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Justin Buzzard is a defensive end for the San José City College Jaguars who chose No. 48 for a good reason: He turns 48 years old on Sept. 14.
But that’s not what the father of three boys and full-time pastor in the Bay Area wants you to take away from his story. Before he was the centerpiece of a piece on “SportsCenter,” before he was waking up at 2:30 a.m. to appear on Fox News, Buzzard had to decide if he was ready to confront drastic change.
When that time came, the oldest active college football player in America leaned on an ethos he lives by: risk or rust.
“If you’re not risking,” Buzzard says, “you’re rusting.”
That is what he hopes sports fans — or even folks who have zero interest in sports — take away from his unusual path back to the gridiron after 30 years away.
At its core, it’s a simple mindset, something that anyone from the middle-aged office worker to the grocery store clerk can relate to. If Buzzard weren’t taking risks, he said, he wouldn’t feel as if he was truly living.
Nobody can accuse Buzzard of not walking the walk now.
“If you’re not stepping out into new territory, if you’re not taking risks, if you’re not trying new things and you’re just playing things safe with your life, you’re staying in a comfort zone,” he said. “I don’t think you’re really living. You’re not having the impact you could have on people. You’re not meant to sit on the sidelines in your life.”
What he once considered a “truly crazy” idea blossomed from motivation he found in another even slightly more senior college football player. Buzzard came across a video of 60-year-old cancer survivor Tom Green, who attempted to walk on at Division III McDaniel College.
Buzzard forwarded the video to his sons as inspiration as they chase their own athletic dreams. His eldest son, Cru, wrote back and said, “Dad, you need to do this.” Buzzard laughed out loud.
“Right then, something happened in my heart,” he said. “I could literally feel it in my chest.”
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This summer, Buzzard took the ultimate risk of putting his body and ego on the line when he reached out to the coaches at SJCC to see if they could use another athlete on the defensive front — albeit one with a little more seasoning than most.
The coaches were open to the idea. He crowdsourced it with family and friends.
“When he got the idea to try out for football, I was one of the first people he told about it,” said Bobby Ng, a member of Buzzard’s church. “I was like, ‘That’s just not something you need to be doing.’ Then I realized football was a passion for his when he was much younger.
“He’s a man on a mission. I was not surprised when he said he was going to do this and just take it all the way. Because that’s just the way he is.”
Living a stone’s throw away from the high school his kids attend, Buzzard asked Lincoln High football coach Kevin Collins. The longtime coach told Buzzard that if he was in as good of shape as Buzzard is at his age, he would try it in a heartbeat.
It had been 30 years since Buzzard played football. After one year redshirting as a defensive end at Whitworth University, a private Christian university in Spokane, Wash., Buzzard had his career derailed by injuries. Buzzard ditched the gigantic neck roll and cut-off jersey synonymous with 1990s football and eventually attended seminary school.
Buzzard is the founder and lead pastor of the Garden City Church, a nondenominational church in the heart of San José. It’s named after where, according to the Bible, the human story began.
“I’m a big believer that your life is a story and that you’re not stuck,” Buzzard said. “You can take your life and your story in new directions. I can get pretty frustrated or in someone’s face when they just play the victim card of being stuck.”
At 6 feet 3 and 205 pounds, Buzzard remained in good physical shape. Once he decided to try out for the team, he added 10 pounds by hitting the gym in his garage and running bleachers at the high school. During practices, he packed his own peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches in case he needed fuel.
After he made the team, Buzzard had to sign up for a full 12-credit course load, which he balances with work at the church, practices and parenthood. SJCC coach Jim Winkler said Buzzard doesn’t receive any special privileges compared with teammates half his age.
In the season opener against College of the Redwoods on Aug. 29, Buzzard waited for a live rep he didn’t know was coming. When his No. 48 was called, he jogged onto the field and lined up at right defensive end. He helped collapse the pocket, which allowed SJCC’s middle linebacker to wrestle the quarterback to the ground.
In the handshake line postgame, Buzzard said one of the opposing players told him: “My dad couldn’t do this.”
Buzzard said he’s been inundated with messages from people thanking him for proving that effort goes well beyond accomplishment. Messages like that propel Buzzard through the days his hands ache and remind him why he took the risk in the first place.
“I want people to just try new things they may have held back on because they’re scared,” he said. “It’s OK to risk rejection.”