To properly tell this fictional story, we must begin in the Mojave Desert.
Insights do the place justice. Jagged mountains break the burnt orange landscape. Outriggers can be seen on Route 66. Live here for a while, and there’s a high chance your background sounds straight out of a novel.
So was Chenzo Funari, now an assistant defensive backs coach for the Minnesota Vikings.
In the year In late 2015, Funari lived in the Southern California desert during an internship with aerospace company Maston Space Systems. He worked for months in a World War II-era garage.
“We went out and tried little rocket engines,” Funari, 32, said after a recent Vikings practice. “Blow the thing.”
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During those days, Funari’s sister, Taylor, regularly checks the location on her iPhone. Dots zig-zag across areas of the American West that aren’t even registered by city name on maps.
“You text him and say, ‘Why are you in the middle?’ I would have said,” she said. “He would say, ‘We’re testing, the rocket has burned.’ And I would say to myself, ‘Is that bad? Are you okay? What does that mean?’
Maston’s tenure marked Funari’s impressive debut. In the year In 2017, he helped design a rocket injector at Blue Origin, a company committed to sending humans into space. In the year In 2019, following a master’s program at Purdue, SpaceX hired him to contribute his expertise to their “Raptor” engine, which is intended to bring humans to Mars.
It can be said that Funari reached its peak in a highly competitive industry 30 years ago. And in 2020, to the surprise of his colleagues and family members, he passed away undeterred.
“I’ll never forget the day I got the call from him,” said his mother, Kim. “I was in the car, and I picked up the phone, and I said, ‘Mom, I’m quitting my job at SpaceX to watch football.’
This bold decision paved the way for the present.
Funari turned a volunteer coaching opportunity at Youngstown State into a meaningful role on one of the most respected defensive staffs in the NFL. Now, staff and players rave about his dynamic understanding of schematic trends and his impact on advanced scouting reports.
His journey represents opportunity and a disregard for convention. The same forces that led Funari to the Mojave Desert brought him to Minnesota. Pursuing his ambitions vigorously, he found that there was more peace along the way.
As a child, Funari was fixated on two things: space and sports.
He studied the constellations. At the dinner table, he quizzed his parents on the solar system. Taylor still doesn’t know the answer to the question he keeps asking when he walks into the living room: What is the average temperature on Mars?
“He was a walking encyclopedia,” she said.
The Cleveland native also admired the play of Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. Maybe it’s fearlessness, maybe it’s intelligence. Funari practiced youth football. His parents quickly realized that sports were one of the few activities that gave his brain a break.
His mother loved nothing more than to watch her son, Asfa, on the sofa playing under the lights another night.
“As a parent, I realize that I have a great responsibility for this child,” Kim said. “His mind was never lost, and he brought electricity and friction into our home. Thoughts were stirring, questions were mounting. Before any other child knew what the word meant, the wish was formed. Sport, but his mind was quiet.”
For his family, Funari needs competitive companionship. That’s when a torn right ACL demoralized him as a ninth grader.
At the pre-surgery appointment for the first repair, Funari informed his mother that he had sprained his left knee. Doctors diagnosed him with a torn ACL in his right knee as a microfracture caused by stress applied by playing football.
Recovering from both injuries, he tore his ACL again in his junior year. Another surgeon said the reconstruction could get him back on the field in eight months, but the procedure could jeopardize his future ability to walk.
“I mean, I saw a man’s spirit break in that room,” Kim said. “It was very hurtful.”
Funari quit football for one season, but returned to high school coaching in an assistant coaching role. The team’s bond reignited the passion for the game.
If it weren’t for his time commitment to study aeronautical and astronautical engineering at Ohio State, Funari would be helping out with the Buckeyes’ football program.
“When I was 17 years old, I thought an engineering degree was probably the smarter choice. So I decided to do that,” Funari said.
Maston and Blue Origin have given it time with stimulation and combustion equipment. Write code. Helped to collect products. These lessons sparked interest in Zucrow’s laboratories at Purdue, the world’s largest academic propulsion laboratory.
There, as part of his studies, he helped with a project funded by SpaceX and the Air Force.
Exposure to SpaceX led to a full-time job with the company, working on the engine for the “Starship” rocket. At the time, Funari was living in El Segundo, Calif. His sister lived in Hollywood. They had planned to see each other more often, but work made that difficult.
This was wearing on him, and he couldn’t stop asking so many questions: Am I satisfied with what I do? Am I bought into the SpaceX mission like everyone else? Can I live the life I want by walking this path?
When he was home for Christmas that summer, he rummaged through some old pamphlets in his room and found a paper he had written in elementary school.
“And ‘What are the three things I need to have a successful life?'” Funari said. It was. “I wrote, ‘Have a family, graduate from college and become a football coach.’ What gives me satisfaction is my relationship with the game. I couldn’t get the thought out of my head.”
In the year In late 2020, during the pandemic, Youngtown State allowed its football staff to post a volunteer job vacancy. More than 100 people applied immediately.
“I said to one of our young coaches, ‘If you go through that reform pile and see something that catches your eye, bring me something.'” Joe Schaefer, the school’s defensive coordinator at the time, said.
An hour later, the young trainer entered his office with a smile on his face.
“I said, ‘What’s so funny?’ I’m like,'” Schaefer recalled.
He grabbed the document containing Funari’s report.
“I knew I had to call the guy,” Schaefer said. “Just so and there.”
Funari answered the phone call. They exchange pleasantries, then Schaefer cuts off.
Why on earth would you do this?
Funari’s family felt the same when he first told them of the decision. However, he realized that his hunger for success pushed the boundaries of others’ beliefs and saw glimpses of football during his upbringing.
Schaefer could hear the emotion in his voice. Funari confirmed his commitment by packing his car and arriving at the school the next day.
“Being his younger sister, watching him do that was really inspiring,” Taylor said. “I had just graduated college. The job market was terrible. I wanted to work in music, and he made me feel like he was real. There’s nothing he does that he hasn’t fully thought about. He just has that sense of knowing.”
As part of his many responsibilities in Youngstown, he analyzed data sets to gather intel on recent opponents. Presents insights in a clear, coherent manner. His agility gave him advantages to exploit.
Word of the impact has spread throughout all coaching circles. In the year In 2022, Northern Michigan hired Funari as its running backs coach. A year later, former NFL coach Jim Mora heard about him and hired Funari as an analyst for UConn.
“He sees the game through a different lens,” said Kenny McClendon, who coached with Funari at UConn. “He worked in the corporate sector, so he sees operations and how the building is run in a very non-chaotic way.”
Funari studied the Miami Dolphins running game in his spare time and compiled coaching tidbits mixed with quantitative tendencies. He sent these packages to employees around the NFL. One of them, former Vikings executive Demetrius Washington, took such an interest that the team hired Funari as a quantitative methods associate.
Even Funari’s arrival in the NFL couldn’t box him in. He’s eager to not sit in an office but collaborate with players. The analyst’s path introduced a roadblock to that, but once Funari provided the coaching staff with a report on the opposite balls based on his own research.
Afterward, defensive coordinator Brian Flores visited his office with a puzzled expression on his face. He wanted to know how Funari knew what he knew.
Hearing the whole story convinced him in seconds. This type of thinker fits perfectly with defense personnel who are willing to innovate in ways that are already associated with stupidity.
Chenzo Funari and members of the Vikings defensive end hug on the practice field. (via Minnesota Vikings)
The Vikings defenders couldn’t help but notice Funari.
First of all, he’s shorter than your average NFL coach. Second, he continued to receive attention from legendary safety Harrison Smith.
“Harrison was always turning around and asking Chenzo questions,” safety Josh Metellus said recently. Come to find out, I didn’t know he knew that much about the ball, not just this statistic.
Their talks ranged from basic talks on the field to worldly news. Ultimately, coaches and players routinely pulled him aside to ask for information they believed would benefit them.
Beyond that, Funari’s history as an offensive coach — along with longtime NFL quarterback Charlie Frey — offered a different perspective to the Vikings’ defensive staff during game planning.
One of the responsibilities of Funari’s Quality Control Coach is 2025.
“It’s more of a defense for him and for them,” Kim said. “It’s chess. And I think Brian showed that defense is just as much design and creativity. Which, for a kid like him, couldn’t be better.”
She, Taylor and the whole family can’t wait to be at Green Bay for the Week 1 opener. They know they won’t hear from him up front. They acknowledge that he will be in the matrix, he will do everything possible to provide an edge.
But you can’t wait any longer. When they meet him, night after night he descends beneath the light with a light mind and contentment.
Most amazing quest so far? it’s over.