Former NFL players of Iranian descent speak up for freedom from Islamic regime
Ali Haji-Sheikh and Shar Pourdanesh share the fact they are retired NFL players living beyond the glow of the NFL spotlight. But they also share another distinction tying them to current events: They are part of the Iranian diaspora hoping for the downfall of the Islamic revolution.
They make up part of a small group of men who played in the NFL – along with David Bakhtiari, his brother Eric Bakhtiari and T.J. Housmandzadeh – who are decedents of Iranians.
Haji-Sheikh, 65, played in the 1980s for the New York Giants, Atlanta Falcons and Washington Redskins. He was a first-team All-Pro, made the Pro Bowl and was on the NFL All-Rookie team in 1983 for the Giants and, in his final season, won a Super Bowl XXII ring playing for the Washington Redskins and kicking six extra points in a 42-10 blowout of the Denver Broncos.
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Now, Haji-Sheikh is the general manager at a Michigan Porsche-Audi dealership and is like the rest of us: Keeping up with world events when time permits.
Except the war the United States is currently waging against the Islamic Republic of Iran is kind of different because Haji-Sheikh's dad emigrated from Iran to the United States in the 1950s and built a life here.
And his son would like to see freedom come to a country he's never visited but has a kinship to.
"It's a world event," Haji-Sheikh said on Monday. "I am not a big fan of the Islamic revolution because I am not Islamic. I would like to see the people of Iran be able to determine their own future rather than it be determined by a few people. It would be nice to see them having a stable government where the people can actually decide how they want it to go.
Haji-Sheikh hasn't taken to the streets of his native Michigan to celebrate a liberation that hasn't fully manifested mere days after the American and Israeli bombing and elimination of the Ayatollah.
"I'm so far removed from that," Haji-Sheikh said. "My mom is from Michigan and of Eastern European background. My dad is from Iran. But it's like, he hasn't been back since I was in eighth grade, so that's a long time ago. That was when the Shah was still in power, mid-70s, ‘74 or ’75, because if he ever went back after that he never would have left. They would have held him, so there was no intention of going back.
"But if things change he might want to go, you never know."
Despite being removed from any activism about what is happening in Iran Haji-Sheikh is an astute observer.
"My favorite thing I'm seeing right now on TV is the Iranians in America celebrating because there's a chance, a glimpse, maybe a hope for freedom," Haji-Sheikh said. "And you have these people in New York protesting. What are you protesting?"
Pourdanesh retired from the NFL in 2000 after a seven-year career with the Redskins and Steelers. The six-foot-six and 312-pound offensive tackle was born in Tehran. He proudly tells people he was the NFL's first Iranian-born player.
Pourdanesh is much more visible and open about his feelings about his country than others. And, bottom line, he loves that President Donald Trump is bombing the Islamic regime.
"This is a great day for all Iranians across the world," Pourdanesh posted on his Instagram account on Saturday when the war began. "Thank you, President Trump, thank you to the nation of Israel. Thank you for everybody that has been standing up for my people, my brothers and sisters in Iran across the world. This is a great day.
"The infamous dictator is dead – the one person who has contributed to deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iranians and other people around the world, if not more. So, congratulations to my Iranian brothers and sisters. Now, go and take back the country."
This message was not a one-off. Pourdanesh has been posting about what has been happening in Iran since January, when people in Iran took to the streets demanding liberty and the government's thugs began killing them, with some estimates rising to 36,500 deaths.
"[The] Islamic Republic does not represent the Iranian people," Pourdanesh said in another post. "Islam does not represent the Iranian people. For almost 50 years, the Iranian people and our country of Iran has been taken hostage by a terrorist regime, and it's time to take that regime down."
Pourdanesh was not available for comment on Monday. I did speak to a handful of other Iranian-Americans on Monday. They didn't play in the NFL, but their opinions are no less valuable than those of former NFL players.
And these people, some of them participating in rallies on behalf of a free Iran, do not understand the thinking of some Americans and mainstream media.
One complained that media that reports on reparations for black Americans based on slavery in the 1800s dismisses the Islamic takeover of the American Embassy in 1979 as an old grievance.
Another said his brother lives in England, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer immediately called the American and Israeli attacks on the Ayatollah's regime "illegal" but, as the head of the Crown Prosecution Service took years to do the same of Muslim rape (grooming) gangs in the country.
(Starmer announced a national "statutory inquiry" in June 2025).
And finally, Pourdanesh put the NFL on blast. He said in yet another post that during his career, the NFL asked him to honor black history, asked him to stand for women's rights, asked him to fight for equality for those who cannot defend themselves.
"I did everything they asked, and now I ask the NFL this: Where are you now? Why haven't we heard a single word out of the NFL? NFL, Commissioner Roger Goodell, all the NFL teams out there, all the players who say they stand for social justice, where are you now?
"Why haven't we heard a single word out of you with regard to the people who have been killed as of today? The very values you claim to espouse are being trampled right now. Why haven't we heard a single word?"
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