A two-sport star until the NCAA decided last summer that Bloom cast aside his eligibility to play football for the University of Colorado by accepting endorsement fees as a skier, the mogul specialist/receiver/punt returner hasn't dismissed the thought of playing football professionally.

"I miss it," he said Thursday after winning a World Cup moguls competition at the Deer Valley Resort. "This is America, and football is on TV almost every weekend in the fall. And obviously, the Super Bowl is coming up. . . . It just gets my football nerves running really high.

"I'm trying to focus on skiing right now, but I know that the NFL is a possibility for me in 2006 [following the Winter Games in Turin, Italy]. Maybe I'll try that out."

While missing your final two years of college football isn't the typical rout to the NFL, the 5-foot-9 Bloom - who holds onto his collegiate career with a helmet decorated in Buffs' gold and with his No. 15 emblazoned upon it - has demonstrated an uncanny ability on the football field. And he's used to interrupting the football rhythms of his life.

Following a standout high school career at Loveland, Colo., Bloom agreed to play for Colorado. But only after taking a year off so he could concentrate on the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, where he finished ninth in the moguls competition.

Upon returning to Colorado, he not only returned the very first punt he caught for 75 yards and a touchdown against Colorado State, but he also caught the longest pass in Colorado history - 94 yards against Kansas -and returned a punt a record 80 yards for a touchdown in the Big 12 championship game.

By season's end, Bloom ranked fifth nationally in punt returns, averaging 16.8 yards per return.

While Bloom will be yet one more year removed from organized football by the time the 2006 NFL scouting combine arrives, he won't necessarily be out of the minds of the scouts. Bloom's agency, the Park City-based Icon Sports Group, specializes in the NFL, and no doubt will make sure to keep their athlete's name in the air.

If the NFL doesn't work out, well, the 22-year-old already is constructing a corporate identity. He's appeared in GQ, Ski, and Skiing magazines, worked as a model for Tommy Hilfiger, and the current issue of Maxim features Bloom in an Under Armour advertisement.

Soon, according to his Web site (www.jeremybloom.com), the athlete/model will debut his own line of apparel and products.

Not bad for a banished college football player.