Zoltan Mesko
Episode 207
16 JAN 2023
He was selected in the fifth round of the National Football League Draft in 2010 and went on to a pro career with the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Cincinnati Bengals, including playing in a Super Bowl. He had played his college football at the University of Michigan after having become one of the best high school football kickers in the nation, excelling both as a punter and placekicker. For his first season in the NFL, he set a rookie record for net punting yard average. Off the field, he started a Foundation, which he talks about during this interview.
Notable guest quotes:
“My story starts on the Eastern Bloc behind the Iron Curtain. I was born… before communism was overthrown in Romania, so we had a dictator, so… life was very hard… There was bullets literally flying through our apartment building… on Christmas Eve.”
“I feel very, very fortunate and blessed to have my dad just on a whim having applied for that green card lottery.”
“But I did find an organization on campus called Athletes In Action that somehow helped me set an anchor to what really started to matter and I think that was sort of a catalyst of a transformation.”
“I used prayer and God as a rabbit’s foot to the means to an end of football.”
“I still remember being at St. Elizabeth’s Church… in Cleveland, praying that my weight would go up.”
“Even into my first, second, third year with the Patriots, lo and behold I was praying for a good average or a good performance.”
“I really, I didn’t like the fact that I was using my faith as a rabbit’s foot. And I felt a little helpless.”
“(Catholic journalist) Trent Beattie was kind enough to share a book with me about St. Ignatius of Loyola. And I read his book and I was really surprised by what the definition of a saint was.”
“It’s okay to not be perfect and maybe be made perfect through prayer and God – the forgiveness of that.”
“Now that I look back on this plan that I feel like God has for all of us and for myself as I look back at the timeline, there is not a single piece that I would change about it.”
“I actually did the reading for our (Patriots’ team) Mass on Saturday nights… and then I also partook in the kind of non-denominational version of the Bible study led by teammates and sometimes a chaplain as well.”
