[lawrence-newsletter]Tonight is the beginning of Passover, one of the most significant holidays on the Jewish calendar. Although that is probably not what you expected from the first sentence of this post, I promise it all relates. As my family and I get ready to celebrate Jewish freedom, I was reminded of the most wild, Jewish story in Badger history.
The holiday in this story was not the celebration of Passover, but instead a day known on the Jewish calendar as Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur, it is tradition to fast as part of atoning for sins that had been committed in the previous Jewish year. The issue in 2004 for Wisconsin football, was that the day of fasting fell on September 27th, the same day the Badgers were scheduled to meet Penn State. The Big Ten clash ended up having a different meaning for Jewish UW fullback Matt Bernstein.
Bernstein was a Wisconsin fullback from 2002-2005, who finished his Badger career with 508 total rushing yards. He later had short stints with the Detroit Lions and in the Arena Football League. Nearly a fourth of all the rushing yards that Bernstein accumulated as a Badger came on one, magical night.
Bernstein is Jewish, and of course fasted on the Yom Kippur game day. So, maybe the junior back would be forced to sit out the 4:45pm game against Penn State? Bernstein was lucky that the game kicked off when it did. According to the Jewish tradition, you are allowed to break the fast at sundown. Had it been an early morning kickoff, the New York native’s only choice that involved playing and holding the fast would be to do so without any food. Bernstein did not just end up playing against the Nittany Lions; he dominated. Although he began the game with an empty stomach, the 260-pound fullback bulled over Penn State defenders en route to a career-high 123 yards on a career-high 27 carries. To put those stats into perspective, during the entirety of Bernstein’s previous (sophomore) season in 2003, the fullback accumulated 120 rushing yards on 29 attempts. According to an ESPN story from that night by Ivan Maisel, once the sun went down Bernstein was able to break the fast with turkey slices and fruit that he ate on the sidelines throughout the game.
Wisconsin went on to beat the Nittany Lions 16-3 thanks to a career-night from the Jewish fullback. Bernstein picked quite the night to feast.