Patriots punter Zoltan Mesko has heard the stories of his childhood in Romania when he and his parents had to hug the floor when he was three years old as bullets flew through their living room.
Mesko was a small boy when Romania was going through a revolution against communism. His earliest memories are of hyperinflation in post-war Romania, when his parents, both engineers, spent all the money they made on groceries.
At age 12, Mesko's family won a green card lottery and the family immigrated to New York and then Ohio. Mesko, who grew up playing soccer, was first introduced to football as a freshman in high school.
Mesko, who's a big guy at 6-foot-5, 231, quickly became one of the best high school kickers in the country and committed to the University of Michigan as a punter.
"At least I wasn't burnt out from football because I hadn't played it and I learned to love it," Mesko said.
The Patriots drafted Mesko in the fifth-round of the 2010 draft (No. 150 overall).
He set an NFL rookie record for net punting with a 38.4 average, which was the highest of any rookie punter since the statistic was first tracked in 1976.
His net average of 41.5 this season ranked third in the NFL.
"Even last year I was spicing up my resume to send to Wall Street banks because I didn't think I was going to make it at first," said Mesko, who graduated with a finance and marketing degree from Michigan and a 4.0 average.
"I didn't know if I belonged and it took me halfway through my rookie year to really see that I could do this and I belong."
Mesko not only fits the part, but he's a good weapon to have in coach Bill Belichick's Super Bowl arsenal.
