Hello everyone!

I am a part-time journalist working for the largest sports news website in Latvia, eSports.lv. Me and a colleague of mine recently started to regularly cover the news of NFL and American football in general. It was only natural that we decided to find out more about current, former and possibly future players of Latvian origin in the highest level of football to try and generate higher interest in this sport which has been somewhat neglected in this region. However, Paul Grasmanis and Vilnis Ezerins - two former NFL players - as well as Leo Ezerins of CFL fame are the only ones of whose Latvian connection we are sure. Given the comparatively high number of more or less known Lithuanian American players in NFL and NCAA (Joe Jurevicius, Richard Butkus, Johnny Unitas, James Laurinaitis, Steve Aponavicius, possibly more), as well as the current Tennessee Titans starter Michael Roos, who is from Estonia and was in fact born there, we are somewhat inclined to think that there are more Latvian gridiron warriors out there than we are aware of. Of course, we would be especially thankful if someone would point out a future player currently in college or high school whose career to start following :)

So, does anyone of you happen to know other football players of Latvian descent that might be an interest to us?

Visu labu,
Viesturs

Baltimore Colts QB Johnny Unitas is from the Janaitis clan of Kurzeme, perhaps the best-known Latvian from the NFL.

I don’t know of Latvians who have played in the NFL (except for Grasmanis), but two years ago Uldis Jauntirans (I believe that is correct) was a running back for a university in Colorado.  Currently, Markus Zusevics is an offensive lineman for the U of Iowa.  Cikaga.com had news about him being in the Outback Bowl.
Janis

Being a Bears football fan, my advice is to never ever refer to Butkus as Richard. Dick is far too ornery to be a Richard and might take offense. :)

As to Latvians in the NFL other than the ones mentioned I don’t know of any. The Lithuanians seem to have a better temprament for the sport. The legendary Pottsville Maroons had a bunch of Lugans on their roster. The most famous of them being Tony Latone.

http://www.breakerboys1925.com/

Andrejs, a former undersized center

Johnny Unitas

WRONG, WRONG.
Unitas had nothing to do with latvians.
Please look up on the web.
His mother was LITHUANIAN—-therefore he was Lithuanian

You got that about right.  Vilnis Ezerins played one year for the Rams in 1968.  Drafted in 1966 112th overall but played very little.  Don’t know what happened in 1967 - perhaps injury or Viet Nam.  He also had a brother/cousin whom I met at the Latvian Track meets, Elmars who I believe played college ball for Wisconsin.  Somehow, I thought he had a shot at the pros as well????

http://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/E/EzerVi00.htm

As you stated, another Ezerins, Leo (born August 10, 1956 in Winnipeg, Manitoba), was a linebacker who played eleven seasons in the Canadian Football League for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was a part of the Tiger-Cats 1986 Grey Cup winning team.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Ezerins

His football card in now availabe on eBay at for $8
http://cgi.ebay.com/1984-JOGO-CFL-#128-LEO-EZERINS-PSA-9-FINV_W0QQitemZ270326773067QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090107?IMSfp=TL090107141005r18793

Looks like one of them went on to father a son, Sam,  who played high school ball in BC.  Don’t know if he went on to college ball.  His site is:

http://www.nsaac.com/Ezerins, Sam.htm

For some reason, I think there was another Latvian drafted around my time in the late 60s that my dad was telling me about.  Will check the Trimda’s sports book this weekend and see if I can find anything more.

But even more remote is that I am not aware of any Latvian baseball players.  Does anybody know that piece of trivia?

Just as a side note - when Leo Ezerins first played for the Blue Bombers - he was an receiver. I am not sure how many years he had played before he switched to defense.

Celms asks:

celms - 09 January 2009 09:29 AM

But even more remote is that I am not aware of any Latvian baseball players.  Does anybody know that piece of trivia?

From the Venezuelan trimdies come Ķeizars and Maisiņš Izturis.  Prominent American-born Latvians in the majors include Baltimore Orioles rightfielder Niks Mērkaķis and the jack-of-all-trades for the A.L. champion Tampa Bay Rays Bens Zobirste, just to name a few.

/R

Very interesting.  I did not kown that.  Thanks.

Seems that the football part has ben covered.NHL had and likely has more Latvian professionals than any other sport.Names like Sandis Ozolinsh and Arturs Irbe comes to mind among others.
What is really astonishing is that a small country Lithuania is a world power in basketball.
Arvidas Sabonis at age 18,was considered by many to be the best player in the world.
He could do it all.
In his later years with his knees shot,he was still a marvel playing for Portland in the NBA.
Zydrunas Ilglauskas,Marcellonis(sp?)play or have played in the NBA.I’m sure there are others

I remember reading somewhere that Hank Iba the legendary coach at Oklahoma went to
Lithuania in the 30s to teach and start a basketball program,with results we see today.
I don’t know for a fact ,but it seems plausible.Good for the “Zirga galvas” which meant an automatic fist fight in DP Camp.

/A

Karlis Skrastins is also playing in the NHL - and there is another Latvian with the L.A Kings (will find his name). A Canadian born Latvian Harolds Snepts played for the Vancouver Canucks some years back - and I believe that Peter Skudra (another goaltender) was also of Latvian background (could be wrong on that one though). I believe that Helmut Balderis also played briefly in the NHL. I believe there are currently a few playing hockey in the AHL as well as the WHL. I believe LOL has some right ups on some of these players.

aivar, may I ask why you referred to the Liths as “zirga galvas”???  I have an anecdote regarding that, but I really want to hear your version first!

Lets just call this the LOL Sports Section. Anita ,I don’t really know the meaning of
“Zirga Galva”,all I remember is that those were fighting words with the Latvian and Lithuanian kids.

(maybe all brawn,no brain or something like that.)
Let’s hear yours.
Question for Sniks-re:Ezerins and the Blue Bombers.Was bud Grant the coatch at the time?
Did Joe Kapp play at the same time?

Aivars - no Bud Grant had left years earlier for the Vikings - Joe Kapps carreer was also much earlier.

Aivarst, I was lucky enough to attend the Salt Lake City winter Olympics in January 2002.  We got to see the Latvian hockey team - and fans! - in action a number of times, we met the sirsnigie laudis who pushed through the “Get Latvia on TV” movement, hung out in the Latvian club two evenings.  But we also did a number of “non-Latvian” things - toured SLC, went to a downhill event, and then one evening, after dining in a really exceptional SLC steak house, we wound up crammed into the restauran’ts foyer (this was the winter after 9/11, and the security aspects meant a lot of lines and crowds!), unexpectedly face to face, in REALLY close quarters, with a goodly part of the Lithuanian Olympic team.  I thought I recognized the colors, and asked them… are you the Lithuanian team?  One of their number answered yes, they were.  I told them I was a Latvian American, and it was a pleasure to meet them.  They asked a bit of my/our history, if we spoke Latvian, where we lived in America and so forth.  And then, since we were all crammed into this lobby, nobody going anywhere, we started exchanging phrases we knew in each other’s languages.

“Labas…”

“Labdien… ka Jums klajas?”

“Viso gero!”  (“good luck/visu labu”)

“Bralu tauta!”

um - “su saldziu sapnu” (sweet dreams)  (met by laughter) 

“ar labu nakti!”

Then I pulled from memory something a Lithuanian, obviously having fun with us, taught a whole roomful of Latvian youth back in the 70s, during Chicago’s “PULL” days (Polish, Ukranian, Latvian, Lithuanian youth meetings)...  I called out:  “Taip praeina pasaulio garbe!” which means “sic transit gloria mundi/so passes the glory of the world”.  I think they were stunned by that, until one of their coaches called out:

“Ah, but you must not be offended:  Tavai matei ir zirga galva!!!”

We all laughed… and then the scrum broke, with quick farewells they went into the restaurant, we managed to exit the building.

It’s a fond memory of Latvians, Lithuanians and “zirga galva”!  And, in a sports context!

Anita,

That is a great story and definately belongs in the LOL sports section.
Thanks for sharing.

Aivars