JEREMY BLOOM
What genes!!
What bloodlines!!!
Fantastico!!!!!
Jeremy Bloom is the only athlete in history, to both ski in the Olympics and be drafted into the NFL.
As a skier, Bloom was a three-time world champion, two-time Olympian (2002 and 2006), and 11-time World Cup gold medalist.
In 2005, he won a then-record six straight World Cup events in a single season, and in 2013, at 31, he became the youngest freestyle skier ever to be inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame.
As a football player, Bloom was a freshman All-American at the University of Colorado (2002) and was drafted in 2006 by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fifth round (147th overall).
He spent a season each on the rosters of the Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and was able to scratch around a little bit longer.
But there were disappointments and heartbreaks along the way in Bloom’s sporting life, which could neither be assuaged nor eradicated by his elite-athlete standing.
After a long-fought battle with the NCAA to keep his skiing hopes alive for the 2006 Winter Olympics, the NCAA declared him permanently ineligible, cutting short his college football career by two years.
It seems that receiving endorsements as a professional skier in order to fund his Olympic dreams, violated a set of archaic NCAA rules regarding amateur-athlete status.
As was — and still is — his wont, two days after competing in the 2006 Olympics, it was off to the NFL Scouting Combine.
At age 19, Bloom became the youngest moguls World Cup champion and entered the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics as the top freestyle moguls skier.
He finished ninth.
When he won those then-record six straight World Cup events in ’05, he emerged as the favorite — once again — to win gold in the 2006 Winter Games at Torino, Italy.
He finished sixth.
In his book “Fueled by Failure,” Bloom described the feelings he experienced when a lifetime of preparing for gold was snuffed out for good.
“…I had made one mistake, and I knew it would cost me. The only question was how much.
In those fleeting moments while I awaited my score, I felt the same gut-wrenching feeling I had experienced when I was 19 years old and participating in the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics…
My score came up.
I was in fourth place with two skiers to go.
My dreams of becoming an Olympic champion were over.
I had prepared my entire life for this one moment and I knew there would not be another opportunity.
…It was the lowest moment of my athletic life; I felt totally defeated once again on skiing’s biggest stage.
I was an inch away from winning a gold medal.
When I lost, I was pretty upset.
For 48 hours, I relived every moment and obsessed about it.
But then I was good to move at 100 mph.”
KEY.
The fact that he never played a regular-season game in four NFL “seasons,” likewise, could never deter him.
Get up and go on.
Move forward.
Now 39, Jeremy Bloom has become a well-rounded human being, a world-class businessman/entrepreneur/philanthropist, and when it comes to “being interesting,” Bloom — who thrives on competition — has plenty of that in his own family.
Father Larry.
Mother Char.
Brother Jordan.
Sister Molly.
Cousin Colby.
Dr. Larry Bloom is a Professor Emeritus at Colorado State University in the Department of Psychology where he taught Psychology of Human Sexuality, Psychopathology, and Psychobiology for 44 years.
Char Bloom was a ski and snowboard instructor and a professional fly-fisher with her own clothing line.
Jordan Bloom is a cardiothoracic surgery fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and teaches at Harvard.
Molly Bloom, four years Jeremy’s senior and a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Colorado Boulder, was a Nor-Am Cup freestyle skier (a developmental tour that ranks a rung below the top competition of the World Cup) whose career was curtailed by injury.
Molly…
Fueled by the competitive spirit that courses through Bloom veins, she chose a path that unfolds in her book, “Molly’s Game — From Hollywood’s Elite to Wall Street’s Billionaire’s Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker,” made into an Aaron Sorkin film which premiered in 2017, “Molly’s Game.”
Nominated for an Oscar, the film chronicles Molly’s life in Los Angeles and then in New York, where she built a multi-million dollar poker empire, before things would spin out of control courtesy of alcohol, drugs and an FBI bust.
“I felt invisible in my family,” she explained, “and I wanted to be significant like my brothers were significant…”
In that shady world, Molly found the entrepreneurial success she coveted.
But in New York, as the games got bigger and longer — eventually lasting more than 24 hours — she started to extend too much credit, precipitating her downfall.
“When the games started lasting more than 24 hours, my life was not sustainable,” she recalled.
“I turned to drugs and alcohol to manage it.”
Then there was the organized crime element.
They loved the scene.
She was beaten by a thug and ultimately collared, for taking “a rake” of the game.
On April 16, 2013 Molly Bloom was arrested and charged along with 33 others, as part of a $100 million money laundering and illegal sports gambling operation.
In May 2014, she pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to one year of probation, a $1,000 fine and 200 hours of community service.
In addition, she was required to forfeit $125,000 in earnings from the games she operated.
She got off easy and finally has her “feet on the ground again.”
Thankfully.
And first cousin Colby Cohen?
He was an All-American hockey player at Boston University — and the 2009 NCAA Frozen Four Tournament Most Outstanding Player when BU won the national championship — who played in the NHL with Colorado and the Bruins.
Presently he is a television analyst working for NBC Sports Philadelphia; ESPN; NESN; CBS Sports; and American Sports Network.
“I’m often asked how our kids [and family] turned out the way they did. My answer is it’s a symphony, not a single instrument.”
— -Larry Bloom
[Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in April 2021.]
