Every NFL player can count themselves fortunate to have a contract in one of the most lucrative leagues in the world, but few have been as lucky as New England Patriots rookie punter Zoltan Mesko.
In 1996, the Mesko family were among the 6 million or so people who try their luck in the US’ green-card lottery, which annually gives 50,000 people a “diversity immigrant visa.”
The odds of winning are roughly 0.008 percent, but the Mesko family succeeded.
PHOTO: AFP
“I think I was playing a video game in the next room and my Dad came in with this big envelope and said: ‘I have got to show you something.’ My Mum thought it was another cockroach from the kitchen or something, she freaked out, but then he made the message clear and I was ecstatic. We looked at it as going to the land of opportunity and it really is,” the Romania-born Mesko said in an interview.
The 11-year-old Zoltan and his ethnic Hungarian family headed, as so many immigrants do, to New York City, but after six months they moved on to Ohio, the heartland of the US’s Hungarian community, which has produced a surprising number of well-known NFL players over the years.
Miami Dolphins’ Hall of Fame head coach Don Shula and full-back Larry Csonka along with New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath, all came from Hungarian families, while on the kicking side of the game Budapest-born Pete Gogolak is credited with bringing the soccer-kicking style to the code.
NATIVE TONGUES
You would not guess from first meeting the clean-cut, well-spoken Mesko that he was born in the town of Timisoara, Romania, during the dark, final years of Nicolae Ceausescu’s communist dictatorship.
Mesko’s English certainly does not give him away. Despite speaking his native tongues of Romanian and Hungarian, along with German, there is not a hint of his East European background in his accent.
He does, though, have the attitude and determination that typifies generations of immigrants from that region to the US.
As he puts it: “Give me some lemons and I will make lemonade.”
After the family settled in Ohio, another twist of fate led Mesko from the fun of playing soccer with his friends to a career in American football.
The youngster was playing “kick ball” with friends and managed to knock out a light in the school gym. Instead of being punished he was offered a chance to kick on the high school team.
“At first I kicked field goals, but the special teams coach at high school encouraged me to punt, which I didn’t want to do because you don’t have that glory of kicking a last-second field goal,” he said. “But I ended up excelling more at punting because my body is better suited to punting, being tall and wearing size 14 shoes.”
As a child in Romania, Mesko knew little about American football other than the occasional “big hit” shown on sports highlights shows, but it was clear to him that the game was going to offer him greater opportunities than soccer could.
“I was playing soccer and football at the same time in ninth grade and it was hard to let go of it, but once I realized I could get a college scholarship ... my parents didn’t have any kind of funds set up for me, or any savings for that matter. I wanted to save them money and also not to have to take out a loan,” he said. “It was a way to avoid that route — I earned a scholarship and learned the game of football.”
ACADEMIC PURSUITS
Mesko turned down Ivy League opportunities to head to the University of Michigan where he was able to combine his academic pursuits with top-class college football.
Despite his outstanding record in high school football, Mesko had to sit out his first year, but he enjoyed five fruitful years at the university, leaving with a reputation as a top punter, a bachelor’s degree and a masters in sports management.
Those qualifications, Mesko hopes, will stand him in good stead when his career as a punter in the NFL comes to an end.
“I always wanted to have a Plan B and that is why I am not afraid of failing, even at this level; this is just a bonus for me. Whatever happens from here, I can always use my education,” he said.
The NFL has its own version of a lottery, called the draft, and Mesko was picked up by the New England Patriots this year, the latest chapter in his unlikely story.
“The probability of winning a green-card lottery is very slim. It is just so many things that have gone right for me — I guess there is some luck involved,” he said.
He is sure that even without his father’s lottery win he would have made something of his life.
“I would probably have been working in Germany. I went to a German [language] school and I would have done anything to give myself the best opportunity to succeed in life, whatever that may have been,” he said.
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