Following a two-year hiatus, Washington University senior linebacker Jonathan Paramore has shown no rust in his return to the football team en route to anchoring a Bears’ defense that lost many key contributors from a season ago.

Brian Benton | Student Life

Linebacker Jonathan Paramore tackles a ball-carrier from Ohio Northern University in the Bears’ season opener on Sept. 6. Paramore is tied for the team lead in tackles, with 34 in four games so far this season.

Hailing from the Dallas area, Paramore is probably one of the few, if not only, students at Wash. U. to say he has played in front of the world’s largest high-definition video display. In his final year of high school, Paramore competed in two playoff games at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium. One of those games was the Texas 4A Division I state championship, where Paramore’s Ryan High School took on Lake Travis High School from the state capital of Austin.

“We lost, so not the greatest memories, but it was probably the most I’ve ever had playing a football game,” Paramore said. “There were 52,000 people there, or something like that.”

It’s certainly more than the attendance for the average Wash. U. football game, and Paramore struggled to find the same motivation during his freshman year of college. He quit the team after his first year and sat out the next two seasons before returning as a senior.

“I just didn’t have the right mindset of what it took to be part of the team and the work involved,” Paramore said of his attitude as a freshman. Plus, he needed a job to help pay for school, and football was simply consuming too much time.

By junior year, however, he started to miss his teammates and the competition aspect of football. Paramore said he wanted “that aspect of being around the guys, especially freshmen—having an impact on guys’ lives that are similar to how I was coming into college and just trying to figure things out, giving them the wisdom I’ve gained over the last three years.”

Paramore has demonstrated little trouble readjusting since his comeback, tying for the team lead by racking up 34 tackles in four games. After the Bears’ lone win of the young season on Sept. 20 against North Park University, the University Athletic Association named Paramore defensive athlete of the week for football. He had 10 tackles and a sack in the 24-19 victory.

With the defense allowing 36.5 points per game in four games this season after giving up just 11.5 a season ago, Paramore has been one of the lone bright spots for a squad that graduated many starters from last season’s 7-3 campaign.

“Jon has really been a blessing to have back because of the fact that we graduated some pretty good players last year,” defensive coordinator Jim Ryan said. “So he’s brought some things with his speed and ability to move sideline to sideline that really help us out defensively.”

In the two years he wasn’t playing, Paramore stayed in shape by weightlifting, although getting himself to the gym without the motivation of teammates was a challenge. He also studied abroad in Shanghai the spring semester of his freshman year and decided to pursue a major in linguistics, becoming one of the few Wash. U. students to choose that discipline.

After he graduates, Paramore, a devout Christian, hopes to travel the world and translate the Bible into some of the approximately 2,000 languages that don’t have it yet. Before spending years rotating through different continents, Paramore’s goal will require a theologically based graduate program teaching Greek and Hebrew.

“I got interested definitely in being abroad after I graduate when I went to China because I loved it,” Paramore said. “My Christian background is really important to me, so I knew I wanted to do something with that and be abroad.”

For now, Paramore is relishing being back with his teammates and contributing to the senior linebacker corps of himself, Fade Oluokun and Patrick Cantwell. And though Francis Field can’t quite live up to AT&T Stadium, Paramore likes playing in a venue with Olympic tradition—even if he does still wish more fans would attend games.

Paramore’s fondest football memory from his freshman year at Wash. U. was claiming the Founders Cup trophy against the University of Chicago, so he’s looking forward to when the Bears head to Chicago to begin UAA play on Oct. 25 in pursuit of a third consecutive conference title.

“I know that Jon really enjoyed that, and of course that was the last game of his freshman year that season,” Ryan said. “This year it’s a little bit earlier in the schedule…and my hope is that it’s the start of three fantastic games in conference play to be able to wrap up another UAA championship.”