Jeremy Staat is a new volunteer coach for the Bakersfield College Renegades, but is an old face in town. At age 34, Staat has done more in his lifetime than most people could only imagine doing. A former Driller, Renegade, Sun Devil and a member of four NFL teams, Staat’s most important role in life may have come as a Marine.
Born and raised in Bakersfield, Staat went to Bakersfield High School and graduated in 1994. After BHS, Staat came to BC and starred in football and track and field, where to this day, he is a record-holder in field events.
Staat credits his time as a student-athlete at BC as one of the best times of his life because he believes you get a good education, and the experience is priceless. He also enjoyed the fact that he got the chance to play in front of friends and family at home.
“I spent two glorious years here at BC. Here in Bakersfield it’s a great big little town and your only three or four people away from somebody that knows you,” said Staat. “I’ve had a great experience here. I think Bakersfield is a great place to raise a family.”
Staat also mentioned how anywhere he went there was always a connection to Bakersfield.
After graduating from BC with an A.A. in criminal justice, Staat transferred to Arizona State University.
“I spent two years at ASU and graduated with a degree in liberal studies. I was there in ’96 and ’97 and played in the Rose Bowl and played in the Sun Bowl. That’s also where I met my good friend Pat Tillman as well,” said Staat.
Tillman was an ASU teammate of Staat’s and was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals. Tillman left the Cardinals at the completion of the season the year of the 9/11 in 2001 to enlist in the U.S. Army. Tillman was killed and later investigations proved friendly fire was the cause of death.
“To come into that program at the time I did, I can say it was definitely a blessing to be there at that time. To meet the guys that I met because that core and that team with Pat Tillman, Jake Plummer, Juan Roque, Derek Smith, those guys were awesome individuals and to have a 12-1 season, playing in the Rose Bowl and being Pac-10 champions,” said Staat. “We played in the Rose Bowl in 1997, we played against Ohio State and we lost in the last minute and 24 seconds for a national title. It was a heartbreaker, but then the next year we played in the Sun Bowl in El Paso and beat the tar out of Iowa. That was just an amazing experience for me.”
After gaining multiple awards and accolades for the Sun Devils, Staat was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers and played three years at defensive tackle. After his time with the Steelers from 1998-2000, Staat bounced around the league landing in Seattle and Oakland before eventually ending up in St. Louis where he eventually retired.
Staat mentioned how his most memorable moment came not as a professional or at ASU, but rather at his old stomping grounds at BC.
“Out of the 15 years that I’ve played football, there’s one memory that really stands out. It was when I caught a touchdown pass in the Potato Bowl down here my freshman year. I forgot who we were playing against, but it was the first touchdown I ever scored,” he said. “I just remember that because when I crossed the end zone for my route and I caught the ball, I just remember getting hit in the back so hard that I thought ‘I don’t know how these guys do it.’
“I remember my dad picking up grass and my mom picking up grass and putting it in their pockets because they were so excited because it was my first touchdown I’d ever scored. As an offensive lineman, you really don’t get a chance to. That’s actually one of the pinnacle moments of my football career – catching a pass in the Potato Bowl.”
After retiring from the NFL, Staat went to the Arena Football League.
“I played one year in the AFL, the Arena Football League, because I figured I already had my retirement from the NFL and with another four years from the AFL, why not get two retirements?” he said. “That took a dramatic turn when Pat was killed on April 22, 2004. I said ‘I’m done.’ I hung it up and did some serious soul searching and joined the Marine Corps in December of 2005.”
Staat was with the L.A. Avengers when he got the call from his mother.
“I got a phone call from my mom and she was very hysterical, upset and crying and I asked her what’s going on and she said ‘Patty’s been killed.’ ” Staat said. “I tried to continue to hold myself together, so I went through meetings and tried to go through practice and about halfway through, one of the other players was kind of busting my chops a little bit, and I just lost it.
“I threw my helmet and just walked off the field. It was definitely a shocker, and it was the first time I’ve ever lost somebody that close to me and nobody ever wants to experience something like that.”
Staat reflected on Tillman’s life and what he meant to him as a friend.
“When you look back and you see how people have kind of glorified his life and his athletic accomplishments, it really makes me feel good inside that I was friends with him and that me and him had one of those open relationships where I could tell him exactly how I felt about where he stood and he could tell me the same,” he said. “We didn’t have any secrets and we were very straightforward with each other and it’s good to see that people are remembering him for what he did.”
Staat looked back at how the cover up on Tillman’s death left him feeling.
“I actually just watched the Pat Tillman story, his biography, just last week for the first time. I knew the gist of the story and what had taken place, but to see it unfold in that documentary was really hard to swallow,” said Staat. “It really upset me to see how our politicians, the elected officials that we put in office, how they treated this. If they could do it to Pat Tillman, then they could do it to all of our veterans and the cover up was just a disgrace.
“When it comes to veterans, I take a lot of pride in being a veteran, but I take a lot of pride in protecting our veterans as well.”
After Tillman’s death, Staat decided to leave football and join the Marines.
“It was extremely difficult being in boot camp with kids who were 10 years younger than me because having been through some real life lessons and experienced a little bit of reality going in there and seeing these young men try to find their way was kind of difficult for me,” said Staat. “I was kind of paying the price for their mistakes and for a while there it was hard for me to relate to these 18-19 year old kids who have really never accomplished anything more than just high school and heck, some of them didn’t even accomplish that.
“To deal with them and to try and keep them motivated and tell them, this really isn’t that bad, it really took a drain on me.”
Staat left the Marine Corps in 2009 and also earned his master’s degree from ASU in liberal studies that year.
Now Staat has come full circle and is back in Bakersfield helping out with the Renegades.
“My biggest thing is just trying to show the guys that I’ve already been there, my season is already over with, what I want to instill in these young men is that education is first because no matter what, there is one thing no one can ever take away from them and that’s their education.”
Staat is also newly married. His wife, Janelle, is a current student at BC.