By Mick Kowaleski ’14
Photo by Kate Cherney ’15/ The Lafayette and Courtesy of daylife.com
When you first meet Blake Costanzo ’06, “NFL starter” isn’t the first label that springs to mind. Entering a GoLeopards.com interview set wearing an Adidas sweatshirt and Oakley flat-brimmed cap, the 6’2″ special teams standout for the San Francisco 49ers seems more like a relaxed twenty-something on vacation than a professional football player returning to his alma mater.
A prime example of the term “laid-back”, Costanzo sat down for his interview as an Athletics Department employee called out for him, asking if he wanted to wear a Lafayette sweatshirt. He shrugged and smiled.
“Nah, I’m good rocking the Adidas.”
During the interview, he was more comfortable and well-spoken than most professional athletes. When these particular traits were mentioned to him, he smiled.
“I’ve got a big mouth, man,” he said cheerily. “That’s what I’m known for, I talk to people. That’s my thing.”
It’s a characteristic that has been displayed on national television. As a member of the San Francisco 49ers, Costanzo can be seen chatting it up with stars such as Vernon Davis and Alex Smith on the sidelines, most recently during the NFC Championship Game.Costanzo does just as much talking on the field as he does on the sidelines.
A special teams specialist, Costanzo has been a standout player for three NFL teams over the past five years, enjoying a relatively successful career for a player out of the non-scholarship Patriot League. His motivation for such a risky endeavor was simple.
“I didn’t want to get a job, so I said, ‘Shoot man, I might as well play football,'” he laughed. “You know, I always knew I could play, so I made a highlight tape and got the addresses of some NFL teams from [Lafayette Defensive Coordinator] John Loose and went to work.
It was almost like a resume, except my job interview was with the New York Jets.”
The “interview” that Costanzo referred to was a tryout in 2006. He failed to make New York’s squad after a broken wrist, but played in the now-defunct NFL Europe before returning to America only to be cut by the Jets again. However, he quickly found a home with the Buffalo Bills in the summer of 2007. After playing for the Bills for two seasons, he signed with the Cleveland Browns for which he played another two seasons. After the 2010 season he joined the San Francisco 49ers, with whom he signed a $700,000 one-year contract while enjoying a 14-2 season and playoff run. Through his five year career, Costanzo has amassed 54 tackles, six forced fumbles and three recoveries in 61 games played.
It can be argued that his biggest game occurred several weeks ago during the NFC Divisional Playoff match-up against the New Orleans Saints. In a close shootout that ended up being decided on a touchdown pass with nine seconds remaining, Costanzo played a huge role in supplying the defensively-minded 49ers with great field position by forcing a fumble and recovering another. Those turnovers resulted in not only losses of possession by the offensively dominant Saints, but also led to a David Akers field goal to put San Francisco up by a precious six points.
In a sport viewed by some to be losing its toughness, Costanzo remains a player committed to the heart and soul of the game.
“I feel like football is straying from its tough roots,” he said. “I play for the love of the game, a lot of these people seem to be playing for themselves. It’s a disrespect for the game, making it too businesslike, the softness, no one’s really willing to sacrifice anymore…that’s why we were so successful, Coach Harbaugh instilled those old-school techniques with us. We start off practice with tackling drills, and simple as it is, we did it every day, the little things that make you get to the next level.”
Despite the fact that he lives a dream most won’t come close to, makes close to a million dollars a year, and can count among his friends superstars such as Cleveland wide receiver/kick returner Joshua Cribbs, Costanzo doesn’t count any of those as the biggest blessings of his career. Rather, it’s the opportunities that subsequently present themselves.
“The coolest thing, man, honestly, is the community outreach,” Costanzo said with a smile. “Going to children’s hospitals, I got to check out Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in Cleveland, and that was really cool. So just giving back and having that effect where you can visit sick children in the hospital and give them a smile. To just have that platform where people look up to you and that you can do good for them, that’s what I love most about playing in the NFL.”
Costanzo also has some thoughts regarding the current state of Lafayette football, which has struggled in the last two years.
“You know, Lafayette football doesn’t get a lot of recognition because of the academics,” he said, shaking his head. “There’s a lot of tradition that people don’t realize, going way back. I realized that, the guys who play on the team realize that and respect that, but I think a lot of people who go to school here don’t understand that. Once they start getting that [tradition] back, things will start to turn around. That’s what the coaches are trying to stress, and once they get that mentality back, then they’ll get to the point where they’ll start winning championships again.”
With Blake Costanzo as a shining example of that tradition, Lafayette will have a much easier time convincing people.