Football Brat

As a kid he caught passes from Unitas. Now he’s GM of the New York Jets.

JOHN IDZIK ’82

ALICE GOMSTYN ’03

RICH BLOCH ’65

LYNN RAINVILLE ’93

JAMIE BERK ’11 AND MOSTAFA HEDDAYA ’11

COLLIN O’MARA ’01

CHANCES ARE YOU WON’T FIND MANY math majors among National Football League executives. But not only did Idzik crunch numbers as a college student, he also graduated magna cum laude with Phi Beta Kappa honors.

The numerical background has come in handy for Idzik, who has spent more than 20 years in the league evaluating talent, negotiating player contracts and managing complex salary caps. “You do a lot of studies, numerical analysis of contracts, that type of thing,” he says of his cur- rent role. “It’s not football in its purest sense.”

Idzik’s upbringing was pure football. The self-de- scribed “football brat” spent most summers as a kid run- ning wild at pro training camps while his dad coached with the Dolphins, Colts, Eagles and Jets, helping the Colts win Super Bowl V. “I was very lucky,” says Id- zik. “Back then train- ing camp was eight weeks long, six pre- season games, and I would be there for all of it. It was just natu- ral to be around the game and learn its intricacies at an early age. I even got to sneak in some reps with the players during the off-season.”

Moving around so much made it hard for Idzik to lock onto a favorite team. “It was always my dad’s team,” he says, although after sharing a few memories of Johnny Unitas and Bubba Smith, he admits the Colts hold a soft spot in his heart.

Dartmouth was a natural choice. “We had a president who was a math professor—John Kemeny—and an Ivy championship football team,” says Idzik, “so it seemed like a good fit for me.” He found his way to Hanover after a Jets public relations staffer named Ed Wisneski ’72 sug- gested Idzik check out Dartmouth and the Ivy League. The young receiver was eventually recruited by then-coach Jake Crouthamel ’60. Idzik was part of two Ivy championship teams (1978 and 1981), although a knee injury cut short his playing career. “Unfortunately, I was wearing a red jersey more times than I wanted to my three years on the varsity,” he says. During his freshman year, he says, senior quarterback Buddy Teevens ’79 spent extra time with him and other freshmen in the locker room. “That left quite an impression on me,” says Idzik, “and it’s no surprise now that he’s the leader of that program and has done quite well.”

After graduation Idzik worked for IBM as a program- mer and manager. “Quite a natural preparation for the NFL, isn’t it?” he jokes. He resigned when a “dream come true” chance to coach with his father presented itself. That came with the Aberdeen Oilers, a Scottish team with the short- lived British American Football League in 1990. In 1993 Idzik the younger launched his NFL career in the front office of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, eventually moving on to the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks before landing with the Jets last year.

The team never fails to draw headlines with its bom- bastic head coach, Rex Ryan, and recent newsmakers such as Tim Tebow and Michael Vick. The low-key Idzik bal- ances out the hubris. (“We’re side-by-side in this the whole way,” Ryan said earlier this year of his partnership with Idzik.) During a preseason interview the former Big Green receiver seems relaxed. Tanned from the time spent on training camp fields, he fondles the gaudy green-and-gold 1981 Ivy League Championship ring he’s wearing.

How would Idzik the pro GM evaluate Idzik the young college receiver who won that ring? “Skinny,” he says, laughing. “I had good hands and didn’t lack for toughness, but I just didn’t have the girth.”

Math major Idzik says professors Susan Whiteside and William Selznick were memo- rable mentors. <<<<

“You do a lot of studies, numerical analysis of contracts,” says the Jets GM. “It’s not football in its purest sense.”