Ravens OL John Urschel is very proud of his very small car
John Urschel is listed as 6'3," 305 pounds on the Baltimore Ravens roster. With training camp underway, you could expect to see the second-year offensive lineman rolling up to practice at the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills, Md., in a Cadillac Escalade or some other extravagant SUV.
Yet Urschel isn’t your conventional NFL offensive lineman. The Penn State graduate holds a master’s degree in mathematics and has been published in multiple academic journals... and is the proud owner of a 2013 Nissan Versa. Just take a look at this subcompact car sandwiched between his teammates’s monstrous Ford and Dodge pickup trucks.
• Rams’ Todd Gurley wore a GoPro to training camp
Just incredible. According to ESPN.com, the Versa was Urschel’s gift to himself after the Ravens selected him in the fifth round of the 2014 NFL draft. The car had 30,000 miles on it at the time and Urschel got it for $9,000—a pretty good deal.
“It’s great on gas. It’s surprisingly spacious,” Urschel said. “And you know what the best feeling is? You’re driving into a parking deck, it’s near full and you’re on the first level and there is that space that everyone has passed because they said, ‘No, we can’t park in there.’ And I take my Versa and I just go right in there. I’m on the first level, parking lot full and everyone else is parking on the upper deck where the car is getting hot. I’m not even taking the stairs.”
• LaMarcus Aldridge is building a showroom to house all his shoes
Sure sounds like a smart decision, which is no surprise. Urschel says he lives on less than $25,000 despite signing a four-year, $2.364 million rookie contract. On the field, he’s capable of playing both guard positions as well as center.
Although there’s nothing “subcompact” about himself, Urschel’s choice of automobile isn’t so surprising after all.
- Mike Fiammetta
