Brigham Young University junior quarterback Jake Retzlaff — BYU’s first Jewish quarterback — had such an unexpectedly impressive 2024 season that he’s now getting a marketing platform similar to that once enjoyed by Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali, among others Sports greats were offered. While iconic images of Jordan, Woods and Ali graced the front of Wheaties boxes, Retzlaff was the first athlete to agree to a sponsorship deal with Manischewitz, the world-renowned kosher food company specializing in matzo, macaroons and wine.

Thanks to NCCA’s NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) program, which allows student-athletes to benefit from their personal brands, Retzlaff, a former junior college quarterback, will be the beneficiary of his very own special edition matzo and star his in social media videos for the company, which has been producing Jewish delicacies since 1888.

“Manischewitz has always been a part of my life,” Retzlaff, 21, who grew up in a Reform temple in Pomona, California, said in a press release announcing the deal. “I grew up with matzoh with peanut butter as my favorite snack, and every Passover my family and I baked matzoh pizza together. At Hanukkah time, our tradition was to make potato latkes. Now, at BYU, I can share those traditions with my teammates. This partnership is about more than football – it’s about creating connections and celebrating Jewish pride in ways I never expected.”

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Retzlaff was able to secure this historic sponsorship deal because he not only fully embraced being one of only three Jewish students at the flagship Mormon institution – he wore a Star of David necklace throughout the season and goes by the nickname Known as “BY-Jew” – But he has far exceeded all preseason expectations as BYU’s quarterback with a 10-2 record and a berth in the Alamo Bowl. In fact, after going 0-4 as the starting quarterback in BYU’s first Big 12 season in 2023, Retzlaff was considered one of the conference’s lower-tier QBs through 2024. He immediately proved the naysayers terribly wrong. After passing for 348 yards and three touchdowns during a 41-13 opening game over Southern Illinois, Retzlaff collected 2,796 passes and 20 touchdowns in the regular season – one in which BYU set an undefeated record before dropping two of them, according to ESPN in Televised one-score games against Kansas and Arizona State on consecutive Saturday nights in November.

The Retzlaff-led Cougars’ stunning run was truly one of the most compelling narratives of the 2024 college football season. Week after week, as the wins mounted and BYU emerged as a serious contender for a berth in next month’s College Football Playoff National Championship Game Mercedes-Benz Stadium brought the program – and Retzlaff in particular – more into the spotlight. In early October, ESPN, Fox Sports and CBS Sports reported from Provo, Utah, while interview requests for Retzlaff continued to come in. The level of public attention and national fanfare was unprecedented for Brigham Young, but it hardly fazed Retzlaff and his fellow outsiders.

After his team’s convincing 41-19 win in Week 6 against Arizona, in which he scored twice, Retzlaff was asked how the team managed to stay focused on the task at hand while the outside noise reached a crescendo .

“All this stuff is gravy,” argued Retzlaff, the only Division I starting quarterback of Jewish faith. “The most important thing is to take care of the local business, no matter what happens. The national attention – that’s definitely something – but at the same time you have to keep the essentials, the essentials. I don’t think any group of people I know can do that better than this football team. . . . The national attention is great, the interviews are great, all the publicity is great and it’s great for our BYU image and makes BYU even bigger than it is. We love it, but we’re also so good at making the essential the essential.”

In fact, BYU took care of what mattered most – winning – for the rest of October, picking up three more wins before getting beaten by Kansas and Arizona State (a team that made the CFP), wiping out an undefeated season. But BYU recovered from the major setbacks and defeated the University of Houston 30-18 in the regular season finale to punch its ticket to the Alamo Bowl at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas (Saturday, December 28 at 7 p.m clock). 30 p.m.), arguably the biggest bowl game for BYU since the 1997 Cotton Bowl. During this primetime matchup, televised on ABC, they face the formidable Colorado Buffaloes, another Big 12 heavyweight and one whose two best players, quarterback Shedeur Sanders and wideout/cornerback Travis Hunter, are considered the top picks in April’s NFL Draft.

Retzlaff, meanwhile, could well be eligible for the NFL Draft, but perhaps not until spring 2026. He still has one year of eligibility remaining at BYU, an opportunity to further his case for playing at the next level.

Regardless of where his football career takes him, Retzlaff’s legacy as a titanic figure in the history of Jewish sports is assured. Just last December, Retzlaff spoke to more than 200 community members at the Chabad of Utah County’s first public Hanukkah celebration at Provo’s historic courthouse. Now, in December, he is the face of one of Judaism’s most recognizable corporate brands.

“We are so proud to officially welcome Jake to the Manischewitz family this holiday season,” Shani Seidman, chief marketing officer of Kayco, Manischewitz’s parent company, said earlier this month. “He is a huge inspiration and we are honored to support his exciting football career and dream. This partnership represents everything the brand strives to do – celebrate our heritage and raise awareness of Jewish food and excellence.”