like, 'I'm going to put one finger in your belly button and one out here and then grab the whole thing.' But not this time and I'm really happy about that."

Vandervelde is realistic enough to understand that this rocket ship to the top might not last. He said that every time he leaves, he prepares mentally for never coming back while he prepares physically for the possibility of coming back. One of these times, he won't.

There are other things he could do. He is fascinated with Japanese culture and minored in Japanese at Iowa. He would like to teach English in Japan. He is also a talented amateur singer and might pursue that given the chance. He is also developing comic books for the Internet, including one called "The Mississippi Mersquatch," which Vandervelde says is "a lesser-known mytho-zoological wonder based on a love child between a mermaid and a sasquatch that lives in the Mississippi River."

If he had his way, of course, the football thing would finally click and he would have a long career with the Eagles. Right now, he's a just backup on the fringe of the roster, and one fully versed in the flight schedules between Philadelphia and Davenport.

"There's a little frustration any time things don't go entirely as planned. If I had planned things out better, I'd be an established starter in the NFL now. Of course, everyone in the game could say that," Vandervelde said. "Sooner or later, if you stick around long enough, you'll get your shot. I'm waiting for mine."

With that, Vandervelde stripped off his practice jersey and took one more look. The name was still there and, for this week anyway, so is the player.

bford@phillynews.com

@bobfordsports