Mitchell and Geoff Schwartz started playing football at Palisades High School.
Photo: NFL Player Engagement
Former PaliHi Player Schwartz
Selected to All-Pro NFL Team
In December, sportswriter Daniel Rymer wrote, “The Kansas City Chiefs are in the midst of one of the greatest offensive seasons of all time, led by a prolific young quarterback and an endless supply of weapons at the skill positions. However, behind every great offensive team, there is usually a great offensive line, and that remains true for the Chiefs, whose offensive line has allowed only 115 total pressures on 531 pass-blocking snaps this year which is good for the fourth-best pass-blocking efficiency rating (88.3) in the NFL.”
Then he added, “The man leading the Chiefs’ offensive line is right tackle Mitchell Schwartz.”
So it came as no surprise on Monday when the 6’5”, 320-pound Schwartz, 29, was named to the Associated Press All-Pro NFL team.
A reader wrote Circling the News, “This is pretty unprecedented stuff for a Palisades High graduate. This is the hardest honor to attain in the NFL because it represents the top players from boththe AFC and NFC conferences.”
Schwartz and his older brother Geoff were both academic and athletic standouts at PaliHi, not only in football, but also baseball and basketball. Schwartz graduated with a 4.3 GPA.
As a senior, he was the 2006 Los Angeles City Offensive Lineman of the Year, 2006 Western League Lineman of the Year, and received Prepstar 2006 All-West Region honors.
According to an article titled “The NFL careers of Geoff and Mitchell Schwartz Were a Surprise—Mostly to Them,” the brothers favored basketball and baseball over football. But because of their size and athleticism, the sport found them.
There was no history of football in this Jewish family and neither boy had played football before entering Palisades High. Their father, Lee, is a businessman and their mother, Olivia Goodkin, is an attorney.
Geoff, who graduated from Oregon, spent nine years in the NFL as an offensive guard and Mitchell, who attended Cal Berkeley (graduating in 2001), was a second-round draft pick by the Cleveland Browns in 2012.
From 2012 to 2015, Schwartz started in all 16 games for the Browns at right tackle. In March 2016, he signed a five-year $33 million contract with Kansas City, making him one of the highest-paid tackles in the NFL.
Watch him this Saturday when Kansas City takes on Indianapolis in the second round of the NFL playoffs.
And if you don’t watch football, pick up a book written by the brothers in 2016, a lighthearted read titled “Eat My Schwartz: Our Story of NFL Football, Food, Family and Faith.”
Great story!