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SALT LAKE CITY -- When Utah's Stevenson Sylvester is on the football field, he spends his time sacking quarterbacks. But during the offseason, he's busy sacking lunches.
Sly is one of three University of Utah football players who work three days a week at Jason's Deli during the offseason.
"Everybody's working," Sylvester said. "I mean, we don't get paid a lot. They pay for our scholarships, which is our room and board and our tuition and books, and that's about it. We don't have money for anything else, so we got to get little jobs here and there and pay for the bills."
"I love this job. It's a great job," Sylvester continued. "I work with great people. The people I work with here -- managers, the bosses -- everybody's real nice and real cool to me, so it's a perfect job situation for me."
Sly's responsibility is delivery duty, bagging and organizing food. When the order is ready, he heads out the door and packs the bags into his SUV.
"You got to get everything organized," he said. "A lot of people just throw their deliveries in there and get the orders mixed up. You got to put it in there right."
From there, he delivers the sandwiches to businesses along the Wasatch Front. It's a job that has many challenges. When we asked if he ever gets lost while making his deliveries, Sylvester responded, "Oh, all the time!"
Does Sylvester get any surprised looks when making his deliveries from people that recognize him?
"Nobody actually recognizes me," he said. "Nobody recognizes me, which is good."
Sylvester joked that maybe if he walked in with his helmet or jersey on, someone would recognize him.
Customers may not recognize Sly without his helmet on, but his face still haunts Alabama quarterback John Parker Wilson. He had three tackles for loss, a fumble recovery and three sacks in Utah's Sugar Bowl victory over the Crimson Tide.
Now this all-conference linebacker can't wait to get back on the field for his senior season.
"Man, it feels like two years since the Sugar Bowl really, really, really," Sylvester said. "I can't wait. The anticipation of this season and the stuff that's going on with this team; we get a national ranking starting off this year, which is really nice. And just the talent we have on this team, I just can't wait to see what we can do on Saturdays."
E-mail: jjensen@ksl.com
