World Champion Stephen Neal will bring his wrestling success along when he starts in Super Bowl XXXIX for the New England Patriots
Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling
There’s nothing like a Super Bowl to put attention on an athlete’s achievements and the details of his life.
But for New England Patriots right guard Stephen Neal, his chance to start in Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla. is also shining a national spotlight on his former career as a World Champion freestyle wrestler. He has been doing a number of interviews recently talking about his football career, and explaining his life when he was a wrestling hero.
In 1999, Stephen Neal was the greatest freestyle wrestler on the planet. He won the World gold medal at 130 kg/286.5 lbs. in Ankara, Turkey, and was named by the international wrestling federation FILA as the 1999 International Freestyle Wrestler of the Year.
Instead of using his patented “freight train double leg” to take down wrestlers, he is protecting Tom Brady from the pass rush, and opening running lanes for Corey Dillon. The amazing thing is that Stephen Neal did not play a single down of football in college. He learned the sport at the highest level after his wrestling career was over.
No. 61 of the New England Patriots, Neal already owns two Super Bowl rings. However, this time, he will be playing in the starting lineup and making a key contribution to the team effort.
“It is very exciting,” said Neal. “I was with the team the last four years, but was on the practice squad or injured during that time. Now I am able to be on the field and contribute to the team at the Super Bowl. That is exciting.”
Neal has been playing very well for the Patriots, but just like when he was a World Champion wrestler, he always wants to do better.
“I know I am not where I want to be,” said Neal. “I can improve. I’m not perfect. Every day, I am working to get better. Whatever mistakes I make in a game, I try to fix them the next week. Hopefully, I will get a lot better.”
His college coach at Cal-State Bakersfield, T.J. Kerr, says that Neal is very much the same person as when he won two NCAA titles for the Roadrunners, or when he was a World champion freestyle wrestler training with his program.
“He hasn’t changed,” said Kerr. “He was telling me one week that he got a 96% grade on pass blocking that week, and that is hard to get. He got an 87 on the run, though. He was not happy with that. He wants to be perfect on everything. He is trying to let his teammates and coaches know that he wants to be even better.”
Neal considers football a new and unique challenge from what he went through as a champion wrestler.
“It is different. In wrestling, you are the only one competing. You make one mistake and it can cost you the entire championship. In football, you can make one mistake, and it can have a big effect or not. You are not under the microscope so much in football. You can have a good play that really helps the team sometimes.”
There may be some things that Neal has brought with him from wrestling into his football career, but in so many ways, Neal has had to learn an entire new set of skills.
“The balance and leverage has transferred well,” said Neal. “You also have to keep your hands inside, kind of like pummeling for position in wrestling. Besides that, I had to learn a whole new set of skills.”
Neal is the only person alive who can compare what it is like to be involved in a play in a professional football championship game with what it is like to be in the finals of the World Freestyle Wrestling Championships.
“Every play is a new opportunity,” said Neal. “You either win, lose or it’s a draw. You get between 50 and 80 snaps a game. Hopefully, you win them all. It’s like going for a takedown, or being in a scramble in wrestling. There is also a lot of mental stuff going on each play.”
Neal is learning about football from his coaches and teammates, but he also is teaching them about the work ethic and passion that he learned in wrestling.
“I have learned a lot from the guys around me, the little things of football,” said Neal. “If somebody learned something from me, it is that they better watch out. If there is a turnover, I want to make the play. I am going to go for it hard. I’ll never give up, no matter what the situation is.”
He also sees some similarities to playing football and wrestling.
“You have to have confidence, but not be cocky. You have to respect the opponent and be prepared for every play. You have to do the best you can every time,” said Neal.
His path to the Super Bowl was clearly not the same as anybody else who will be on the field that day, or, for that matter, anybody else in the entire National Football League.
Neal played football at San Diego High School in California, but it was in wrestling where he excelled. He won a Junior National freestyle title, and went to a Div. I wrestling program at Cal-State Bakersfield. After winning two NCAA titles for the Roadrunners, and winning the Dan Hodge Trophy as the nation’s top college wrestler, Neal turned his effort towards international freestyle wrestling.
The 1999 year proved to be amazing for him. He won the U.S. Nationals Championships, then earned a spot on the U.S. World Team with a win at the World Team Trials. He followed up with a gold medal at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada.
At the 1999 World Championships of Freestyle Wrestling, held in Ankara, Turkey, Neal had one of the most memorable performances in recent U.S. wrestling history. Neal won five matches on the way to the gold medal. In the finals, he met World silver medalist Andrei Shumilin of Russia. Neal fell behind 2-0 early, but came back to stop the three-time World medalist, 4-3.
“You can take a wrestler and make him into a football player,” said Kerr. “You can’t take a football player and make him a wrestler, especially in the short time it took Steve to get there in pro football.”
At the 2000 Olympic Trials and 2001 World Team Trials, he lost in the finals to a talented Kerry McCoy and was No. 2 in the USA in freestyle wrestling. The summer after the 2001 Trials, he decided to become a pro football player. Fellow Olympic medalist wrestler Matt Ghaffari introduced Neal to a friend who was involved with pro football. Neal ended up with a football tryout. He did so well that he was signed and invited to training camp with the New England Patriots. At the end of camp, he was cut by the Patriots.
“When he got back home after that first training camp, he saw how down I was about him getting cut,” said Kerr. “He said to me, ‘It’s all right; I am going to get picked up.’ Now, 32 teams just let 30 guys go, so how can Stephen think he is going to get picked up? But he was right.”
The Philadelphia Eagles placed Neal on their practice squad, and he played with them most of the year, until the Patriots took him back for their practice squad near the end of the season. That was the year New England won its first Super Bowl, and Neal won his first Super Bowl ring.
He was on the active roster that last two years, but injuries kept him from finding out how good a football player he could be. This year, injury free, Neal made the starting lineup and has been a strong contributor to the offense.
“(Coach) Bill Belichik will play his best guys,” said Kerr. “Some football coaches are not like that, sticking with the athletes who helped the team have success. The fact that Stephen beat out a guy who started in the Super Bowl last year says a lot. This is a big deal.”
Kerr has purchased the satellite football package so he and those involved in the Bakersfield wrestling community can watch Neal play every game. According to Kerr, it has been worth every cent.
“We watch him each game, and he continues to get better and better,” said Kerr.
Neal has fit in well with the Patriots, a squad known for its work ethic and an unselfish team concept. He is a restricted free agent after this season, and could move to a new team, but he would be happy to stay in New England.
“I know the system here. It is a great place to be. The coaching staff knows my situation and helps me out. It is a cool place to play,” said Neal.
“The Patriots are close knit; it is hard to find something negative about that team,” said Kerr. “He is a perfect fit there. He is intelligent, a great athlete and is highly motivated, and he is around guys who are the exact same way.”
Stephen Neal is still a wrestler, even though he is being paid to play football. Neal keeps in close touch with the wrestling community. And he still has this idea in his head that he would like to wrestle competitively again.
“I try to call (National Freestyle Coach) Kevin Jackson every so often. I always talk to Coach Kerr and Coach (Darryl) Pope at Bakersfield, letting them know what is going on and finding out about wrestling there,” said Neal.
“I’d love to wrestle again some day,” Neal continued. “The main thing would be for me to get down to 264 pounds. I don’t want to be over 300 pounds my whole life. It is too much stress on the joints.”
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