{"id":60635,"date":"2021-04-14T09:42:54","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T15:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=60635"},"modified":"2021-04-14T09:42:54","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T15:42:54","slug":"julian-edelman-star-jewish-wide-receiver-for-new-england-patriots-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/julian-edelman-star-jewish-wide-receiver-for-new-england-patriots-announces-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Julian Edelman, star Jewish wide receiver for New England Patriots, announces retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By MIKE BRODSKY<\/p>\n<p>(JTA) \u2014 Julian Edelman, the New England Patriots wide receiver who has shown his Jewish pride on a number of occasions, will retire following a stellar 11-year career in which he won Most Valuable Player in Super Bowl LIII.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_60636\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-60636\" class=\"wp-image-60636 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-1024x568.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-768x426.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-2048x1137.jpg 2048w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/167;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-60636\" class=\"wp-image-60636 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-300x167.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"167\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-1024x568.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-768x426.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-1536x853.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Julian-Edelman-Lombardi-Trophy-Getty-02042019-1-resize-2160x1199-1-2048x1137.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-60636\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julian Edelman celebrates with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after his New England Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 win in Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Feb. 3, 2019. Edelman was the game&#8217;s MVP. (Al Bello\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Edelman, who played in only six games last year due to a chronic knee injury, had his contract terminated Monday by the Patriots in a procedural move, ESPN reported. He announced his retirement in a video posted Monday to social media.<\/p>\n<p>Unheralded out of Kent State and undersized at 5-10 and less than 2oo pounds, Edelman was at his best in the big games, finishing second all-time with 118 postseason receptions, trailing only Hall of Famer Jerry Rice\u2019s 151. He was a member of three Super Bowl champions. Edelman will also finish second all-time among Patriots receivers with 620 catches, behind Wes Welker\u2019s 672.<\/p>\n<p>Edelman, now 34, has a Jewish father but was not raised in the religion. It was during his breakout campaign in 2013 that, coincidentally or not, he identified as Jewish in an interview with the NFL Network.<\/p>\n<p>In 2014, he wore a pin featuring the Israeli flag. Edelman has tweeted&nbsp;about Jewish holidays. He even&nbsp;went on a Birthright-style trip&nbsp;to Israel, and in 2019 visited the country with the Patriots\u2019 Jewish owner, Robert Kraft. He wrote a children\u2019s book&nbsp;that references modern-day Zionism founder Theodor Herzl.<\/p>\n<p>After the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in the fall of 2018 that killed 11, he wore special cleats with Hebrew on them to honor the victims. Last month, he reached out on social media to NBA center Meyers Leonard, who used an anti-Semitic slur while playing a video game on the public Twitch channel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s do a Shabbat dinner with some friends,\u201d Edelman wrote Leonard. \u201cI\u2019ll show you a fun time.\u201d<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Julian%20Edelman%2C%20star%20Jewish%20wide%20receiver%20for%20New%20England%20Patriots%2C%20announces%20retirement\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":60636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1491],"tags":[8790,8795,9855,7504,8788,8816],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60635"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60635"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60637,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60635\/revisions\/60637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}