IRVING, TEXAS -- There wasn't any fanfare except maybe a little sigh of relief.
Dallas Cowboys defensive back Jeff Heath tries to bring down Houston Texans wide receiver Andy Cruse in the final preseason for both teams.
Over the weekend, Saginaw Valley University alum Jeff Heath anxiously waited to hear from the Dallas Cowboys if he would be part of the team's final 53-man roster.
As the team brought players up from the locker room to meet with coach Jason Garrett, no one tapped Heath on the shoulder.
No one pulled him aside.
A meeting with Garrett never happened.
And that's how Heath knew he had made the team.
"If you don't get cut, you just don't get told you were released, that's pretty much all that happens," Heath said. "They were starting to release guys on Friday. We had a run, workout and a couple meetings so we were all in the locker room, and there's a guy coming around who tells you coach Garrett wants to see you. You are just hoping you aren't the next guy."
Heath described the 48 hours leading up the 5 p.m. Saturday roster deadline as "nerve-racking," but most writers and analysts covering the team had the undrafted free agent signee making the roster.
After going into Cowboys' training camp as a relative unknown Division II prospect, the safety's performance made everyone from the coaching staff to the media take notice.
"(Heath) He was a guy who came from outside the radar," Garrett said in his Monday press conference. "He showed; hey, I'm a good football player you need to keep me. He did that in practice and preseason games, and that's good for your football team when that happens."
Despite a strong showing in the preseason, Heath knew his status depended on a lot of factors he couldn't control.
"I thought I played well, but in the end you don't know," Heath said. "It comes down to a lot of factors, some of it's a numbers game -- how many guys they have at a certain position -- and money is involved, so you never know what's going to happen."
Now that Heath is on the roster, he knows his work has really just begun.
"It's a little weight off my shoulders, but rosters are always changing and I know I have a lot of work to do to be the player I want to be," Heath said. "My entire attitude coming in was that I was going to do everything I could with every opportunity I was given, and that's what I'm going to continue to do."
The next time Heath takes the field will be at 8:30 p.m. Sunday night in the Cowboys opener against the New York Giants at AT&T Stadium.
"I can't imagine what it's going to be like," Heath said. "There is supposed to be more than 100,000 people in the stadium, we are playing against a division rival, it's going to be awesome."
Two of those 100,000 fans will be Heath's parents, who will make the trip from the suburbs of Detroit.
Heath said one of the most emotional moments of making the team was getting to call his dad Mike Heath to tell him he had made the team.
"It's like his dream is coming true too," Heath said. "He coached me starting when I was seven-years-old running the youth league all the way up to my senior year at Lake Orion High School."