Jewish Giants of the NFL: Linemen Geoff and Mitch Schwartz Talk Football and Faith in New Book
Mitch
Neither of us realized it at the time, but my arrival in the league was an historic event for ethnographically inclined students of the game. I don’t know who researched the matter, but before I had even played my first game, someone decided to find out how many Jewish brothers had played together in the NFL. It turns out Geoff and I were the first fraternal “members of the tribe” to roam the fields of the NFL since Ralph and Arnold Horween played in 1923.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that someone would research this. Growing up, as huge sports fans and as Jews, we were definitely aware of the few professional athletes who were Jewish. It was just common knowledge. Something you discover about a player because . . . well, there just aren’t that many of us in the world of professional sports. According to the U.S. Census, Jews make up about 2.2 percent of the U.S. population. Assuming that metric is accurate, Jews as a demographic group are underrepresented in pro sports. That fact leads to a joke every Jewish kid knows: What’s the shortest book ever written? Jewish Sports Legends.