Zoltan Mesko

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Zoltan Mesko
Zoltan Mesko (American football) .JPG
Zoltan Mesko (2011)
Position (s):
Punter 		Jersey numbers:
14, 4
born on March 6, 1986 in Timișoara , Romania
Career information
Active : 2010 - 2013
NFL Draft : 2010 / Round: 5 / Pick: 150
College : Michigan
Teams
Career statistics
Punts     209
Long punt     65
Net punting yard average     40.3
Stats at NFL.com
Stats at pro-football-reference.com
Career highlights and awards
  • First Team All-Big Ten Conference (2008, 2009)

Zoltán Meskó (born March 6, 1986 in Timișoara , Romania ) is an American American football player of Hungarian origin. The 1.93 meter tall Mesko plays the position of punter in the National Football League (NFL) .

biography

Mesko as a member of the Michigan Wolverines (2008)

Meskó grew up in the Socialist Republic of Romania and experienced the turmoil of the Romanian Revolution as a child and member of the Hungarian minority . He lived through a childhood full of poverty and danger, which he characterized as "perpetual shortage of food" and "constant gunfire". The parents successfully applied for an American green card and emigrated to the United States when Zoltán was ten years old. In Cleveland , Meskó, who was an avid soccer player , first met American football and soon became a promising kicker . In indoor football ( kickball ) he once kicked the ball so forcefully that it broke the overhead lights. When it was foreseeable in high school how tall Meskó would be (1.93 meters today), he was retrained from kicker to punter .

When the Meskós realized that Zoltán could go to a prestigious university with American football ("My parents could hardly believe that you can already get a university scholarship if you can kick a football far"), his mother put a "best of" -Video of her son's best punts, sent them to 86 universities and received so many commitments that Meskó was virtually free to choose. Eventually he chose the University of Michigan and became a member of the local football team, the Michigan Wolverines .

Meskó established himself as one of the pillars of the Wolverines. He was elected twice to the first team of the All-Big Ten Conference, set a new Wolverines record in 2009 with 44.5 yards per punt and became the first Wolverines captain to belong to the special teams . When he hoped to get into the field of vision of the NFL scouts, he said that his name, which is unusual by American standards, was positive because it was more likely to be remembered than if his name was "Jim Smith". In the 2010 NFL Draft he was the 150th player from the New England Patriots , whose head coach Bill Belichick hoped to stamp out the rather average performance of the previous punter Chris Hanson .

Meskó immediately became the Patriots' new punter. In the years 2010 to 2012 he took part in all 16 regular season games and reached the Super Bowl XLVI with the Patriots , which was lost to the New York Giants at 17:21 . In 2011 Meskó managed a remarkable 41.5 net yards per punt (46.5 yards in absolute terms), and in 2012 he managed to nail his opponent in his own 20-yard line with 46.7 percent of his punts. In 2013, Mesko was fired from the Patriots as New England signed new punter Ryan Allen . Meskó joined the Pittsburgh Steelers and played there until October 2013, until after a moderate performance (only 36.7 net yards per punt) in the game against the Oakland Raiders , he failed two punts (one was blocked, one only flew 30 Yards away). Meskó was then released.

Private life

Meskó has degrees in business administration and sports science and speaks five languages. He is the son of Mihály and Erzsébet Meskó, an engineer couple. Mihály Meskó was a professional bowling player in Romania .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Zoltan Mesko: A journey worth smiling about , michigandaily.com
  2. ↑ a b c Meet the NFL's Most Interesting Man , WSJ.com
  3. ^ A kick out of life , boston.com
  4. ^ Steelers waive P Zoltan Mesko , ESPN.com
  5. ↑ Zoltan Mesko - Official New England Patriots Biography ( Memento of the original from April 27, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , patriots.com  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.patriots.com
personal data
SURNAME Mesko, Zoltan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meskó, Zoltán
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American football player
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1986
PLACE OF BIRTH Timișoara , Romania