High School Years

I started playing football in the 7th grade. Growing up I predominately played basketball and baseball until middle school. My Uncle Jim was an offensive lineman at Syracuse University in the 1980’s and my Uncle John was a defensive lineman at Lafayette University in the 70’s. Considering I was always the biggest kid growing up and the family history, being a lineman was a natural fit for me.

I went to Commack High School which is located in Suffolk County Long Island. We did not have a reputation for dominance on the gridiron - we were a middle of the pack team playing in the largest classification. We finished 5-3 my senior year barely missing the playoffs. The claim to fame in my home town was in 2001, my freshman year of high school. Commack went to its only Long Island championship game in it’s history. They faced Freeport High School, a Nassau County powerhouse who had a number of Division 1 dudes including D’Brickashaw Ferguson who had a 10 year NFL career playing left tackle for the NY Jets. Commack lost to Freeport in overtime 20-19.

My high school coaches played a huge role in my high school years helping shape and mold me both on and off the field. They taught me the values of work ethic, dependability, and discipline. They were a major reason why my original career ambitions was to become a high school teacher and coach. While my high school coaches taught me great life lessons, from one glance of my high school tape, you could see that I was not a skilled offensive lineman. I played on my toes with no base, I was a waist bender (my version of playing low), and I had no idea how to use my hands. If you watched my game film, the technique I was using would be considered stone age. It was no fault to my offensive line coach. He had never played college and he had a ton on his plate. Not only was he my offensive line coach, he was our head football coach, and our head lacrosse coach.

“Caveman” Football was Born

Despite being considered by most coaches as a project, I was recruited to the University at Albany to play football in 2004 by Peter Rossomando. UAlbany is a Division 1 FCS school, or as old guys call it, Division 1-AA. UAlbany now plays in the CAA conference but when I was there we competed in the NEC Conference . Coach Rossomando was not only my area recruiter, but he was also my offensive line coach. I’ll never forget our first training camp practice. It’s the first 5 minutes of individual in training camp when we get to our duck walk drill. I had never heard of a Duck Walk. In High School we just chopped on our feet and tried to move them as fast as possible. After the older guys go, it’s now my turn, and as I’m doing my best copy cat version of duck walking forward all I can hear is “Get on your In Steps!”. I remember after my rep looking at Coach and asking him “What are my in steps?”. That’s how far behind I was technically. Coach Rossomando coined the term for my Offensive line technique. “Caveman Football” was born.

Technique is King

There was another freshman offensive lineman in my class at UAlbany by the name of Sam Pagano. Sam is actually the Head Brewer at @LowTideBrewery in Johns Island, SC so if you’re ever heading to Charleston stop by and support a fellow Great Dane. Sam’s father was a high school head coach who was an offensive lineman by trade. Sam was a local Albany guy who would often go to the Albany Dog Pound camp which was a lineman camp every summer at UAlbany. As a freshman, he was as technically proficient as most of the older guys on our OL. From watching Pagano, it quickly gave me a major lesson and wake up call that being a great OL wasn’t just about the weight room or athletic ability. He wasn’t the biggest or strongest guy in our freshman class, but he was gritty, had an impressive football IQ, and was the most technical out of all of us. He played with a base, leverage, and if he got his hands on you in pass pro the rep was done. Pagano turned out to be a 4 year starter, multiple all conference awards and was a captain his senior year. Technique is King.

The Lightbulb Goes Off

Offensive Line is truly the hardest position to play in football. Not only do you have to be big and strong, but you have to be able to move, bend, and be technically proficient. I struggled with years of thinking that to be a great football player it was determined by who was the strongest. It took me years to finally learn the techniques needed to have success in college football and also to work on my physical weaknesses. Since I truly started at the bottom ( technically-speaking), I needed that many reps to master the skills of being an offensive lineman.

After redshirting in 2004, I rarely saw the field in 2005 and 2006. Albany was known as being solid upfront on the offensive line, and every year we averaged a number of guys on the all conference teams. I moved around - playing both guard and tackle. In 2007 I averaged around 30-40 snaps a game at right tackle. Finally in 2008, a light bulb went off and everything clicked.

In 2008, I started every game at right tackle, and was the highest graded offensive lineman in 7 out of the 11 games we played. After the season, my fellow Great Danes voted me as the Top Offensive Lineman and Most Improved Player in 2008. We won our conference, dominated the Gridiron Classic, and finished with a 9-3 record. The NEC Conference awarded me 2nd Team All Conference. The ECAC which is a collection of conferences named me to their all star team.

Albany Firebirds - 2009 Arena Football2

I graduated in December of 2008 from UAlbany with a degree in History and Political Science. In the spring I had started my masters degree in teaching at a local college, Sage Graduate School in Troy, NY. After finally having success on the gridiron my last year in college, I didn’t want to give football up yet. I decided to go and tryout for the local Arena Football 2 team - the Albany Firebirds. Arena Football 2 or AF2 was the only thing around that year as the bigger league, Arena Football had went bankrupt. I had a conversation with my then offensive line coach at UAlbany - Mike Morita. Coach Morita took over the OL coach duties when Coach Rossomando became the head coach at the University at New Haven in the winter of 2009. Coach Morita said something to the effect of, “Jon, this isn’t golf, you cant play football when you’re 50. Go see what you can do!”. Once he said that I was gung ho on giving it a shot.

I signed my contract with the Firebirds after attending an open tryout. I only had a few months to prepare my body for the season considering my last game at UAlbany was in December of 2008 and training camp for the Firebirds started in February. In an effort to get back my strength and size I was training hard and quickly fell into overtraining. On back to back days, I tore my hamstring while barbell lunging and the next day I partially tore my pec while bench pressing. I shut it down and quickly started rehabbing with the two best trainers known to man - Jay Geiger and Joe Tegnander who are still at UAlbany.

I had told the Firebirds about my hamstring, but never my pec. I had a feeling if they knew that I had torn both my hamstring and pec, they probably would have cut me to bring in a healthy guy. Arena Football training camp was an interesting place. There might have been 50 guys there, but they only keep I think around 20 for the active roster and few guys on the practice squad. I started practicing towards the later part of training camp. I held my own and had success despite my body being a mess. Trying to brace in pass pro on a legit torn hamstring or trying to punch an opposing defensive line with a bad pec was not fun. I played through the pain and discomfort and landed myself on the active roster.

That 2009 AF2 season with the Albany Firebirds, I started 14 of 16 games, scored 6 touchdowns on 7 receptions (coolest part of Arena Football), and only gave up 1 sack. The interesting part I was never 100% healthy the entire season. Safe to say the reason for for my success wasn’t my massive size or athletic ability. It was the technique I had developed under Coach Rossomando and Coach Morita. I know, it wasn’t the NFL or CFL, but there were guys from all levels of football - Power 5 FBS guys, FCS, D2 and D3. There were guys who had played in the NFL or CFL and got cut and were trying to get back in. We made peanuts, but there was talent and the competition was pretty fierce.

The Cadets of La Salle Institute & Green Bay Blizzard

While playing for the Firebirds, there were some guys I played with who were in their upper 20’s - early 30’s still (what I call) - “trying to live the dream”. After playing injured all of the Firebirds 2009 season, I wanted to give it one more season to see what kind of success I could have with an entire off season of training and preparation and 100% being healthy.

In the Fall of 2009, While I was preparing for my next playing opportunity, I was given my first coaching job by Coach Al Rapp at LaSalle Institute in Troy, NY. I coached both the offensive and defensive lines that season where I gathered a ton of experience taking the skill and technique that I learned and translating it to high school kids. I kept it simple and hammered the fundamentals. The players at LaSalle Institute bought in and took the coaching. We finished the season 9-1 after going undefeated in the regular season and being upsetted in the first round of the playoffs. It was disappointing finish, but a a great experience starting my coaching career.

At that time, Arena Football had came back under the name Arena Football 1. I was training and in some of the best shape of my life. I had gained back a lot of my size and strength and was 100% healthy. I had solid game film from the year before. In that offseason getting ready for Arena Football I was in contact and originally signed with a team out of Alabama (Alabama Vipers). Due to some circumstances with roster and player limits, I never made it down there. I ended up signing with the Green Bay Blizzard who played in the Indoor Football League (IFL).

In Early 2010 I had applied for a few graduate assistant coaching positions because I figured once my playing career was over, I wanted to get into coaching. I emailed Coach Rossomando who was now the head coach at the University of New Haven just to let him know that I put him down as a reference incase any coaches called him. He emailed me back saying no problem and anything he could to help he would. A few months go by, and I’m on the road to Green Bay at the beginning of March. Albany to Green Bay is a little over 1,000 miles and took me two days to complete. On the second day right around Milwaukee, I received a phone call from Coach Rossomando. The current offensive line GA at New Haven was leaving New Haven, and he thought of me after I had emailed him a few months back. I told him I was on the road to Green Bay to play Indoor Football, was in great shape, and was planning on giving it one more season. He told me to take some time and think about it.

I arrived in Green Bay during the first game week, practiced a few days and played that Saturday night in our first game out in Iowa. I took about a week to discuss the pros and cons with family and figured that it was a no brainer to join Coach at the University of New Haven. I would start my coaching career, get my masters degree paid for, be close to home, and coach college football. Coach Rossomando didn’t need me to June, so I could stay in Green Bay till May and then make my way home during the bye week. This gave Green Bay plenty of time to find my replacement, as quality offensive line in those leagues are hard to find.

In our third game, as I was blocking my defensive line on a draw play, another offensive lineman went flying into my left knee. I ended up partially tearing my meniscus and MCL. I stayed in Green Bay one more week making sure I was medically OK, and then began my drive back to New York. Despite me rolling around the carpet in the Resch Center in Green Bay in pain on my last play of my playing career , I still enjoyed my short time in Green Bay. Boy do they love their football. They supported the Blizzard. Our games had a great atmosphere and the owners and organization took care of us as players.