Sorry Ben, but I have to admit I missed your link to the Chabad story about Alan Veingrad the first time around. Thanks for reposting it in the comments for yesterday’s “Retired footballer goes frum” post.
I love stories on Jewish athletes—the Jewish Jesse Owens, Jordan Farmar, etc.—and this deeper profile of Veingrad is a good one.
Here is an excerpt:
Meet Alan Veingrad. Offensive lineman. Green Bay Packer. Dallas Cowboy.
Champion.
Alan, winner of Super Bowl XXVII as a member of the 1992 Dallas Cowboys, had a great life. “A life that anybody would have wanted,” as he put it. He was a gifted athlete with a wonderful personal life. He had grown from a normal kid living in South Florida into one of the most successful athletes in the world.
And yet there always seemed to be someone else beside him. Someone walking with him on his journey from Florida to college in Texas to the Pros. It watched him as he grew up, practiced with him as he groomed himself into a master lineman, it even sat with him as he went fishing. Who was this? Who was watching him, who was practicing with him, who went fishing with him?
Meet Shlomo Veingrad.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.