By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel -
Each time all-star quarterback Tom Brady gets the football in the Superbowl game on Sunday, he’s relying a Jewish bodyguard to prevent several massive heavyweights on the opposing team from pounding him into the turf.
Tampa Bay Buccaneer offensive lineman Alex “Ali” Marpet plays the left guard position and his job is to keep the Kansas City Chief’s defensive linemen – average weight around 290 pounds without equipment – from getting to Brady.
At a massive six-foot-four inches tall and 307 pounds, Marpet, 27, is one of the few Jewish players in the National Football League and is proud of his heritage. Raised in the village of Hastings-on-Hudson, just north of New York City, he visited Israeli in 2014 on a college Birthright trip, before being drafted to the NFL
Marpet said it would be “a huge honor” to represent Jewish athletes. “I’m happy to wave that flag,” he told the JTA.
Known for his calm and modest demeanor, Marpet is also one of the best in the league at his position and in 2018 signed a five-year contract extension worth $55 million.
Unfortunately, Marpet appears to be the only Jewish player who will be playing in this year’s Superbowl, as Kansas City’s all-star defensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz has been out with a back injury since the first half of the season.
Schwartz’s brother Geoff was also an offensive guard in the NFL, playing for five different teams before retiring in 2017.
Their mother, Olivia, at first worried her boys might get injured playing a dangerous sport, but then reconsidered.
“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,” she told Tablet magazine.
Image: All-Pro Reels, CC BY-SA 2.0 <;, via Wikimedia Commons
