The Odyssey : Israeli Gilad Landau Stands Out as Grambling’s Standout Kicker

This is about as complex as a college football story gets. So let’s deal with the last things first.

Grambling University meets Hampton Institute tonight at East Rutherford, N.J. Game time is 7.

Grambling’s kicker can’t play until 7:30, because Yom Kippur won’t be over until the sun sets.

“So I’ll probably miss the first quarter,” Gilad Landau said.

Grambling is a black college, almost entirely. Yom Kippur is the most solemn of Jewish holidays, a day of fasting, from sundown to sundown.

Eddie Robinson, who is 73 and has coached almost all kinds in almost all circumstances, is more concerned about Landau’s leg strength after a day of fasting. He’ll see to it that there’s something ready for Landau to eat.

Robinson would be the first to respect another man’s religion. “That’s his way,” Robinson said. “That’s his religion. That’s what he brought from his country. That’s good enough for me.”

Goodness knows, kickers can come from mysterious circumstances, but this does strain credulity.

Landau, a 25-year-old junior, was named Sheridan All-America, Black College All-America, Jewish All-America and All-Louisiana the last two years. He is the best college kicker ever to come out of Israel.

When he first got to Grambling and was one of the handful of white faces on the campus, he would usually say he came from the Middle East. If he said he was from Israel, sometimes he would be asked: “Is that near Houston?”

Tchernichowsky Secondary School in Netanya is not near Houston, and a million miles from where Landau is today--by chance. He had served his three years in the Israeli army and wanted to visit America. He got out a map, closed his eyes and pointed. “No joke,” he said. He touched on New Orleans.

He took a job as an apprentice welder at Avondale Shipyards, working sunup to sundown and leaving his body marked by those hot sparks.

“I never saw America,” he said. “For three months I didn’t even see New Orleans. I was shocked at how people lived, and I knew the only way to get out was to get an education.”

One day, slumped in front of his television, he came upon people running around on a football field. “I wanted to turn it off,” Landau said. “But I saw a person come in to kick a ball and everybody was jumping up and down happy, and I said, ‘What is that? I can try to do that.’ ”

Landau played some soccer in Netanya, so he asked the foreman at his job about what he had seen on television. “He said, ‘You keep on welding, boy,’ ” Landau said with a simulated drawl. “Southerners have an accent,” he explained.

He persisted, and the foreman brought his son’s football to the shipyard the next day. “I kicked it 40 yards,” Landau said, “and everybody said, ‘Dayamm!’ ”

Landau bought a football and a kicking tee for $17 at Kmart and kicked into the trees for three months. A lawyer friend advised that if he wanted a college scholarship, he would need to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

Landau said: “What’s that?”

Anyhow, he found Newman High in his neighborhood, a secretary helped him sign up and showed him a test. “It was crazy,” Landau said. “Latin words, math, English. She found a tutor for me. She made a miracle for me.”

By early summer it was too late to pursue most scholarships, so Jim Reginelli, the coach at Newman High who had seen Landau kick field goals from 45 yards, called Robinson at Grambling, a state school.

“I didn’t know the school was black,” Landau said.

Robinson didn’t care that Landau was white. He said if Landau got 700 on the SAT, he had a scholarship.

“I got 750; that’s what I’m doing here,” Landau said.

Said Robinson: “This guy will make you understand him. He gets along with anybody and will challenge anybody. They respect his work ethic.”

When Landau tacked the mezuzah to the doorpost of his room, he did have to explain that it contained Hebrew scrolls. He eats with the team, but eats no pork. There is a reform temple an hour away in Monroe, but he feels awkward there; he recites morning prayers and sabbath prayers alone in his room.

He has tried to explain his mixed feelings about Israel’s agreement with the PLO to those who ask. “It felt like cold water on my back,” Landau said. “I believe in peace; all the world knows the PLO is a killer. But I believe in the move.”

He has even begun to consider football “like a chess game,” as long as he doesn’t get hit. He has made two tackles. “I don’t like it,” he said. He does it. His mother in Netanya tells him, just wind the tape to the kicking.

Robinson thinks he has the leg to become the first Israeli kicker in the NFL. Landau has made 100 of 104 extra-point kicks and 22 of 33 field-goal attempts in two-plus seasons. His only attempt this season was good from 52 yards. He is also the team’s punter.

Fasting began Friday night at 6:30. Perhaps the hotel in New Jersey will direct him to a synagogue. If not, he’ll pray in his room, as usual, and go to the stadium and wait.

“Grambling wants to remember him,” Robinson said. “I want him to remember Grambling.”

That’s not too complex, is it?