by Connor Pelton, SDA Communications Student Intern
Twenty years ago, on a brisk New Year's Eve in the mountainous desert of El Paso, Sun Devil defensive end Jeremy Staat finished his career as a Sun Devil in fitting fashion. As one of just three Sun Devils who have won the Pac-12's Morris Trophy on defense (Terrell Suggs and Will Sutton are the others), which is voted on by opposing players, it was a perfect ending to a great two-year career.
"It was kind of a surreal week," recounts Staat when asked two decades later about his trip to the Sun Bowl. "We were really just there to play for the Sun Devil to the left and right of us."
The lineman wreaked havoc against an overmatched Iowa offense at the end of that week, recording six tackles en route to a 17-7 victory. His three sacks on that last day of December matched the rest of his team's total output, and Staat finished the afternoon by walking off the field with the Sun Bowl's Most Valuable Lineman trophy. He also finished the day with a torn PCL.
"I tore it in the third quarter and it was the first time I've ever been injured in a game," Staat says. "I contemplated calling it a day, saying 'I'm good, I'm going to the NFL,' but (teammate and fellow defensive end) Vince Amey said that I couldn't leave him out there alone. I'm glad he talked me into it."
That kind of heart displayed by Staat would continue to be shown long after he left Tempe, both on the football field and off it.
THE MARINE
10 years ago, Staat found himself in a different kind of desert.
In March of 2007, Lance Corporal Staat deployed with 1st Battalion 3rd Marines for a seventh-month mission in Haditha, Iraq. He lived in a school in the middle of town, with sandbag-covered windows from floor to ceiling. The showers were retrofitted, and the occasional cockroach would appear out of the drain.
"It wasn't the Phoenician by any means," says Staat. "But the great thing about the Marine Corps is you make do with what you have."
Staat was selected in the second round by the Pittsburgh Steelers after leaving Arizona State and spent three seasons in Pittsburgh. He strongly considered joining the military after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, however, friend and former teammate Pat Tillman urged him to stay in the NFL for at least one more season in order to be eligible for the league's retirement benefits.
"Patty was a very intelligent man," says Frank Bauer, who represented both Tillman and Staat during their professional football careers. "Jeremy needed him to say don't put your hand on the fire sometimes."
After leaving the Steelers, Staat bounced from the Seahawks, to the Raiders, to the St. Louis Rams, where he earned that fourth credited NFL season in 2003. He then joined the AFL's Los Angeles Avengers in 2004, and it was then when Tillman was tragically killed in action in Afghanistan.
It was at that point when Staat decided he had no choice but to finish the business he tried to start back in 2001.
"Football was just over for him mentally," Bauer recounted. "Patty was like a brother to him. He told me he couldn't do it anymore and wanted to go serve his country like Patty did."
That's exactly what Staat did.
He completed his recruit training in San Diego in March of 2006 and was deployed for his first and only tour of Iraq one year later. Serving as an infantry machine gunner, the tour was thankfully quiet with just a couple of injuries and no deaths in his unit. After returning home safely, Staat was honorably discharged from service in 2009.
The decision to not only serve his country, but to join the United States Marine Corps specifically, made all of the sense in the world for Staat. Known for his loyalty and reliability while on the football field, one of his closest friends from Arizona State wasn't surprised in the least.
"He could have chosen any of the armed forces, but those who were close to him knew joining the Marines was the only choice," says former Sun Devil teammate Kyle Murphy. "That's the ultimate team right there. They were there before Jeremy and obviously after, and that appealed to him."
The Athlete
Staat's first collegiate team came at one of the top junior college programs on the West Coast.
A native of Bakersfield, California, Staat opted to stay at home for two years and attend Bakersfield College. His stint there would wind up laying the groundwork in becoming one of the biggest JuCo success stories in school history.
Led by the hometown kid, the Renegades went 20-2 in his two seasons at Bakersfield. Staat received All-American honorable mention honors in his second year, and in addition to his feats on the gridiron, the two-sport athlete still holds the school record for longest discus throw at Bakersfield.
Needless to say, Staat's success at the junior college level attracted plenty of Division I suitors. That laundry list include Lyle Sentenich, Arizona State's linebackers coach.
"Just talking to his coaches as he came up through high school and college, you could tell he was going to be a big time guy," Sentenich says. "I was so happy we got him and that he ended up playing for us."
With the Sun Devils winning just six games in 1995 and just half as many the season before that, some of Staat's friends questioned his decision to come to Tempe. However, he quickly dispelled those thoughts.
"My friends would ask why the heck am I going to ASU," recounts Staat. "I said, 'Have you ever been to that campus?' My recruiting trip was when the Super Bowl was held there in 1996. It was an easy choice."
Staat quickly rose up the depth chart in his first year at Arizona State, making his presence known as a hard worker every day in practice. He appeared in all 12 games in a season where the Sun Devils increased their win total by five, the team coming just four points away from winning a national championship.
No game was bigger for Staat than the first of two trips that the team made to the Rose Bowl that year. With their undefeated record hanging in the balance, UCLA held a 34-28 advantage and was attempting to run clock late in the fourth quarter. That's when the Bakersfield native was introduced formally to Sun Devil fans.
Staat blasted through the Bruin offensive line and forced running back Skip Hicks to cough up the football, a turnover that would lead to Arizona State's winning touchdown just moments later. The victory improved the team's record to 6-0 on the season and gave them all the momentum in the world heading into another tight win (this one in double overtime) against USC one week later.
"If you go back and watch the game you can see Jeremy trash-talking Hicks facemask to facemask," Murphy says when asked about his favorite memory from playing with Staat. "I later found out that he told the whole defense he was going to force a fumble on that drive."
The Sun Devils posted another solid season in 1997 (9-3) and Staat began to blossom into an NFL prospect early on in his second and final season in the maroon and gold. The right tackle started all 12 games as a senior, a year that included an upset of No. 12 Miami (Florida) at the Orange Bowl. Staat had the same amount of tackles (12) as the Hurricanes had points in that one.
"The coaches named me the player of the game after that one," recounts Staat. "I had three sacks too, but it should have been five."
He would ultimately cap his collegiate career with the aforementioned gritty performance in the Sun Bowl. Staat made three sacks that day for a total of 23 yards and made life miserable for the Hawkeye offensive line.
"He was simply unblockable in that game," Murphy remembers. "Un. Block. Able."
While Staat left El Paso with multiple trophies in tow (he also won the Morris Trophy that season, which went to the best defensive lineman in the Pac-10), the knee injury suffered in that contest forced him to miss out on participating in both the postseason collegiate all-star games and the drills at the NFL combine. His last chance to impress professional scouts was at Arizona State's Pro Day, but that showing was almost derailed as well.
Bauer received a call from Staat at 6 a.m. on ASU Pro Day, just as he was about to get on his flight to Phoenix. As fate would have it, Staat was "fooling around" with his shot put that morning and dropped it on his big toe.
"I said your pro day is your biggest day and you've only got one shot at this," says Bauer when asked about the conversation. "I told him to get his ass over to the hospital and get a shot of Novocain."
Staat listened and ultimately went through the whole workout despite the mishap. And when he took his shoes and socks off, he impressed the Steelers brass even more.
"He's looking at his toe and it's all black and blue," Bauer recounts. "Steelers general manager Tom Donahoe and scout "Mean" Joe Greene saw it and Greene says, 'You are one tough SOB.' I nearly puked. That was typical Jeremy."
One month later, the Steelers used the 41st pick in the NFL Draft to select Staat.
THE TRANSITION
After the marines, Staat attempted to get a job at Home Depot but was turned down because he didn't have his bachelor's degree. That's when he decided to make education and community outreach the focal point of his post-football and post-military life.
The Sun Devil graduated from ASU in 2009 and went to work on pursuing a master's degree in education from Liberty with the help of the GI Bill. He is now an associate professor at Bakersfield College and is planning on having his Education Specialist degree at this time next year.
While plenty busy inside the classroom, Staat has been doing plenty of work outside of school.
He started working with veterans organizations like the Veteran Tickets Foundation, Vision 2 Victory, and Kern Vets in 2010. One year later he formed the Jeremy Staat Foundation and rode a bicycle 3,468 miles across America in order to raise awareness to veteran suicide.
"The more you get involved with veteran issues, the more you see the sad and dark side," says Staat. "The suicide rate is kind of a taboo thing that no one wants to talk about, so I decided to ride my bike from Bakersfield to the Vietnam Memorial in D.C. and raise $100,000."
What all did he do on his bike ride? On the 100-day trip he went to 16 states, 78 cities and gave 109 speeches. He visited 25 schools, 15 military bases, 16 VA hospitals and retirement homes and 40 memorials. He met wtih more than 30 veteran groups aided by 43 police escorts.
In addition to the help he has provided veterans organizations, Staat has spoken to hundreds of schools, churches, organizations, and businesses in an attempt to motivate and help individuals from all walks of life.
"Schools typically have to pay anywhere from $3,500 to $20,000 for a speaking engagement," Staat says. "There's something wrong with that when teachers then have to go out and buy school supplies out of their own pocket. I wanted to do it for free."
In two years, Staat spoke at over 130 schools.
A GROWING LEGACY
Intense. Tough. Loyal.
Spend enough time talking to those closest to Staat and those are three adjectives that come up time and again.
"He was intense in everything he did," says former Sun Devil quarterback Steve Campbell. "You wanted him on your side and in your foxhole. He knew he could kick your ass on the field and then have a good time with you off it."
From his former teammates to the man who represented him, Staat's impact hasn't been lost.
"I've had over 550 athletes come through here," Bauer says. "He was one of the special ones."
Whether it was on the football field 20 years ago, in the Marines 10 years ago, or inside the classroom now, Staat has fought through each test given to him and passed with flying colors.
"He was what a coach was looking for in a player," recalls Sentenich. "And he is what everyone should look for in a person now."
Twenty years ago, on a brisk New Year's Eve in the mountainous desert of El Paso, Sun Devil defensive end Jeremy Staat finished his career as a Sun Devil in fitting fashion. As one of just three Sun Devils who have won the Pac-12's Morris Trophy on defense (Terrell Suggs and Will Sutton are the others), which is voted on by opposing players, it was a perfect ending to a great two-year career.
"It was kind of a surreal week," recounts Staat when asked two decades later about his trip to the Sun Bowl. "We were really just there to play for the Sun Devil to the left and right of us."
The lineman wreaked havoc against an overmatched Iowa offense at the end of that week, recording six tackles en route to a 17-7 victory. His three sacks on that last day of December matched the rest of his team's total output, and Staat finished the afternoon by walking off the field with the Sun Bowl's Most Valuable Lineman trophy. He also finished the day with a torn PCL.
"I tore it in the third quarter and it was the first time I've ever been injured in a game," Staat says. "I contemplated calling it a day, saying 'I'm good, I'm going to the NFL,' but (teammate and fellow defensive end) Vince Amey said that I couldn't leave him out there alone. I'm glad he talked me into it."
That kind of heart displayed by Staat would continue to be shown long after he left Tempe, both on the football field and off it.
THE MARINE
10 years ago, Staat found himself in a different kind of desert.
In March of 2007, Lance Corporal Staat deployed with 1st Battalion 3rd Marines for a seventh-month mission in Haditha, Iraq. He lived in a school in the middle of town, with sandbag-covered windows from floor to ceiling. The showers were retrofitted, and the occasional cockroach would appear out of the drain.
"It wasn't the Phoenician by any means," says Staat. "But the great thing about the Marine Corps is you make do with what you have."
Staat was selected in the second round by the Pittsburgh Steelers after leaving Arizona State and spent three seasons in Pittsburgh. He strongly considered joining the military after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, however, friend and former teammate Pat Tillman urged him to stay in the NFL for at least one more season in order to be eligible for the league's retirement benefits.
"Patty was a very intelligent man," says Frank Bauer, who represented both Tillman and Staat during their professional football careers. "Jeremy needed him to say don't put your hand on the fire sometimes."
After leaving the Steelers, Staat bounced from the Seahawks, to the Raiders, to the St. Louis Rams, where he earned that fourth credited NFL season in 2003. He then joined the AFL's Los Angeles Avengers in 2004, and it was then when Tillman was tragically killed in action in Afghanistan.
It was at that point when Staat decided he had no choice but to finish the business he tried to start back in 2001.
"Football was just over for him mentally," Bauer recounted. "Patty was like a brother to him. He told me he couldn't do it anymore and wanted to go serve his country like Patty did."
That's exactly what Staat did.
He completed his recruit training in San Diego in March of 2006 and was deployed for his first and only tour of Iraq one year later. Serving as an infantry machine gunner, the tour was thankfully quiet with just a couple of injuries and no deaths in his unit. After returning home safely, Staat was honorably discharged from service in 2009.
The decision to not only serve his country, but to join the United States Marine Corps specifically, made all of the sense in the world for Staat. Known for his loyalty and reliability while on the football field, one of his closest friends from Arizona State wasn't surprised in the least.
"He could have chosen any of the armed forces, but those who were close to him knew joining the Marines was the only choice," says former Sun Devil teammate Kyle Murphy. "That's the ultimate team right there. They were there before Jeremy and obviously after, and that appealed to him."
The Athlete
Staat's first collegiate team came at one of the top junior college programs on the West Coast.
A native of Bakersfield, California, Staat opted to stay at home for two years and attend Bakersfield College. His stint there would wind up laying the groundwork in becoming one of the biggest JuCo success stories in school history.
Led by the hometown kid, the Renegades went 20-2 in his two seasons at Bakersfield. Staat received All-American honorable mention honors in his second year, and in addition to his feats on the gridiron, the two-sport athlete still holds the school record for longest discus throw at Bakersfield.
Needless to say, Staat's success at the junior college level attracted plenty of Division I suitors. That laundry list include Lyle Sentenich, Arizona State's linebackers coach.
"Just talking to his coaches as he came up through high school and college, you could tell he was going to be a big time guy," Sentenich says. "I was so happy we got him and that he ended up playing for us."
With the Sun Devils winning just six games in 1995 and just half as many the season before that, some of Staat's friends questioned his decision to come to Tempe. However, he quickly dispelled those thoughts.
"My friends would ask why the heck am I going to ASU," recounts Staat. "I said, 'Have you ever been to that campus?' My recruiting trip was when the Super Bowl was held there in 1996. It was an easy choice."
Staat quickly rose up the depth chart in his first year at Arizona State, making his presence known as a hard worker every day in practice. He appeared in all 12 games in a season where the Sun Devils increased their win total by five, the team coming just four points away from winning a national championship.
No game was bigger for Staat than the first of two trips that the team made to the Rose Bowl that year. With their undefeated record hanging in the balance, UCLA held a 34-28 advantage and was attempting to run clock late in the fourth quarter. That's when the Bakersfield native was introduced formally to Sun Devil fans.
Staat blasted through the Bruin offensive line and forced running back Skip Hicks to cough up the football, a turnover that would lead to Arizona State's winning touchdown just moments later. The victory improved the team's record to 6-0 on the season and gave them all the momentum in the world heading into another tight win (this one in double overtime) against USC one week later.
"If you go back and watch the game you can see Jeremy trash-talking Hicks facemask to facemask," Murphy says when asked about his favorite memory from playing with Staat. "I later found out that he told the whole defense he was going to force a fumble on that drive."
The Sun Devils posted another solid season in 1997 (9-3) and Staat began to blossom into an NFL prospect early on in his second and final season in the maroon and gold. The right tackle started all 12 games as a senior, a year that included an upset of No. 12 Miami (Florida) at the Orange Bowl. Staat had the same amount of tackles (12) as the Hurricanes had points in that one.
"The coaches named me the player of the game after that one," recounts Staat. "I had three sacks too, but it should have been five."
He would ultimately cap his collegiate career with the aforementioned gritty performance in the Sun Bowl. Staat made three sacks that day for a total of 23 yards and made life miserable for the Hawkeye offensive line.
"He was simply unblockable in that game," Murphy remembers. "Un. Block. Able."
While Staat left El Paso with multiple trophies in tow (he also won the Morris Trophy that season, which went to the best defensive lineman in the Pac-10), the knee injury suffered in that contest forced him to miss out on participating in both the postseason collegiate all-star games and the drills at the NFL combine. His last chance to impress professional scouts was at Arizona State's Pro Day, but that showing was almost derailed as well.
Bauer received a call from Staat at 6 a.m. on ASU Pro Day, just as he was about to get on his flight to Phoenix. As fate would have it, Staat was "fooling around" with his shot put that morning and dropped it on his big toe.
"I said your pro day is your biggest day and you've only got one shot at this," says Bauer when asked about the conversation. "I told him to get his ass over to the hospital and get a shot of Novocain."
Staat listened and ultimately went through the whole workout despite the mishap. And when he took his shoes and socks off, he impressed the Steelers brass even more.
"He's looking at his toe and it's all black and blue," Bauer recounts. "Steelers general manager Tom Donahoe and scout "Mean" Joe Greene saw it and Greene says, 'You are one tough SOB.' I nearly puked. That was typical Jeremy."
One month later, the Steelers used the 41st pick in the NFL Draft to select Staat.
THE TRANSITION
After the marines, Staat attempted to get a job at Home Depot but was turned down because he didn't have his bachelor's degree. That's when he decided to make education and community outreach the focal point of his post-football and post-military life.
The Sun Devil graduated from ASU in 2009 and went to work on pursuing a master's degree in education from Liberty with the help of the GI Bill. He is now an associate professor at Bakersfield College and is planning on having his Education Specialist degree at this time next year.
While plenty busy inside the classroom, Staat has been doing plenty of work outside of school.
He started working with veterans organizations like the Veteran Tickets Foundation, Vision 2 Victory, and Kern Vets in 2010. One year later he formed the Jeremy Staat Foundation and rode a bicycle 3,468 miles across America in order to raise awareness to veteran suicide.
"The more you get involved with veteran issues, the more you see the sad and dark side," says Staat. "The suicide rate is kind of a taboo thing that no one wants to talk about, so I decided to ride my bike from Bakersfield to the Vietnam Memorial in D.C. and raise $100,000."
What all did he do on his bike ride? On the 100-day trip he went to 16 states, 78 cities and gave 109 speeches. He visited 25 schools, 15 military bases, 16 VA hospitals and retirement homes and 40 memorials. He met wtih more than 30 veteran groups aided by 43 police escorts.
In addition to the help he has provided veterans organizations, Staat has spoken to hundreds of schools, churches, organizations, and businesses in an attempt to motivate and help individuals from all walks of life.
"Schools typically have to pay anywhere from $3,500 to $20,000 for a speaking engagement," Staat says. "There's something wrong with that when teachers then have to go out and buy school supplies out of their own pocket. I wanted to do it for free."
In two years, Staat spoke at over 130 schools.
A GROWING LEGACY
Intense. Tough. Loyal.
Spend enough time talking to those closest to Staat and those are three adjectives that come up time and again.
"He was intense in everything he did," says former Sun Devil quarterback Steve Campbell. "You wanted him on your side and in your foxhole. He knew he could kick your ass on the field and then have a good time with you off it."
From his former teammates to the man who represented him, Staat's impact hasn't been lost.
"I've had over 550 athletes come through here," Bauer says. "He was one of the special ones."
Whether it was on the football field 20 years ago, in the Marines 10 years ago, or inside the classroom now, Staat has fought through each test given to him and passed with flying colors.
"He was what a coach was looking for in a player," recalls Sentenich. "And he is what everyone should look for in a person now."