Igor Olshansky

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Igor Olshansky (born May 3, 1982 in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) is the first Soviet-born player in the National Football League. In the second round of the 2004 NFL draft, the San Diego Chargers selected him out of the University of Oregon. Igor moved from Ukraine to San Francisco when he was 9 years old. He attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory, where he played basketball until his junior year. That year, Igor met Vince Tringali, a former St. Ignatius football coach. Tringali saw Igor's massive potential and converted him to football.

At an NFL Draft combine, Igor set a new record of 43 bench-press repetitions of 225 pounds. Having completed his first season as an NFL player, Olshansky is beginning to establish a reputation as an effective and skilled defensive lineman. Olshansky was ejected from a game against the Denver Broncos November 19th 2006, for punching Broncos center Tom Nalen, after what appeared to be Nalen trying to cut block Olshansky on a clock-stopping spike play. Two days later, the NFL fined Nalen $25,000 for the cut block, more than double the $10,000 fine Olshansky received for the punch.