Football is a crazy sport for so many reasons. One being how fateful encounters happen between a team and player nobody recognized at the time, only for them to reunite down the road. It happens more often than you’d think. The Chicago Bears have encountered yet another such example. His name is Thomas Schaffer and he has probably one of the coolest stories to tell.
Born in Austria, Schaffer was totally oblivious to American football until he started watching movies about it. This began to pique his interest. As he grew older, he started participating in youth leagues. The fact he grew to be 6’7 by the time he was 14 helped him get noticed. After a visit to the University of Texas in 2012, Schaffer realized he had to play this game in the U.S. To do that, he needed to attend high school here. After sending his tapes around, he got a bite according to Larry Mayer of ChicagoBears.com.
A fateful bite at that.
Schaffer knew the best way to earn a college football scholarship was to play at a high school in the United States. Schaffer’s cousin was attending Lake Forest Academy—which ironically is less than a mile from Halas Hall—and showed a tape of Schaffer to the head coach.
“He was like, ‘He’s a 15-year-old who’s 6-7? I think we’ll find a spot for him,'” Schaffer said with a laugh.
Schaffer moved to the United States, living on campus at Lake Forest Academy, a college prep school.
“I could see the bubble (Walter Payton Center) from my dorm,” he said.
His success at Lake Forest Academy helped Schaffer to get accepted into Stanford where he further honed his game from 2017 through 2020. Sadly it seemed like things always got in his way. He didn’t play a lot his first three years, then last season he finally became a starter. Just in time for the pandemic to hit. It looked like the Pac-12 might not even play at one point. They finally agreed to but it ended up being for just six games.
That no doubt stung for Schaffer because he was playing pretty well most of the year with three sacks and four tackles for a loss in those six games. Who knows what he might’ve accomplished had he been allowed to play a full season. Then things got even worse when he suffered a knee injury in the finale against UCLA. This prevented him from doing any pre-draft drills and killed any hopes of being drafted.
Those trials ultimately led him back to the Chicago Bears
By going undrafted, Schaffer did have one benefit. He’d be allowed to pick his own team. When the Bears expressed interest in signing him, it was undoubtedly an easy decision. He’d spent four years growing up right in their backyard. They also feature a defense that would know how to take full advantage of his physical gifts. A 3-4 defensive end usually needs to be big and long. He is both.
Does this mean he’s going to make the roster? Probably not. The Chicago Bears already seem pretty set along their defensive line. Akiem Hicks, Eddie Goldman, Bilal Nichols, and Mario Edwards Jr. are locks to make it. That leaves Angelo Blackson and maybe 7th round rookie Khyiris Tonga as the two other most likely options. Schaffer would have to make an incredible impression in training camp to change that narrative. Especially coming off a knee injury.
No, his 2021 goal is a bit simpler.
That should be to make the practice squad. The Bears have a history of stashing defensive linemen they like there and developing them for the future. It has served them well in the past. See Roy Robertson-Harris and Abdullah Anderson for a couple of examples. Schaffer has enough ability to land himself there provided he shows something in camp. Beyond that? It’ll be up to him to decide how far he can go.