Football fans are gearing up for the Super Bowl, North America’s largest annual professional sporting event. As the country’s best football teams prepare to meet at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona for Super Bowl XLIX, let’s take a few moments to look at the Jewish contributions to the game.

But first, a bit of Torah. A good rabbi is able to look at practically any phenomenon and teach a Torah lesson from it. Simcha Barnett and Eric Coopersmith must be good at their jobs because of the lesson they extracted from the New England Patriots’ surprise win over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.

“Throughout the entire season, the Patriots players refused to be introduced individually, as is traditionally done at the start of NFL games. Even fines from the league office could not deter their statement that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. In the process, the Patriots discovered perhaps the greatest human tool: the power of unity.”

The rabbis continue with examples of how Jews, when united, have excelled whether they were receiving the Torah at Sinai, fighting in the Six Day War or struggling on behalf of Soviet Jewry. And then they conclude that “the most memorable moments in sports are those where the talents of individuals fuse into the almost mystical indivisibility of the whole, as the harmonious interplay leaves us awed and lifted.” [bit.ly/jball2]

As for the Patriots, they went on to win three Super Bowls under the leadership of owner Robert Kraft. Shortly after their third win, Kraft was in Jerusalem to attend the unveiling of the newly refurbished Kraft Family Stadium, donated to the local league, American Football in Israel. As Kraft said, “My mother and father would’ve been proud of our Super Bowl wins, but much more of the work we’ve done in Israel.” [bit.ly/jball5]

Former NFL Coach of the Year Marv Levy presided over the Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills (as well as the Canadian Football League is Montreal Alouettes north of the border). [bit.ly/jball10] In a 2002 interview with Sports Illustrated, Levy was asked to name the other Jews in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was able to remember two. Do you know them all? You’ll find their profiles along with bios of over 450 other Jewish football players at the JewsInSports.org website. [bit.ly/jball11]

Whom can you cheer on right now? Wikipedia’s Jews in Football includes a dozen current (and recent) Jewish players including brothers Geoff Schwartz (offensive tackle, New York Giants) and Mitchell Schwartz (offensive tackle, Cleveland Browns), free agent Brandon Kaufman (wide receiver, Buffalo Bills) and Gabe Carimi (guard and tackle, Atlanta Falcons). [bit.ly/jball13]

When Carimi played tackle for the University of Wisconsin Badgers he was faced with a dilemma: whether to fast just before an evening game against Iowa in the Big Ten Conference opener. Carimi fasted. He then played. And he won. “Religion is a part of me, and I don’t want to just say I’m Jewish. I actually do make sacrifices that I know are hard choices.” In March 2011, the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame awarded him the Marty Glickman Award, as the male Jewish Athlete of the Year. [bit.ly/jball14]

For six years, Alan Veingrad was an offensive lineman for the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys. While in Green Bay, he was invited by a local family to join them in a nearby synagogue. “When I heard the Hebrew,” he told the New York Times, “I felt a pull.” Veingrad – now Shlomo Veingrad – has developed strong ties with the Chabad community and when he appears as a motivational speaker, he wears both his tzitzit and his Super Bowl ring. [bit.ly/jball15]

But have these nice Jewish boys been breaking a Torah prohibition by enjoying their game while tossing around a football made from pigskin? Rabbi David Samson says there’s nothing to worry about. “One is not allowed to eat the flesh of a pig, but a Jew could make a football from its skin.” [bit.ly/jball16]

Truth be told, there really could be no problem. Pigskins, you see, contain no pig skin. [bit.ly/jball17]

ON THE FIELD TODAY

Gabriel Andrew Carimi
Atlanta Falcons #68
Born: June 13, 1988 in Lake Forest, Ill.
Position: Guard/Tackle

Gabriel Carimi had 49 starts at left tackle in his four-year Wisconsin Badgers college career, which culminated at the 2011 Rose Bowl. He was awarded the 2010 Outland Trophy, as the nation’s top collegiate interior lineman. He was also a unanimous All-American, and the Big Ten Offensive Lineman of the Year. Carimi was drafted by the Chicago Bears in the first round, 29th overall pick, of the 2011 NFL Draft. He began the 2011 season as the Bears’ starting right tackle. Carimi was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, on June 9, 2013, for the Buccaneers 2014 sixth round pick. He signed with the Falcons in 2014.

Carimi’s parents are Jewish; his mother, originally Catholic, converted to Judaism, and has had an active role in the religious education of her children. Carimi is a practicing Jew who found time as a youth to both go to his football practices and to attend Madison’s Temple Beth-El, a Reform synagogue. By the time of his bar mitzvah, he was already so tall that while blessing him, and even with Carimi bending down, the synagogue’s education director had to put his hands on Carimi’s shoulders rather than atop his head. For his bar mitzvah project, he helped build a house for Habitat for Humanity while he was in seventh grade. Carimi continued his Jewish studies after his bar mitzvah.

At the 2011 NFL combine, when asked whether he would play on Yom Kippur in the NFL, he responded: “I already looked out over the next 15 years, and Yom Kippur doesn’t fall on a Sunday.”

As a college player he took the nickname “The Jewish Hammer” or “The Hammer.”

He explains that as The Hebrew Hammer was taken “they had to come up with something else,” and that the “hammer” aspect refers to his penchant for throwing opposing players down on the field. A more recent nickname, following his being picked by the Chicago Bears, is “The Bear Jew”, a reference to a character in the 2009 film “Inglourious Basterds.” One of his favorite Jewish football players was a former Badger, Matt Bernstein, and he looks to 49ers former offensive linesman Harris Barton as a role model.

Brian Louis de la Puente
Chicago Bears #64
Born: May 13, 1985 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Position: Center/Guard

De la Puente was signed by the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2008. De la Puente has also been a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, Carolina Panthers, Seattle Seahawks, and New Orleans Saints.

De la Puente’s mother, Carrie, is Jewish. His paternal grandfather is of Mexican descent. While in high school he learned sign language in order to better communicate with his youngest sister, who is deaf.

Nate Ebner
New England Patriots #43
Born: Dec. 14, 1988 in Dublin, Ohio
Position: Safety

Nate Ebner played rugby on the U.S. age group national team as a junior, and college football at Ohio State. He was chosen by the Patriots in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL draft, and has played for the team since 2012.

His father, Jeff Ebner, a former religious school principal at Temple Shalom in Springfield, Ohio, was beaten to death in a robbery in 2008 at the family business, Ebner & Sons auto reclamation in Springfield, Ohio. His father’s killer was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

Julian Francis Edelman
New England Patriots #11
Born: May 22, 1986 in Redwood City, Calif.
Position: Wide Receiver/Punt Returner

Julian Edelman was drafted in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL Draft by the Patriots. He played college football for Kent State and the College of San Mateo as a quarterback. Edelman holds the Patriots’ record for longest punt return and the most punts returned for touchdowns. Edelman is the son of Angie and Francis Edelman. He has Jewish ancestry on his father’s side, but was raised a Christian. More recently, on an NFL Network interview, Edelman stated that he is Jewish.

Brandon Kaufman
Currently a free agent
Born: Oct. 26, 1990 in Denver, Colo.
Position: Wide receiver

Brandon Kaufman was a three-year player at Eastern Washington University. In 2010, as a sophomore he had 15 touchdowns, the second-most in school history, to help lead the school to the 2010 NCAA Division 1 Football Championship Subdivision National Championship. In 2012, he set the FCS single-season receiving yards record, recording 93 receptions for 1,850 yards and 16 touchdowns. He was a two-time Football Subdivision All-American. He declared early for the 2013 NFL draft. He signed with the Buffalo Bills as a free agent on April 29, 2013. Kaufman is the son of Steve and Rhonda Kaufman. He was named to the Jewish Sports Review 2012 College Football All-America Team.

Erik Lorig
New Orleans Saints #41
Born: Nov. 17, 1986 in Rolling Hills, Calif.
Position: Fullback

Erik Lorig played defensive end in college football at Stanford. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the seventh round of the 2010 NFL Draft, converted to fullback in his rookie season, and played for the team for four years. In March 2014, the New Orleans Saints signed Lorig to a four-year contract. Lorig is of Jewish descent on his father’s side and of Scandinavian descent on his mother’s side.

Taylor Mays
Cincinnati Bengals #26
Born: Feb. 7, 1988 in Irving, Tex.
Position: Safety

Taylor Mays played college football for the University of Southern California (USC), and was a three-time All-American. He was chosen in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers.

The son of Stafford Mays, a former NFL defensive lineman, and Laurie Mays a Nordstrom executive, Mays is African-American and Jewish, and was raised Jewish. Of his bar mitzvah, he said: “I don’t think at the time I really understood what it meant. Now, looking back on it, I feel like I have come a long way in regards to maturity and becoming an adult. I think it helped me do that.”

Adam Podlesh
Currently a free agent
Born: August 11, 1983 in Rochester, N.Y.
Position: Punter

Adam Podlesh played college football for the Maryland Terrapins, and is the only player in school history to be on the All-Atlantic Coast Conference team for four years. His punting average of 43.1 yards ranks second in school history. He has been a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers. On April 15, 2014, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed Podlesh to a one-year deal. He was released by the Steelers on September 30, 2014. He was named to the Jewish Sports Review’s 2005 College Football All-America Team.

Geoffrey Isaiah Schwartz
New York Giants #74
Born: July 11, 1986 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Position: Offensive Guard

Geoff Schwartz was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL Draft. He played in all 16 games for the Panthers in 2009, and started all 16 games in 2010 playing both right tackle and right guard, but was injured in 2011. He played for the Minnesota Vikings in 2012, and played all 16 games for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013 while starting seven. In 2014, he signed a four-year deal to play for the New York Giants.

Schwartz and his brother, Mitchell Schwartz, an offensive tackle for the Cleveland Browns, are the first Jewish brothers to play in the NFL since Ralph Horween and Arnold Horween, in 1923.

The son of Lee Schwartz and Olivia Goodkin, he was raised in Conservative Judaism, and attended Hebrew school and synagogue at Adat Shalom in West Los Angeles. When he is on the road during Chanukah, he carries a menorah with him and lights its candles in his hotel room.

Schwartz didn’t start playing football until age 13. Firstly, he was too heavy for the weight requirements of the local youth program. Secondly, his parents wanted him to instead focus on studying for his bar mitzvah. Schwartz credits his size-19 shoe size to an excess of matzah ball soup and latkes.

Schwartz is “proud to be a role model to young Jewish kids and athletes, letting them know it’s possible for them to reach their goals.”

Schwartz’s father, speaking of the fact that he has two sons playing in the National Football League, said: “I just kvell.” His mother, commenting on having two sons play football, said, “I started out worrying that they were going to get hurt—but then I realized it was the other players I should be worrying about. They were like trucks hitting small cars. And I started to kind of feel like maybe this was their destiny.”

Mitchell Bryan Schwartz
Cleveland Browns #72
Born: June 8, 1989 in
Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Position: Offensive Tackle

Mitchell Schwartz played college football at the University of California, Berkeley, for the Golden Bears. He started all 51 games possible from 2008–11, at either left tackle or right tackle. He was named second-team All-Pac-10 as a junior, and first-team All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 All-Academic as a senior. He also earned honorable mention Pac-10 All-Academic (2008–10), and the Brick Muller Award as Cal’s Most Valuable Offensive Lineman (2009–11), for three seasons each. Schwartz was drafted in the 2nd round (37th overall) by the Browns in the 2012 NFL draft. He started all 16 games of his rookie year at right tackle. His brother, Geoff Schwartz, is an offensive guard for the New York Giants (see above). Schwartz didn’t start playing football until he was a freshman in high school. First, he was extremely large for his age; when he started the ninth grade, he was already 6 feet 5 inches tall and 240 pounds – making him too big for the size restrictions of the local Pop Warner youth leagues. Second, his parents wanted him to instead focus on studying for his bar mitzvah.

Information included in this article was culled from Wikipedia.com.