Israeli Ambassador visits HOF

Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer toured the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Monday. The ambassador spent three hours soaking in the history that the Hall of Fame presents. He was accompanied by his son, friends, and staff.

Dermer possesses a keen knowledge of the NFL, past and present. Born and raised in Miami Beach, he gravitated to all of the displays that pertained to his favorite team, the Miami Dolphins.

Midway through the visit, he shared with a Hall of Fame official that he once was a minority owner of the United States Football League’s Tampa Bay Bandits. As the story goes, his father owned a small share of the USFL club and offered his young son, as a bar mitzvah gift, either money or a fraction of his share. Dermer took the latter.

Ambassador Dermer is a former quarterback in Israel’s American football league. Following his tour of the Hall of Fame, he tested out his arm on FieldTurf Field on the Hall’s campus. Dressed in a suit, he threw a series of tight spirals starting at the 10-yard-line. Adding yardage to each of his throws, he finally connected on a 43-yard pass. Dermer light-heartedly declared that the throw stands as a record for longest throw by a foreign ambassador on Hall of Fame grounds.