Warszawski: Ex-Fresno State nose star Jason Stewart still scary good in AFL, at 34

Even after all these years, Jason Stewart still has “the look.”

At one moment the 6-foot, 310-pound defensive lineman can be affable, talkative, smiling. In the next he’ll turn quiet and intense, eyes glaring with a ferocity that could melt glaciers.

Stewart’s teammates and coaches, both during his college days at Fresno State and with his current team, the San Jose SaberCats, know it well. So, too, do certain sports writers.

“When he looks at you like that, ooh man,” says Darren Arbet, Stewart’s coach for four seasons in the Arena Football League. “He’s one guy I don’t mess with. He’s a monster now.”

“It’s like he’s looking right through you, almost like you’re not there,” SaberCats linebacker Francis Maka says.

“It’s a very intense look, and if you don’t know him and don’t know how to approach him you would be intimidated. No doubt.”

Thirteen years have passed since Stewart finished his Bulldogs career as an all-conference nose guard. The Bakersfield native also was the first member of his class to graduate, despite starting out as an academic nonqualifier. He didn’t get drafted and spent only a brief time in the NFL.

Yet here is Stewart, sweating beneath the July sun. Thirty-four years old, still playing football and by every indication — namely the Defensive Player of the Year award he won last season and the opinion of his coach — playing better than ever.

“He is, by far, the best defensive player in this league,” Arbet says. “He’s a dominating player and leader. That’s his locker room. He controls everything this team does. This team goes as he goes.”

Things could hardly be going better. The SaberCats are 15-1 in large part to a defense that has allowed the league’s fewest points and yards.

Stewart, with 22 1/2 combined sacks the past two seasons (a ridiculous total for a nose guard), is the undisputed linchpin.

“If he didn’t play the way he plays, our defense wouldn’t function,” Maka says. “It’s generally understood throughout this league that everything starts in the middle.

“When you have a guy who collapses the pocket and is constantly getting penetration, it makes everything else pretty easy.”

Used to be a guy could make a good living playing in the AFL. The average salary was $80,000, and a handful of stars topped six figures. Not anymore. Not since the league canceled the 2009 season before relaunching the following year under a new financial model.

Player salaries took a huge hit. Veterans currently make $875 per game for the 18-game regular season — earnings that seem more in line with a supermarket cashier than a professional football player.

To make ends meet, many Sabercats players hold part-time jobs. Not Stewart. Four months shy of his 35th birthday, he remains totally committed to football.

Committed enough to put himself through grueling workouts, even during the offseason. (Head over to GB3 on Herndon and Milburn after midnight during the week.) Committed enough to meticulously watch his diet — Stewart prepares his own food and doesn’t touch what the team caters in. And to spend half the year in the Bay Area, 150 miles apart from his wife and infant son who live in Fresno but visit weekly.

“Football is my business, but it’s not about the money,” Stewart says following a recent SaberCats practice. “It’s a discipline to me.”

When professional athletes say it’s not about the money, money is almost always what it’s about.

When Stewart says it, you believe him. And not just because he’s looking at you in a way that would frighten Frankenstein.

“There’s no money in the world that can make a person happy if they don’t like what they do — no money in the world,” says Stewart, his voice rising.

“I play football because I love the game. If they paid me one dollar, I’d still come to work because I love my job. I give my heart and soul and blood on this field.”

In a time when the long-term effects of football have never been more publicized, and NFL players in their mid-20s are retiring rather than risk their brains being bashed in, it’s almost startling to hear those words from a 34-year-old nose guard.

But especially from one making $875 a week.

I tell Stewart this. Uh, oh. There’s that look again.

“Back when we was kids, we didn’t get paid for football,” he says. “We played because we loved the game. So why does that got to change?”

Stewart’s roommate at Fresno State was Sam Williams, who played seven seasons in the NFL. Williams considers Stewart his “brother for life” even though they might go long stretches without communicating.

It was during one of these times that Williams sat down to watch an Arena League game. There was his old buddy, causing havoc in the backfield and running back an interception.

“I just smiled and shook my head — J’s still got it,” Williams says. “He just loves the game. He hasn’t changed one bit.”

Stewart says he has been able to put away enough money during his 13-year pro career in the AFL, NFL and now-defunct UFL (remember the Sacramento Mountain Lions?) to keep playing as long as he wants: “I’m a very, very tight saver.”

However, with his wife Tabitha expecting their second child early next year, he’s also “80 to 85 percent” certain this season will be his last. After dabbling in real estate the past few offseasons, Stewart wants to make it a full-time profession.

“I don’t know for sure, but I feel like there’s something else calling me,” he says. “I love the way buildings are built. I love architecture. I love talking to people. I’m just ready for something different.”

Stewart grew up very poor and had a tough childhood. He wasn’t supposed to attend college (and wouldn’t be eligible to play for Fresno State under today’s academic standards), let alone earn a degree.

He was considered too short (6 feet) to play pro football, despite a devastating first step that’s still the key to his success.

Yet here is Stewart, still sweating, still dominating and still doing what he loves.

“I come from the bad, now I’m good and I’m striving to be great,” he says. “That’s my legacy, man.”

When Stewart says these things, he doesn’t look the slightest bit scary.

He looks convinced.

This story was originally published July 25, 2015 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Warszawski: Ex-Fresno State nose star Jason Stewart still scary good in AFL, at 34."