Former NFL player coming to Long Beach
Super Bowl champ to talk football and faith at the Allegria hotel
Everyone has a story to tell, and Alan “Shlomo” Veingrad, a former NFL offensive lineman who is now a motivational speaker, inspires others with his own.
Veingrad, a lineman for the Super Bowl XXVII champion Dallas Cowboys, will be a guest at the BACH Jewish Center’s "Turn Friday Night into Shabbat" event Jan. 14-16 at the Allegria hotel.
Veingrad, who was born in Brooklyn and later moved to Miami, grew up in a Jewish household, but didn’t consider himself religious. He was, however, passionate about football.
He played at Miami Sunset High School and graduated from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M, Commerce), where he was a team captain, All-Conference and All-American.
He went on to play for the Green Bay Packers for five seasons, from 1986 to 1990, and two seasons for the Cowboys, who captured the Super Bowl in 1993. An inductee of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Veingrad described his time in the NFL as a “dream come true,” one that was “hard, but rewarding.”
Despite his love for the game, following the Super Bowl championship, Veingrad retired from football and returned to Florida.
“My body was starting to hurt and I just got married,” he said. “[And I] thought, Maybe it’s time to retire. When I retired, I had a Super Bowl ring.”
But Veingrad had another passion: public speaking. “ I did a lot of public speaking during my football career,” he said. His brother, a police officer, often asked him to speak to students at elementary schools in Miami. Veingrad would talk about the importance of saying no to drugs with children who were graduating from the DARE program at their schools.
“I didn’t have any interest in religion,” Veingrad said. “But I felt I did have a story to tell.”
And his feelings about religion changed once he began attending Torah classes, he said. “It wasn’t until 10 years into retirement, where I became more Torah observant,” Veingrad said. “It was a life-changing experience.”
That’s when, he said, more speaking opportunities came his way.
After rediscovering his Jewish roots, Veingrad traveled the world, telling his story.
