Inside The Huskies

Eric Bjornson's Son Will Try His Luck at Husky Football

Andrew is a wide receiver and a tight end who will come to Montlake as a walk-on player.
Dan Raley|
Eric Bjornson and his son Andrew were UW football visitors in 2025.
Eric Bjornson and his son Andrew were UW football visitors in 2025. | Dan Raley

Thirteen months ago, Eric and Andrew Bjornson were on what might best be described as a reconnaissance mission.

This past April, the former University of Washington football standout and his son came up from the Bay Area for a look at Husky spring football practice. On a cloudy Saturday afternoon, they chatted with tight-ends coach Jordan Paopao, encountered people Eric once knew and watched the team run through drills from the sideline.

They no doubt left town that weekend still adhering to the longstanding Bjornson family creed -- which is the belief there is nothing that any of them can't do if they put their mind, body and soul into it.

On Saturday, the 6-foot-4, 210-pound Andrew Bjornson from Miramonte High School from Orinda, California, demonstrated just that thought process by disclosing he will join the Huskies as a walk-on player.

He's held a scholarship offer from UNLV all along, but he will come to Montlake without one and take his chances.

The younger Bjornson is sort of a tweener when it comes to a position -- part wide receiver, part tight end and part edge rusher.

Yet so was his dad three decades ago for the Huskies and look how that turned out.

Eric Bjornson, 54, joined the UW as a quarterback from Oakland, California, and even started three Husky games in that role as a junior in 1993.

Better yet, he switched to wide receiver in 1994 and led the Huskies in receiving with 49 catches for 770 yards and 7 touchdowns and was a second-team All-Pac-10 selection.

Bjornson next spent six years in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots as a tight end, starting 41 games and catching 147 passes, as well as playing in Super Bowl XXX.

Considered a 3-star recruit, Andrew Bjornson comes off a senior season in which he caught 41 passes for 559 yards and 5 touchdowns while finishing with 50 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks in holding down the edge for an 8-6 Matadors team.

As a junior, the younger Bjornson caught 28 passes for 460 yards and 6 scores for a 6-7 team, and, as a sophomore, he had 26 receptions for 626 yards and 7 TDs, with a long catch of 92 yards, for a 9-4 Miramonte team. 

While his dad arrived at the UW as a scholarship quarterback, the son is following a similar blueprint subject to change, that anything goes with these Bjornsons.

Loading recommendations... Please wait while we load personalized content recommendations

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Football