In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month 2023, this article will highlight the Schwartz brothers. This article complements last week’s Jewish American Heritage Month article on the Horween brothers. The Horweens and Schwartz are often heralded as the two sets of Jewish American brothers in the NFL who played at the same time in the league and made important contributions to the Jewish community and the sports world.
The Schwartz Brothers’ Beginnings
Geoff Isaiah Schwartz was born in 1986 to Lee Schwartz and Olivia Goodkin in Los Angeles, California. Mitchell Bryan Schwartz came in second in 1989 and was born in the Pacific Palisades in California. Their father is a business consultant, and their mother is a lawyer.
In stark contrast to the Horween brothers, the Schwartz brothers were raised in conservative Judaism and continue to live their faith into adulthood. Both boys attended a Hebrew school and a synagogue growing up in Los Angeles.
Sports weren’t really an option until the Schwartz brothers were 13 because their parents wanted to focus on their Bar Mitzvahs prior to that. Geoff’s Jewish name is Gedalia Yitzhak, and Mitchell’s is Mendel. Jewish parents often give their children a Hebrew name and a secular name. It is truly beautiful that the Schwartz brothers had the freedom to be proud of and be open with their name in the NFL and in American society as a whole – something that wasn’t awarded to the Horween brothers nearly a century before.
The Schwartz Brothers at the synagogue – John Solano/via JTA
The boys couldn’t play football until high school; they were too big for local youth football leagues. Mitchell was 6’5′ and 240 pounds in 9th grade. We aren’t sure just how big Geoff was at that age, but we know he is the bigger brother in multiple meanings of the word. The Schwartz brothers explain that it’s partially genetic and it’s partially a childhood filled with matzo ball soup, latkes, and white rice.
Football was not the favorite sport of either brother. Mitchell actually never wanted to get on the gridiron; he much preferred playing baseball. Geoff was also a baseball player in school as well as a basketball one.
Geoff didn’t have a smooth transition into football; he didn’t realize he had to show up prior to the beginning of the school year to try out for the team. Needless to say, he was a little behind the ball and would only play one game in his freshman year. A jack of all positions, Geoff would play offensively as a guard and an offense and defensively as a nose guard, end, and tackle. He would be labeled “all-city” and “all-westside” by the LA Times, amongst other accolades.
The older Schwartz was hoping to play baseball in college and become a lawyer; spoiler alert, he didn’t.
The Schwartz brothers as teens – Geoff Schwartz
Mitchell jokes around, saying he was tricked into playing football and was courted onto the football field by his brother and coaches, being promised a QB position. Something the team didn’t follow through on—he would be on the offensive side of the ball right away.
The brain of the two, Mitchell, would graduate with a 4.3 GPA and a 34 ACT and be on the honor roll and Dean’s List. Allegedly, Geoff is the “common-sense” smart brother; at least, Geoff thinks so.
Despite being an all-league pitcher, the younger Schwartz brother would give up his baseball goals to play football. Mitchell was a four-year starter, was named the 2006 Western League Lineman of the Year and the Los Angeles City Offensive Lineman of the Year in his senior year (amongst other accolades), and was being scouted by many colleges.
No One Expected This – College Edition
Both brothers would get scouted by colleges for football, and pretty much just football. Bye-bye, baseball. Geoff would play football at the University of Oregon and major in political science. As a senior in 2007, the older Schwartz has named a second-team All-Pac-10 selection and set records as the best squat training exercise athlete on the team and the Pac-10 record for rushing by a right tackle.
Geoff Schwartz looking like a Game of Thrones character as an Oregon Duck – BFT Podcast
As an athletic intellectual, scouts were all over Mitchell. Seven different schools offered the younger Schwartz a scholarship, and Mitchell would end up choosing the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in American Studies with an emphasis on human development and identity.
Redshirting in 2007, Mitchell would play for the Bears from 2008 to 2011. He would start in every game possible and only missed one snap when his shoelace broke, and he had to get off the field for one play so the lace could be replaced. The younger brother would win every accolade ever, but narrowing it down to a few in just his senior year, he was on the watch list for the Lombardi Award and the Outland Trophy and was a first-team All-Pac-12.
The Schwartz Brothers Go Pro
Ever the leader, Geoff would trailblaze the NFL first as well. He would go on to be drafted by the Panthers in the 7th round of the 2008 draft. Injuries would end the guard’s time in Jacksonville; his 2011 season was derailed by a hip injury and would result in his trade to the Vikings in 2012. In 2013, Geoff would be viewed by Pro Football Focus as the top free agent guard playing while he was a Kansas City Chief.
He received similar praise in 2014 and 2015 as a New York Giant until he broke his leg at the tail end of the 2015 season. The Lions would sign and then release the older Schwartz brother in 2016, and he would announce his retirement in 2017. Unlike the Horweens, the Schwartz only played against each other, never together.
Mitchell bringing a player down – 247 Sports
Little Schwartz would enter the 2012 draft in the 2nd round with the advantage that his older brother was already in the league and had his back. Mitch would only play for two teams in the league: the Cleveland Browns from 2012 to 2016 and the Kansas City Chiefs from 2016 to 2021. The offensive lineman received high praise from Mel Kiper, who labeled him as the key pick; he didn’t disappoint and would go on to start every game of the season. Mitch started on every offensive snap in every game for the Browns for all four seasons.
Baby Schwartz would play every snap in every game until 2019 with the Kansas City Chiefs. He was one of the highest-paid right tackles in the NFL when he started with the Chiefs, and he put his all into his games. Injuries eventually caught up to the offensive lineman, and he would miss three snaps because of a knee injury that he mostly played through. At the time, Mitch had the longest snap streak among active NFL players in 2019. He would also become a super bowl champion that year.
The younger Schwartz brother sustained a back injury in the 2020 season that required back surgery and caused him to leave the game for the second time ever. Mitch threw up the white flag and retired officially in 2022. Some other players could take notes; that’s how you retire with grace when your mind and your body are ready.
Life In The League
Both brothers would be inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2016. The brothers are supported by their community, and in return, they take their place as role models seriously. In the brother’s book “Eat My Schwartz,” Mitch remembers encountering a group of Jewish boys in Canton, Ohio, and how excited they were to talk to him as one of the few Jewish players in the league.
Geoff and Mitchell gift Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu football jerseys with his nickname on them – in Israel! – Judah Ari Gross/Times of Israel
The Schwartz brothers feel a sense of duty to share their traditions with their peers. Many people are confused about what it means to be Jewish in football, to the point that the brothers have experienced blatant antisemitic comments, and they have educated their teammates and now the world by sharing their traditions with us all.
How did the Schwartz brothers navigate their faith with their football schedule? Geoff made it clear that football came before the holidays—something he felt no qualms over. However, the brothers have celebrated on the road. Geoff even carries a menorah with him during Hannukah and has lit the candles in his hotel room before.
By the way, how did Mama Schwartz feel about her sons playing football? She was a little more optimistic than Mrs. Horween; her first concern was her son’s safety, but after seeing them play on the field, she became more concerned about the safety of the people who played against them on the field. What about the patriarch of the family? He is just kvell (the rough translation of that word can be found here) and feels surreal about watching his kids play in the NFL on TV.
What’s Next For The Schwartz Brothers?
The brothers found during their time in the league that food was often a great way to share their traditions with their peers, and there is nothing they love more than a good Jewish dish. Rumor has it that the brothers may try to start a cooking show together in the future.
The Schwartz Brothers all grown up (Geoff Schwartz/Twitter).
Geoff has also dabbled with media quite a bit; he has a podcast with Dave Dameshek named “Minus Three With Shek and Schwartz” his own podcast “Block’em Up,” writes for SB Nation, and is a full-time weekend show host for Fox Sports Radio.
The older Schwartz brother is also lucky in love; he has been married to his wife, Meredith Snipes, since 2014. It’s been a bumpy ride, and the married couple very candidly discussed their difficulty in navigating their relationship and football. They even broke up for a while, but they came back together even stronger, got married, and are now proud parents of their son Alex.
We haven’t heard much from Mitch Schwartz yet, post-career. He’s probably just enjoying his first year of retirement. It will be great to see more to come from the Schwartz brothers in the future!
