Depending on which media interview he’s giving, U.S. Representative Jason Altmire, D-PA, was either a wide receiver on Florida State University’s storied 1989 Sugar Bowl Championship team, or a member of its practice squad, who didn’t play a single down in a single game during his four years as a Seminole.
With NCAA rules limiting roster size in championship games, both stories can’t be true; and Majority Accountability Project (www.majorityap.com) research raises questions about whether Altmire has padded his resume.
After Altmire won election in 2006, Florida State University wrote a profile about the newly minted Congressman and his life at FSU, where he graduated in 1990 with a degree is political science.
While Altmire reflected on campus life, claims that he played for the school’s championship team alongside future NFL players Deion Sanders, Brad Johnson and Sammy Smith never entered into the conversation.
“I played football for a couple of years,” he said. “It was a big part of my early time at FSU, but I had a knee injury that finished me off."
That being a member of the school’s first-ever Sugar Bowl championship team wouldn’t rank among Altmire’s fondest FSU memories is odd.
Even though he downplayed his football career with an FSU publication (which could easily dispel the Sugar Bowl claim), Altmire’s official campaign and House of Representative’s biographies report his career was much more glorious.
An entry in Altmire’s current biography states “he was a member of the school’s first Sugar Bowl championship football team.” The Hill newspaper wrote Altmire was “a former football star at FSU.”
Altmire has been making the Sugar Bowl claims since at least 2005, when he was a lobbyist for University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette wrote that year he “was a wide receiver on Florida State's 1989 Sugar Bowl championship team.”
Altmire’s claims are, at best, exaggerated.
The Bobby Bowden-coached Seminoles defeated Auburn 13-7 on January 2, 1989, Altmire’s junior year, and a full season past Altmire’s “couple of years” he said he was a member of the team. In another account, Altmire said he was injured just prior to the team’s Sugar Bowl game.
In 1996, Roll Call newspaper profiled Altmire’s departure from the staff of then-U.S. Representative Peter Peterson to join the Federation of American Health Systems. The paper wrote only that Altmire “graduat(ed) from Florida State University in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in political science.” There was no mention of Altmire’s membership on a championship team.
Further raising doubts of Altmire’s claim is the fact that rosters obtained by majorityap.com don’t list Altmire as a member of the team for any of the years he was at FSU.
While his official biographies perpetuate Altmire’s membership on the school’s championship team, Altmire himself acknowledged those claims might not be accurate.
“He never got to play in a regular game but practiced with the team, going against the great Deion Sanders, a defensive back who likely will be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame,” the Valley News Dispatch reported following an interview with Altmire in December, 2006.
Fans of the 1993 biopic “Rudy” will remember the story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, played in the film by Sean Astin. Rudy harbors ambitions of playing football for the Fighting Irish, but was unable to make the roster, playing instead on the team’s practice squad.
“You gotta be in at least one play during a game,” Ruettiger is told, “to officially be part of this team.” Ruettiger was allowed to play in Notre Dame’s final home game of his career.
Altmire would not be the first politician to embellish his resume. Atlantic City Mayor Robert Levy resigned in disgrace after it was discovered he embellished his military service. Levy, who left office in October, falsely claimed to have been a Green Beret. Federal officials are investigating whether Levy illegally took veterans benefits.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson had to backtrack from claims he made for four decades that he had been drafted by the Kansas City A’s in 1966. Richardson, who played baseball for Tufts University, was not drafted by the A’s, who moved to Oakland in 1968, or by any other major league team.
Altmire's football career
Michael, I am disappointed by this report, and if you have the integrity and intelligence of a true conservative, you will modify it. In your opinion, apparently, we are to base our understanding of what it means to be on a team from a movie? Anyone who played college sports, as I did, knows that anyone who practices and works out with the team is considered by everyone that matters, as part of the team. I wrestled at Penn State, and I know for a fact that the practice squad players on the football team were referred to by the other coaches and players as "part of the team". Furthermore, those practice squad and non-scholarship players are very often some of the most important and appreciated parts of a winning team. The workouts and time they put in are just as hard, if not harder, than the starters because they are getting hit by the future pro's and All-Americans. Now, I don't know if Congressman Altmire actually participated on the practice squad, but if he did, he was part of the team. Any insinuation of anything else is an insult to every athlete who participates in this very important and honorable endeavor.