WINNIPEG — With the the 2010 National Football League season kicking off with a game on Thursday, Sept. 9, between Minnesota and New Orleans, Vikings’ quarterback Sage Rosenfels must have shed more than a few tears when the soon to be 41-year-old icon Brent Favre made his annual dramatic but tardy entrance to training camp in mid-August.
Sage Rosenfels, seen here taking a snap, was hoping to be Vike’s No. 1 QB. [Minnesota Vikings’ photo]
The Jewish backup signal-caller probably knew when the Vikings lost their opportunity to reach the Super Bowl last year in a last-minute playoff loss that Favre’s fear of retirement – plus a giant ego – would motivate him to return one more time.
Consequently, Rosenfels, 32, will automatically fall to second or third on the team’s depth chart, where he will once again, clipboard in hand, patrol the Vikings’ sidelines like a loyal scout wondering what might have been had the QB legend been a mere mortal.
Drafted out of Iowa State by the Redskins in the fourth round in 2001, Rosenfels lettered in football, basketball, baseball and tennis. He’s already had stops in Washington, Miami and Houston. When he came to the Vikings, he had to give up his chai (18) number and was ironically given uniform number 2, which in itself speaks volumes since, he so often has missed out on being a starting signal-caller. As for his name, Sage, that’s somewhat suitable, too, in that he is a member of the National Honor Society in football, having earned high marks in the classroom.
With the upcoming Super Bowl to be held in Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Feb. 6, a pair of Jewish stalwarts, both starters with Dallas, won’t have to travel far if their team manages to make it to the final.
Defensive right end Igor Olshansky, the first Russian-born player in the NFL, previously played six seasons with the Chargers in San Diego. The 28-year-old, who stands 6-6 and tips the scales at 315 pounds, is in the second year of an $18-million (US) pact and earns every bit of it.
Last season, the onetime Oregon standout played in all 16 games and started 14. He’s known as a blue-collar worker who flashes occasional bursts of pressure and is a steady run-stopper while shielding off blockers. Proud of his heritage, Olshansky sports two Star of David tattoos on his body.
An interesting thing happened to Olshansky last year in his inaugural training camp with the Cowboys, when he discovered another Jewish player, Kyle Kosier, an offensive left guard who hails from Arizona State and is now in his 10th year in the league and his fifth in Dallas.
Not unlike Olshansky, Kosier at 31, is a giant of a man at 6-5 and 307 pounds. He’s described by observers as being rock solid, not terribly athletically gifted, but smart and dependable and a hard worker. He is one of those under-appreciated types, but it’s been said that the offence struggles when Kosier isn’t out there. Last year he started and played in all 16 games, and Dallas had a respectable record of 11-5.
In a specialty role, there is 17-year veteran long snapper David Binn, 38, who played at the University of California Berkeley, where he was also a linebacker. He is 6-3 and weighs 228 pounds, and because of his speed he can also cover on punts. The son of a Jewish father, he’s the last remaining player from the San Diego Chargers’ Super Bowl cast and is the team’s all-time leader in career-games played.
Adam Podlesh, 27, is back as punter with the Jacksonville Jaguars and possesses a strong leg. The 5-11, 200-pounder played his college ball with the Terrapins at Maryland and appeared in all of his team’s 16 games last year. His kicking average in 2009 was 41.9 yards, just below his four-year career average of 42.2.
Offensive left tackle Geoff Schwartz of the Carolina Panthers is a 6-6, 331-pound offensive left tackle who is only 24 and in his third year with the club. The Panthers drafted him in the seventh round in 2008. He’s known to be nasty and works hard to finish his blocks. An all-round athlete, he excelled in baseball and basketball as well as football at the University of Oregon. A political science major, it has been said he could have chosen baseball as a career considering the number of scouts who followed him at the amateur level. Schwartz is rated second on the depth chart at his position with a team that has one of the top-rated offensive lines in the NFL.
Considering the fact that wide receiver Julian Edelman, 24, out of Kent State, was selected in the seventh round of the 2009 Draft, he was a real find for the New England Patriots. In his rookie season, he played in 11 games, starting in seven. Only 5-10, despite what the program might say, he’s only 198 pounds. Julian appears more suited to the Canadian Football League. Nonetheless, in his rookie campaign, he latched on to 37 Tom Brady passes for 359 yards. He also caught a pair of TD strikes in the Patriots’ 33-14 playoff loss to Baltimore. Interestingly, he was a three-year starter in college as a quarterback, where in his final year he suffered a broken arm.
In the rookie department, the San Francisco 49ers drafted Taylor Mays, a free safety from the University of California who is an African-American Jew. His dad is Stafford Mays, a one-time defensive lineman in the NFL, and mother Laurie Mays (nee Black) is a Nordstrom executive. Taylor made it big in college, where he won All-Pac10 honours twice and was also an All-American three times after a college career in which he played in 48 of 52 games. He was chosen as one of the top three finalists for the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s best defensive back.
The Seattle-born player was raised Jewish and had a bar mitzvah. In his college yearbook, he commented on that significant event in his life. “I don’t think at the time I really understood what it meant. Now that I am looking back on it, I feel like I have come a long way in regards to maturity and becoming an adult.”
Hopefully he will go a long way, too, as a pro in the NFL.
