There hasn’t been a Jewish football player in the Super Bowl in quite a long time. According to the Forward, the last two in recent memory were Josh Miller, a punter for the New England Patriots in 2005 and Alan Veingrad, an offensive lineman for the Dallas Cowboys in 1993, who’s now a Chabadnik and goes by Shlomo.
That isn’t to say, though, that there’s been no Jewish presence on Super Bowl Sunday since 2005. There have been celebrities in commercials (Bar Rafaeli in GoDaddy.com comes to mind) to a half-time show with Saul Hudson, better known as rock guitarist Slash of Guns N’ Roses in 2011.
This year, you’ll be surprised to know that headliner Bruno Mars, known for his crooning pop songs including “Gorilla” and “Treasure,” is actually Jewish on his Brooklyn-native father’s side. Joining Mars is the popular rock group the Red Hot Chili Peppers (in an effort to appeal to an “older” audience), which has Jewish guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, and was co-founded by late Israeli-American guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons, who’s currently a member of the very Jewish rock group, The Wallflowers. – I.Z.
