<\/a>Q: <\/b>What’s your take on how the roughing the passer penalty is being called in 2022?<\/h3>\n Paul Posluszny: <\/b>It’s such a challenge, especially from a defensive guy. I look at it and say this is changing the outcome of games, drives that should have ended are now being extended another series because of a call and that’s the part that makes you a little bit frustrated where you’re saying, I don’t know if those calls should be able to change, they have such a significant impact on the outcome of games because that changes everything.<\/p>\n
So it’s such a fine line because there are quarterbacks that you wanna be able to protect and rightfully so, but the game still needs to be extremely competitive and it needs to be fair and in the simplest sense where to have an official make a call that has an enormous impact, an outsize impact on a potential outcome of game that\u2019s challenging for players to accept.<\/p>\n
Q<\/b>: Do you believe that too many of the rule changes have been geared towards protecting only offensive players?<\/h3>\n Paul Posluszny: <\/b>I don’t have the stats, but when you look at them the simple answer is yes. Just like you said it’s putting all the emphasis on making the defenders adjust. You can have a guy that’s trying to do the right thing, you can only hit guys in certain areas, you’ve gotta remember these are men that are running it full speed, trying to play fast and aggressive and then you say well I gotta target this area and I have to stay away from his head. You end up putting in all of these constraints that make it harder and harder for defenders to be able to play the game the way that it’s supposed to be played and that can be challenging.<\/p>\n
So there needs to be some sort of balance where the game is still the game of football that we all love, where the players are protected, but I would say a balance of the risks associated with putting additional constraints on defenders and saying what they can and can’t do in protecting offensive players.<\/p>\n
Q:<\/b> Mel Tucker is now the coach of the Michigan State Spartans, one of Penn State’s biggest rivals in the Big 10. Did you give Tucker any advice when he took the job?<\/h3>\n Paul Posluszny- <\/b>I said congratulations to him. When he was a defensive coordinator for us, he was outstanding, we loved him to death. He was one of those guys that as your defensive coordinator, you would do anything for. So to be able to see him lead a group of young men at the college level is awesome.<\/p>\n
It’s great for college football, it’s great for those players. Now there’s always gonna be one Saturday every fall where I’m gonna cheer against him, you know when he was with playing the Nittany Lions. But for the rest of them I am fully supportive of him because he’s such a great person, and I know he does an outstanding job of leading those young men and helping them develop into great football players and great student athletes.<\/p>\n
Q: <\/b>With NIL contracts now available, how much money do you estimate your NIL would’ve been worth as the reigning Dick Butkus Award and Chuck Bednarik Award winner?<\/h3>\n Paul Posluszny- <\/b>That’s an interesting question, and I’ve been removed now from it to a point where I’m not aware of the evaluations that are being thrown around for those players. But I could tell you this, when I was playing in my senior year, it was after a game, I was walking home with my family or walking back to our dorms with my family and a gentleman comes up to me and says, \u201cHey, you know, Paul, great game, congratulations\u201d, and he almost said it in a not condescending way, but said in a laughing manner said \u201cBy the way, I make t-shirts, these great t-shirts with a blue 31 on it\u201d, my number at the time, I\u2019d also like to say that I was just borrowing from Shane Conlan and Andre Collins.<\/p>\n
But he said, \u201cYou do not want to know how much money I’ve made off of you.\u201d And I said, What? What do you mean? He then told me about his t-shirt business. So when you think of that it’s an interesting problem to have.<\/p>\n
With the dollars being thrown around your guess is as good as mine, I’ve kind of lost track of who gets what now in that environment.<\/p>\n
It’s gonna completely change the dynamic of what it means to be a student athlete at the college level. When you think of the money being put into that environment, it’ll be interesting to see how it plays out. Hopefully we’ll find a way for it to benefit all and it’ll be good for college sports.<\/p>\n
Q: <\/b>I was very surprised to see that you only made the playoffs one time during your NFL career. Talk a little bit about what that experience was like and how hard it is to win games consistently in the NFL.<\/h3>\n Paul Posluszny- <\/b>So many things have to go right to have continued success in the NFL on a team level. You have to stay healthy, you have to have a quarterback that plays well, you have to have a great defense. So when you think of all those variables that have to go right almost all the time.<\/p>\n
That’s why NFL number one is so great because each year it’s truly any team that can be in a great position to have success, if all those variables end up favorable to them.<\/p>\n
Our playoff run with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2017\/2018 was such an unbelievable experience for me because it was my 11th year, I had played a decade of football and never been to the playoffs and that can start to wear on you, so you finally get an opportunity to go. It was just so exciting, so exciting for the city of Jacksonville, so exciting for the Jaguars to be in that situation where we’re competing against, we played the Buffalo Bills in our first playoff game. Then we got to go to Pittsburgh to play the legendary Pittsburgh Steelers. So what an unbelievable environment to be in. I just remember it was so exciting for our team, our organization, and really all of Northeast Florida because the Jaguars hadn’t been to the playoffs in a long time and we finally competed at the level where we deserved to go.<\/p>\n
Q: <\/b>How those early battles with your brothers prepared you for the challenges you faced in the NFL and later on in life?<\/h3>\n Paul Posluszny- <\/b>I’ll tell you this, number one, my older brother Stan is the most athletic out of the brothers. My younger brother Dave is the toughest out of the brothers. I was just fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time and I truly believe that if I didn’t have them, if I didn’t have my older brother Stan, who was such a great influence on my life, and then my younger brother Dave being in a situation where I wanted to do things right to try to be a good role model for him because he was five years younger. That helped me so much, collegiately and then playing in the NFL. My two brothers are very instrumental in the NFL career that I had.<\/p>\n
But like you said, sports were a huge part of our childhood growing up. Our parents made the decision early on that we have five kids, we\u2019ve gotta figure out a way to keep them busy somehow. So thankfully they got us all involved in sports, which looking back on it was an absolute blessing. But you’re absolutely right, athletics are a big part of our family.<\/p>\n
Q: <\/b>How did you get into what you’re doing now?<\/h3>\n Paul Posluszny- <\/b>Yeah, absolutely. So after I finished my football career, I said I want to do something else. I have a lot of other interests and nothing quite as much as I love football. So I went to graduate school and I got an MBA from Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon and an opportunity came up through an internship to work for Raytheon Missiles and Defense. The aerospace and defense industry is something that I’ve always had an enormous love or passion for and this opportunity came up through an internship and I joined on with them.<\/p>\n
It’s surrounded by outstanding people. You end up working with a lot of people that were former military officers or people that served, which I love because it’s interesting, some people are fans of the Jacksonville Jaguars or the New York Yankees or New York Giants.<\/p>\n
I’m a fan of the United States Marine Corps in the US Army and Navy. I hold them in such high regard. So to be able to be associated with a company that helps provide them with what they need to ultimately to protect our country and our allies, it seemed like a great situation.<\/p>\n
So I’m way over my head, let’s put it that way from a learning perspective, but at Raytheon, you’re surrounded by outstanding people that are willing to help and the mission that we’re dedicated to is a very honorable one. So it’s been a great experience.<\/p>\n
Q: <\/b>Do you have any advice for retired NFL players?<\/h3>\n Paul Posluszny- <\/b>I’ll tell you what, I’m still trying to figure that out to be honest with you, because It’s such a challenge, right? You’re a part of the football team, something that you love. There’s something that you’re so passionate about and you’re surrounded by guys that you view as brothers and it’s extremely hard to replicate that environment outside of football.<\/p>\n
I know that being able to channel that passion and that love for something into another area is so critical. I feel like the guys that have challenges are ones that are still struggling to find that path where they say, I was fully dedicated and fully devoted for something for so long, what should I do now? So being able to truly look internally and say what is it that I want to dedicate my life to? I mean family, charitable work, working at Raytheon Missiles and Defense, so there’s so many options out there. It’s about finding that passion that you can dedicate all that love and energy to, that’s the challenge for sure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former NFL linebacker Paul Posluszny spoke exclusively to Canadian Sportsbooks and is convinced that the Bills are going to win the Super Bowl. The Penn State legend admitted he could have lost millions without the new NIL contracts being given to college athletes. Posluszny also criticized the \u2018Roughing the passer penalties\u2019 telling Canadian Sportsbooks, it\u2019s … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Paul Posluszny Talks Bills, Concussions, Toughest CFB Stadium<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n