Josh Rosen
UCLA’s Jewish Football Superstar, Josh Rosen, Is Not Afraid To Speak His Mind
Josh Rosen is one of the most talented college football players in the country. But in addition to making a statement on the football field, Josh Rosen might be just as noteworthy for his outspokenness off the field.
The 6 foot 4 inch, 220-pound UCLA quarterback has the look of a future NFL superstar. But in a sport where coaches seem to want their players to be automatons, Rosen is refreshingly candid.
At age 20, Rosen has spoken out repeatedly against the NCAA’s amateur system. In this system, athletes’ compensation of a college scholarship is vastly outweighed by the hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue that their exploits bring to their university.
Josh has also criticized the workload schools give student athletes. In an interview with the Bleacher Report Rosen said – “Look, football and school don’t go together”.
(And to top it off, Josh posted a selfie on Instagram last year, wearing a “F—k Trump” hat.)
But the only way that Rosen could back that up is by being a great football player while on the gridiron.
Josh Rosen, the Jewish college football quarterback, was the Pac-12 Freshman Offensive Player of the Year in 2015. He then bounced back from an injury plagued sophomore season to become one of the nation’s leading quarterbacks, astonishing fans by throwing 491 yards to lead the Bruins to an epic 45–44 comeback victory against Texas A&M in September.
While some prospective NFL coaches have expressed concern about his brashness, Rosen has stuck to his guns. “I am not going to be fake,” Rosen told Bleacher Report. “I will not be a robot.”
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.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.