Mitchell Schwartz is an offensive tackle for the Kansas City Chiefs, and a critical part of their offensive line. He’s also one of few Jewish football players in the National Football League (NFL), so we decided to round up 18 things to know about Mitch Schwartz!
1. Schwartz was born in June 1989 in Pacific Palisades, California to Jewish parents. His older brother, Geoff Schwartz, also plays in the NFL.
2. He grew up in West Los Angeles as a practicing Conservative Jew and attended Adat Shalom. His Hebrew name is Mendel.
His first-ever Instagram post was actually a throwback from his bar mitzvah:
ICONIC.
3. Mitch and his brother played football growing up, and his mom was worried about her sons, naturally. “I started out worrying that they were going to get hurt — but then I realized it was the other players I should be worrying about,” she explained. “They were like trucks hitting small cars. And I started to kind of feel like maybe this was their destiny.” Both Mitch and Geoff ended up being too big for their youth football leagues; literally, their weights were above the maximum requirements.
4. In high school, Mitch won a bunch of awards and honors in football; he was also an all-league pitcher on his high school’s baseball team. Oh, and he was on the Principal’s Honor Roll and Dean’s List, and scored an impressive 34 on his ACT. (Real facts you can learn on the internet!)
5. He went to University of California, Berkeley, after getting recruitment attempts from Cal, Michigan, Stanford, Virginia, Tennessee, Oregon, and Washington State.
6. At Berkeley, he started all 51 games possible from 2008 to 2011, at either left tackle or right tackle. He missed only a single snap, and that’s because he had a broken shoelace. (This is a ridiculously impressive stat.)
“Being available is big for me,” Schwartz explained. “You want to be available to your team at all times, especially on the offensive line. The biggest thing a coach looks for in a lineman is consistency. You want a guy who’s stable, who you can trust, who’s consistently going to block the right guy. And you want to be able to bank on his health as well. I think all offensive linemen strive for that. It’s a big point of pride for most of us.”
7. He partakes in ugly Hanukkah sweater traditions:
He also owns a Hanukkah onesie:
8. He and his wife, Brooke Squires, were set up on a blind date. While she’s not Jewish, their wedding combined their heritages. “Before the ceremony, our close friends and family gathered for our ketubah signing [and] we got married under [the] chuppah, which symbolizes the home that we will build together,” Brooke explained.
9. He was drafted to the Cleveland Browns in the 2012 NFL Draft, in the second round. He was the 37th overall pick. His first year, he was the only Browns rookie to start every single game.
10. In March 2016, he signed with the Kansas City Chiefs, signing a five-year $33 million contract. He was one of the highest-paid right tackles in the NFL.
11. Until November 2019, he never missed a snap in his NFL career — spanning eight seasons and 121 games, over seven and a half years. He played 7,894 consecutive snaps. (For those non-football-literate: a snap is a play.) Only three other players have longer active streaks.
12. Okay, the MOST IMPORTANT PART of this 18 things: Mitchell Schwartz has two adorable Pomeranians, named Cupcake and Pumpkin. He got Cupcake first, and then Pumpkin in April 2019. Here they are:
HOWEVER. They also have their own Instagram account, @cupcake.the.pom (again, cause Cupcake came first), and the account has nearly THREE TIMES the amount of followers Mitchell has. It’s our new favorite account. It’s the only thing we want to talk about.
Look at them!!!!!
I mean!!!
Here they are lighting a menorah!
Freaking STARS. All hail Cupcake & Pumpkin.
Mitch even realizes Cupcake is more famous than him:
(He crops his own face out of most photos.)
13. Mitch and his brother Geoff are the only Jewish brothers in the NFL since Ralph and Arnold Horween in 1923.
14. In 2016, the Schwartz brothers wrote a book, Eat My Schwartz: Our Story of NFL Football, Food, Family, and Faith. They write about their Jewish identity, their family, playing football, and more. Oh, and this is the cover:
He brought Cupcake on TV to do press for the book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMDO9ge7RgM
A STAR.
15. In February 2018, the brothers Schwartz traveled to Israel.
They went to the Dead Sea, gave Netanyahu their jerseys, visited a children’s hospital, the Western Wall, and more.
16. This Instagram caption from Brooke just shows how much of a mensch Mitch is:
Okay, one more Brooke post because just swipe to the last slide (you won’t regret it):
17. Mitch calls himself #ChefSchwartz and posts cooking tutorials on his Instagram. He makes brisket, latkes (at a JCC event!!), and more. He really wants his own cooking show.
18. In 2020, he’s set to play in his first Super Bowl. Mazel tov, Mitch!
Header Image of Mitchell Schwartz by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images
