Shar Pourdanesh has finally found a public that appreciates his sense of fair play.
The former Washington Redskins offensive tackle operates Loan Repair and Rescue, a mortgage modification business in Irvine, Calif., that helps prevent foreclosures and assists investors. Finally, he’s the good guy.
It’s the latest act in a life after football; a devastating knee injury halting a seven-year career that included 1996-98 in Washington. Pourdanesh has owned a sports bar, played competitive poker and helped a telephone company go public since leaving the NFL. Still, lessons on a football field formed his competitiveness in business.
“If you have a correct mindset you can accomplish anything,” he said. “I’ve seen people change their attitude. I’ve made way more money in the business world than I did in football.”
Pourdanesh was a long shot to make the NFL. The league’s only Iranian-born player, whose family moved to Los Angeles after the Shah’s downfall, used to fight every day in the schoolyard. The Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 made him a target as a teen, but sports helped Pourdanesh assimilate. He didn’t play football until his high school senior season and took the only scholarship offer from Nevada-Reno over a wrestling deal from Iowa.
Pourdanesh played two seasons with the CFL’s Baltimore Stallions where he was part of the 1995 Grey Cup winners. In Washington, he started 37 games over three seasons before traded to Pittsburgh in 1999.
Playing with an undisclosed double hernia in 1998, Pourdanesh hated criticism from fans unaware he took cortisone injections before games. Pourdanesh invited several fans to the Redskins Park film room to argue plays that weren’t his fault.
“I’m saddened they remembered me for the 1998 season when I shouldn’t have been playing,” he said. “People remembered me as a bust, but how was I a bust when I was playing hurt? It’s upsetting because it’s not right.”
It didn’t get better in Pittsburgh where the front office traded for Pourdanesh over coach Bill Cowher’s objections. He started four games over two seasons.
Pourdanesh wanted to retire, but his boyhood favorite Raiders called. It was a good preseason before tearing three knee ligaments. Now his retirement was permanent.
“I feel unfulfilled about my career,” Pourdanesh said. “But I can’t complain. I was a starter. How can I be upset?
“Some of the best memories of my life are in D.C. When I hear ‘Hail to the Redskins’ it still gives me goose bumps.”
Rick Snider has covered local sports since 1978. Read more at TheRickSniderReport.com or e-mail [email protected].
