How Josh Rosen Used ‘Jew Bastard’ Abuse As Motivation
Quarterback Josh Rosen Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — Josh Rosen, the UCLA quarterback who was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals with the 10th pick in the NFL draft, told the league’s online magazine that a lot of the trash talk directed at him on the field is anti-Semitic.
“I get a lot of Jewish things,” he told NFL.com reporter Michael Silver. “My nose, particularly. I get, like, ‘Stay the f—- down, you Jewish bastard … I’m gonna break your f—-in’ nose, you Jew.’”
Rosen also recalled a game at the University of Arizona during his freshman year where fans held up signs including his face on the queen from “Frozen,” and one that said “Josh Rosen’s Bar Mitzvah Wasn’t Even Lit.’”
But, Rosen told Silver, he likes it “when people try to get in my head,” adding “It gets my competitive juices flowing.”
A 2014 profile noted that Rosen became a bar mitzvah and attends seder every Passover, but he also celebrates Christmas and he called himself “kind of an atheist.”
His religion has been a topic of conversation in recent weeks, with two ESPN radio shows suggesting that Rosen would prefer playing in New York rather than Cleveland because of its larger Jewish community. Cleveland has the first pick in the draft that begins Thursday and is in need of a quarterback, though some have suggested that Rosen will go later in the first round.
The quarterback’s father is Charles Rosen, a noted Jewish orthopedic surgeon. His mother, Liz Lippincott, is Quaker and is the great-great-granddaughter of Joseph Wharton, who founded the prestigious Wharton business school at the University of Pennsylvania.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
