You Don't Know J.P.
Oct 21, 2003 | Football
Oct. 21, 2003
NEW ORLEANS, La. - By Donna Turner
Asst. AD/Media Relations
He's fantastic with kids and loves to play. He's "goofy," a "homebody" who is majoring in classical studies and would love to travel the world someday. He has been transformed by Tulane and by New Orleans and by "an overwhelming amount of knowledge" since coming to college. He misses the ocean, admires people who take chances in their lives, is extremely loyal, and wants you to know that he is really, no really, a "humble" person.
To his mom, and only to his mom, he is Jonathan. To his fans, his teammates and to the rest of the world, he is Tulane senior quarterback J.P. Losman - a stellar talent with a unique personality who, it turns out, few people really do know.
"I really am a humble person," Losman said. "I'm not cocky like everyone thinks. It's all just a show. Once you meet me, I'm just as goofy as everyone else. I said that about (QB) Coach Frank Scelfo in the paper, but I consider myself just the same. People treat you like you're a superstar, and there's a perception of you as a starting quarterback because of the way you dress and the way you look. I'll play that role for you if you want me to, but you're really never gonna get to know me."
To Scelfo, the self-confidence that everyone sees in Losman, in many ways, comes with the territory. As a starting quarterback and leader, that is.
"People express confidence in different ways," Scelfo said. "Some people have a quiet confidence, they have an air of confidence about them, the way they walk, the way they act, the way they call plays. Some people overtly express their confidence. But I've never met anyone who was a successful qarterback that didn't have an overabundance of confidence.
"I think people are born with leadership qualities and some have more than others. For him to have success with what we're doing, the more success you have, the more confident you become. Success breeds confidence, and confidence comes from knowing what to do." Even as a youngster growing up in Venice, California, Losman's mom, Tricia, would chide her ultra-competitive son who sometimes directed his teammates on what to do - a little too much.
"I wanted Jonathan to be tough," Tricia said. "I was tough on him and tried to guide him to be a team player. I remember getting him in the car after a basketball game and telling him, 'you are not the best. I don't know who you think you are.' But he has always hated to lose, even a single game. He hated to lose at Monopoly."
Anything but the typical "little league" parent, Tricia tried to hold her son back from moving up to the next level while he was growing up. She preferred he play in leagues with kids his own age and see more action, instead of moving up and sit on the bench. But J.P. could not be held back.
"I knew that he was gifted, even as a little guy, but I never wanted to move him up to play with older kids," she said. "Then when he got to high school, they wanted him on the varsity at a young age. I didn't want him to go, but then his coach, Angelo (Gasca) said to me, 'Tricia, he's really special.' And the way he said it, I knew."
In fact, playing quarterback at Venice High School had been a dream of J.P.'s all his life, as well as a family tradition. His mother's brothers, Ernie (Uncle Ern) and Eddie (Uncle Ed) Soto, as well as older cousins Michael and Daniel all played quarterback for the Venice High team. The family would attend all of the school's games together.
"I wanted to be just like my uncles," Losman said. "I thought they were the coolest guys in the world - the way they dressed, their girlfriends, the way they played football, the way they walked and talked, the way they made people laugh, I wanted to be exactly like them. My two uncles and my two cousins played starting quarterback (at VHS) right after another and then it was my turn."
Losman wrote a new chapter in the family legacy when the hometown hero was offered a scholarship by his hometown university during his junior year of high school, fulfilling another lifelong dream. When he was 11, Losman had played for the "Westside Bruins" a local Pop Warner team that sported uniforms and helmets identical to UCLA. The youngsters would watch the Bruins practice, and Losman plotted how he would one day be one of those Bruin players.
Even while getting ready to commit to UCLA, Losman's interest in Tulane was peaked, primarily by watching Shaun King and the 12-0 team of 1998. Frank Scelfo remembers coming away from their first meeting impressed.
"He was very outgoing and you could tell he had leadership qualities," Scelfo said. "He was very easy to talk to and he was impressive."
Less than a year later, Losman had made another visit to Tulane and had made a life-altering decision, to leave home and move to New Orleans to play for the Green Wave.
"When J.P. came home and told us he was going to transfer, we said 'Are you crazy? No you are not (transferring),'" remembered Tricia. "That took a lot of courage. But it was the best thing he did. I am so proud of him. He has grown into a mature and independent young man."
Despite a tough two-year adjustment period during which "I was so homesick, I couldn't think about anything else," Losman now considers Tulane and New Orleans his "second home."
"I'm always gonna love this place for changing my life in so many different ways," he said. "This place has completely changed me. I don't know if it (the changes) could have happened anywhere else, starting with the coaches. We have life meetings, they teach you a lot about life, we talk about politics. They do all kinds of things. Those are the kinds of things I'm going to take with me."
Frank Scelfo agrees that Losman has matured, both from a football standpoint - in his decision-making and tape study habits - and as a person.
"I think Tulane has opened him up to a whole wide variety of people from all different types of places around the country and around the world," Scelfo said. "And he likes it. He likes diversity, he really does."
In fact, Losman has embraced his the opportunity to learn at Tulane, while also appreciating his growth as a person.
"I've definitely stepped it up, stuck my nose in a few books, read a lot of things, and there's an overwhelming amount of knowledge that came upon me that I didn't know how to handle it when I first got here," Losman said. "But now that I've totally embraced it, I'm totally ready for anything they throw at me."
"I've met some great friends here, some lifelong friends," he continued. "The kids I'm friends with outside of the football program are so different from what I am at home. They've inspired me to do so many different things. They're things out of the norm, which is great for me because I'm very open-minded. I like to think. I like to come up with answers."
Throughout his life, Losman has been inspired by many people. Initially by his uncles, for their "cool" and by his cousins, who were among the first in his family to go to college. But he said he's also inspired by random people that he meets who inspire him in different ways.
"I'm inspired by everyday people to do certain things," Losman said. "As a student-athlete, you are sheltered a lot and when you meet other people, they inspire you to do all kinds of things. They inspire you even to forget about football sometimes, and then you've got to come back to reality and say 'whoa, whoa, whoa - trippin'."
While he does not escape the "football" mindset often outside of class and study time, Losman said outside of sports, his dreams now include international travel.
"I would like to see as many countries as I can and try to learn as much history, and try to learn everything I can about the world," he said. "Football holds me back from a lot of different things, extracurricular activities, going out and exploring, seeing new countries, traveling and seeing the world. Football won't allow me to do those types of things, because there's so much time and devotion and sacrifices you have to make. I admire people who are adventurous and take chances and do something different than me. I think that's pretty cool."
Even though he has overcome his early bout with homesickness, Losman, like any good California kid, admits to still missing the ocean, and to possibly taking some youthful liberties by "borrowing" the occasional row boat, or even motor boat from one of the many marinas dotting the California coast, in order to find some solitude.
"The number one thing I miss the most now is the ocean," Losman said. "So many people want to talk to you. But when you go to the ocean, there's nobody there. It's just you, the ocean, some wind and sand. You can go anywhere you want and kind of own this little place. I really don't think even if I did get caught (borrowing boats) that people would mind, because I'm just taking them out to sea to think and get away from people and bringing them back."
Most of the time, though, the gregarious and outgoing Losman is not looking to escape people, and he definitely has a soft spot for the younger generation. His ability to relate to kids is really something to see, said Scelfo.
"He is great with little kids," Scelfo said. "They love him and he relates to them so well. It's amazing to watch."
For Losman's part, he remembers what is was like to be a little kid, looking for some kind of interaction from the people he admired.
"I used to go to UCLA practices when I was a little kid," Losman recalled. "If a player talked to me, I was on top of the world. It was the biggest inspiration to me. They used to let me take snaps after their practices with the big ol' centers when I was really young. I'd call out the cadence and say go, and they'd snap me the ball. So I know what it means to a lot of kids. I am real good with kids. Also, I have a lot of energy and I love to play."
Playful and energetic. Two good words to describe J.P. Losman. Frank Scelfo says Losman, in three words, is "talented, confident and goofy." And Tricia Losman says J.P. is loyal, hard-working and independent. Losman himself used loyal, positive and "energetically-fun." He's outgoing, unique, even thoughtful, funny, faithful and caring.
But humble? Sorry J.P. Not quite.
