GOING PRO
On the diamond and on the hardcourt, on turf and on ice, former Maverick athletes are playing for pay around the world — some even reaching the pinnacles of their sports.
By Greg Kozol
It’s not likely that Ralph Waldo Emerson could have drilled a 58-yard field goal, buckled a batter’s knees with a wicked curveball or posterized an opponent with a tomahawk-jam.
But the transcendentalist poet-philosopher from Beantown still was something of a kindred soul with many Maverick athletes now getting a paycheck playing sports.
For many of them, pro sports aren’t about glitz, glamour and groupies. Rather, it’s about the grind.
But though reaching the pinnacle is the goal, getting there is the fun.
Or, as Emerson is attributed with saying, “'It’s the not the destination, it's the journey.”
Never has UNO had so many of its former athletes on the journey of professional sports. A few of them are even known nationally.
Former Maverick kicker Greg Zuerlein was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in January after booting the winning field goal that sent the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl. Jake Guentzel and Josh Archibald helped the Pittsburgh Penguins to the 2017 Stanley Cup.
More typically, however, most former Mavericks who earn a paycheck playing professionally are grinding away day by day striving to reach the top of their sport. Or, in some cases, to get back to it.
Tyler Cloyd is at spring training with the Tampa Bay Rays trying to pitch his way to the bigs again. Jayson Megna is skating in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with hopes of joining his brother on NHL ice. Mike Rostampour has hustled up and down courts in Mexico, El Salvador, Slovakia and now Iran.
Drinking from the Cup
Jake Guentzel (pictured, above) has had a meteoric rise with Pittsburgh since joining the team in 2016 following three seasons at UNO.
He scored two goals in his NHL debut against the New York Rangers in November 2016, the first on his first-ever shot. Then, in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Guentzel led all NHL scorers with 13 goals and tied the playoff record for points by a rookie with 21.
Guentzel scored the winning goal in Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Nashville Predators, helping the Penguins become the first repeat champions in 19 years.
Helping Guentzel and the Penguins to the championship was another former Mav, Josh Archibald. Andrej Sustr played for the Tampa Bay Lighting in the 2015 Stanley Cup Finals.
Guentzel photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Penguins/Joe Sargent
Getting a Legatron up with the Rams
Rams kicker Greg Zuerlein became the first UNO graduate to score in a Super Bowl when his team fell to New England 13-3 in February.
Zuerlein — known as “Greg the Leg” and “Legatron” — had propelled the Rams into the Super Bowl with a 57-yard winning kick in overtime vs. the New Orleans Saints in the NFC Championship. That came after he hit a 48-yarder with eight seconds left in regulation to force the extra period. And Zuerlein did it all with an aching foot that he injured at halftime of that game when stepping on a metal plate near the field surface.
In Super Bowl LIII, Zuerlein hit a 53-yard field goal in the third quarter to force a 3-3 tie.
Zuerlein began his career with the Rams in 2012 when they were in St. Louis. For his career he has made 177 fields and 222 extra points for 753 total points scored.
Zuerlein photo courtesy of Los Angles Rams
Three other former Mavs also have played in the Super Bowl: Marlin Briscoe (Miami, 1973 and 1974), Chris Bober (New York Giants, 2001) and Chris Cooper (Oakland Raiders, 2003).
Mike Rostampour
Mike Rostampour says the life of a professional athlete is both a struggle and a thrill. He describes a typical day as waking at 8 a.m., eating breakfast, going to a two-hour practice, getting lunch, taking a nap, going to a more intense two-hour practice then going home.
“Repeat over and over,” he says. “We only have Sundays off. Most jobs aren't as physically taxing.”
Rostampour says he's been treated well, living in five-star hotels in El Salvador and Mexico and getting a free apartment and two free meals a day at his most recent pro stop in Prievidza, Slovakia.
He’s currently taking a break from the pros having made the Iranian national basketball team. The team is trying to qualify for the FIBA World Cup in China this summer. Rostampour, whose father is from Abadan, Iran, near the border with Iraq, is living in Tehran. The country’s basketball federation pays for his food, housing and transportation. When the World Cup ends, he plans to stay in Iran and play in that country’s professional league.
No matter where he plays, Rostampour takes the uncertainty of being a professional athlete in stride. The biggest challenge, he says, is the stress of working on short-term contracts and not knowing where he'll end up next. And injuries don't just mean missed playing time — they can put a player in the unemployment line.
“You really have to take care of yourself,” the 6-foot-8 forward says. “If you have an injury, it can cause problems. You can get cut. You have to stay on top of that. My body is my job. It's my moneymaker.”
To stay on the court, Rostampour brings his own medical kit with an ice machine, icy-hot cream and other supplies.
“You can love basketball but not be a professional basketball player. A lot of guys will see it's a grind.”
Photo courtesy of @FIBAWC
Tyler Cloyd
Tyler Cloyd also understands the uncertainty that comes with life as a professional athlete. Cloyd made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2012 then missed a season due to Tommy John surgery. He’s since bounced among the independent league, the minor leagues and two teams in the majors. He’s also pitched in Korea.
Cloyd spent 2018 with the Miami Marlins organization, pitching 17 innings in seven games for the big-league club. He became a free agent after 2018 and in February signed with Tampa Bay hoping to win a spot in the team’s bullpen (as of press time).
A right-hander, the 31-year-old has pitched more than 1,000 innings in the minor leagues and 112 in the bigs.
He didn’t sign with Tampa Bay until just days before pitchers reported for spring training — but he took that in stride.
“I've been doing it for so many years,” he says. “Being a free agent at the end of the year, it's nothing to me.”
Cloyd calls his major-league debut with the Phillies a “surreal” experience. “You work hard to get to the big-league level,” he says. “You think you know what to expect.”
But he was sent back to the minors, where a player deals with long bus trips and early wake-up calls.
He got that taste of the majors and wants to get it back.
“You have to do the work and continue to get better,” Cloyd says. “When I first got called up, I took that for granted. I feel like that was a good learning experience. It helped me grow into the person and player I am today, understanding what I need to do.”
And though Cloyd says baseball is his job, it hasn't diminished his love of the game.
“When I was in the minors, I really didn't make a whole lot of money,” he says. “I needed to have another job to help for my wife and my family. I've been lucky, I've been in baseball long enough, I can make a living.”
Update: Cloyd was signed and is playing for the Tacoma Rainiers, a Seattle Mariner affiliate.
Photo courtesy of Miami Marlins
Chris Bober
With his playing days having ended more than a decade ago, Chris Bober can bring a more reflective perspective to life as a professional athlete. The offensive lineman started 46 consecutive games at UNO before spending eight seasons with the New York Giants and Kansas City Chiefs. He retired from football in 2008.
When he became a starter, Bober felt a sense of pride in becoming one of the best 32 centers in football. But that’s not what he remembers most.
“When you get to that level, there is so much work involved,” says Bober, who now works in real estate and has an auctioneer's license. “There is so much stress. I would have enjoyed the relationships even more.”
Bober calls the NFL the most competitive environment he's ever experienced. “They are always looking for a way to replace you,” he says. “I was lucky I didn't have an injury that required surgery until I was 30 years old.”
Most fans don't understand the mental work and preparation that goes into today's game, Bober says. Although he loved it, the experience became very much like a job that made him appreciate his college days at UNO.
“I was lucky to go to a smaller university,” he says. “I was around a lot of guys that played at the big-time schools — the Penn States, the Nebraskas. Their college experience was kind of like a job, he says.
Not at UNO.
“My college experience was just about football. The biggest crowd I ever played for was 10,000 people. Some of the guys I played with had that many at practice in college.”
Bober left the game in relatively good health and wouldn't mind if his teenage son got a chance to play in the NFL in the future, if that was in the cards.
“I want him to learn all the things I learned in football,” he says. “How to sacrifice and set goals. How to be a good teammate.”
Those are the things that stick with Bober, even if the job of professional athlete comes with aches, pains and a lack of
job security.
Tra-Deon Hollins
In basketball, Tra-Deon Hollins finds himself on the verge of becoming the first former UNO player to make it to the NBA.
He’s not the only former UNO player chasing that dream. Other one-time Mavs playing professional basketball include Rostampour, Daniel Norl, Marcus Tyus, Randy Reed II and Devin Patterson.
Hollins is tantalizingly close to making the NBA a reality, though. Growing up in Omaha, he dreamed of playing on basketball's biggest stage but didn't always think he could make it.
He made his mark at UNO from 2015-17, twice being named the Summit League's defensive player of the year while setting the university's single-season and career record for steals. He was drafted by the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA G League.
The point guard brought his defensive focus to what serves as the NBA's official minor league for upcoming talent. Hollins was among the top five leaders in assists and steals per game midway through the 2018-19 season.
Hollins says he's gaining confidence and is growing as both a person and a player.
“It's one of the best leagues in the world, besides the NBA,”
he says.
At the same time, the former Maverick star says he's keeping things in perspective, even though he was only a breath from the NBA at the start of the year. That’s easy to do for most G League players.
“I'm doing my laundry,” he says at the start of an interview.
Photo courtesy of Fort Wayne Mad Ants
Jayson & Jaycob Megna
In hockey, former Maverick Jayson Megna also experienced professional sports at the highest level — and now seeks to get back to that stage. Megna, who played the 2011-12 season at UNO, spent time with the Pittsburgh Penguins, New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks before ending with the Washington Capitals organization.
At the start of the 2018-19 season he was playing center with the Hershey Bears, an affiliate of the Capitals in the American Hockey League
“Obviously, that's where everyone wants to play,” he says of the NHL. “There's only a certain amount of jobs. You have to take it on a day-by-day basis. I used to take it harder, more personally. Some things are out of your control.”
Megna says he isn't the most gifted player but makes up for it with work ethic and preparation. He credits his father, who played defensive back for the Miami Dolphins and the New Orleans Saints, with giving him the right mindset for a professional career in sports.
Megna's brother, Jaycob, who also played hockey at UNO, has played in both the AHL and NHL. He was called up to the NHL’s Anaheim Ducks in late January this season.
Jayson was pushing to join him, but he’s also happy to be doing what he’s doing — no matter where he’s at.
“It's still something I love,” he says. “It's what gets me up in the morning.”
Jayson Megna photo courtesy of JustSports Photography
ALSO PLAYed
Here are a few other former Mavs who not only played professionally, but who excelled at it:
Royce Brown
UNO has had numerous former athletes go on to play professionally, most notably in football. The first, it appears was one-time Omaha University footballer Royce Brown, who played for the Cincinnati Bengals.
Brown was part of the then-Cardinals’ football, basketball and track teams. But he excelled most on the gridiron, playing all four years on offense, defense and as a punter.
He continued playing after graduating in 1938, first in the Chicago Cardinals’ training camp then for Cincinnati — but not the Bengals now playing in the NFL. The first Cincinnati Bengals were formed in 1937 as a member of the NFL rival American Football League. The AFL folded after that season, but the Bengals continued as an independent team in 1938. Cincinnati played three NFL squads that year, losing to none of them while finishing 7-2-1. That included a 17-13 win over George Halas’ Chicago Bears.
But that was Brown’s only season as a pro; following his one year with the Bengals, Brown went to work for Swift & Co. in Omaha. “It’s a great life, but there’s no future in professional football,” Brown said. “I think I’ll string along with the meatpacking business.”
Even then, however, his success was seen as a milestone.
“The fact remains,” wrote one reporter, “that Brown’s success is certainly one of Omaha U.’s first major athletic achievements.”
Marlin Briscoe
The best known former Maverick professional athlete, Briscoe in 1968 became professional’s first black starting quarterback, doing so for Denver. He went on to set several passing records with the Broncos that still stand. Later, he became an All-Pro wide receiver for Buffalo then won two Super Bowls with the Miami Dolphins. A movie on his life is in the latter planning stages.
MarTay Jenkins
A lightning-fast receiver, Jenkins played in the NFL for Arizona and Dallas but made his mark on kickoff returns. With Arizona in 2000 he had 82 kickoff returns for 2,186 yards, setting NFL single-season records in both categories that still stand.
Bruce Benedict
The one-time Maverick played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Atlanta Braves from 1978 to 1989. Known more for his defense than for his bat, he was named an All-Star in 1981 and 1983. The latter was his best season at the plate with a .298 batting average, 43 RBI and 61 walks. For his career Benedict hit .242 with 696 hits in 982 games.
Joe Arenas
A 1951 UNO graduate, Arenas was one of the first 20 Hispanics to play in the National Football League, doing so for seven years with the San Francisco 49ers. His best season with the 49ers came in 1953 when he led the league in kickoff returns at 34.4 yards per attempt.
Robert Gordon
A 1990 Maverick graduate, Gordon played 13 years in the Canadian Football League. Six of those were with Winnipeg, which last year inducted him into its hall of fame. For his CFL career, Gordon finished with 623 receptions for 9,539 yards and 50 touchdowns. He also played a handful of seasons in the Arena Football League, where he totaled another 216 receptions for 2,943 yards.