[New England Patriots punter] Zoltan Mesko does not need much prodding to launch into a story about what was at once both his most embarrassing and most famous moment as a Michigan Wolverine.
One of the Wolverines’ longest-running traditions is to leap up and slap an eight-foot-tall “Go Blue” banner as they sprint onto the field before a home game. As a senior in 2009, Mesko was one of the first players out for Michigan’s season-opener against Western Michigan.
Only he was a little too enthusiastic. The 6-foot-5 punter got a little too much air and smacked the banner hard — a little too hard — with both hands. That caused him to lose his balance and tumble awkwardly to the turf, where he was smacked into by several of the 80 or so hard-charging Wolverines running behind him.
The clip hit YouTube immediately. ESPN’s “GameDay” interviewed Mesko after the Wolverines’ eventual win, just to talk about the banner incident.
Mesko laughed the mishap off then. And now, despite being in the NFL for two years and making his first Super Bowl, he’s still more than happy to talk about it.
“So, two good things that came about because of that, besides a lot of laughs,” Mesko said Thursday. “I got a little one-minute special on ‘Gameday’ — they interviewed me about what was happening when I was getting trampled.
“And second, a sorority noticed it was at 90,000 views on YouTube, and they said they’d throw a party for the football team when it hit a (hundred thousand).”
The original YouTube video reached that milestone, and Mesko took his teammates to celebrate at that impromptu sorority get-together. Consider that the prime example why Mesko was a huge hit with his Michigan teammates and a veritable legend around campus.
Here's the video:
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