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This new column is excerpted from J.’s guest podcast “(Is it) Good for the Jews?” Each episode dives into topics like boycott, divestment and sanctions, Pokémon Go, Brexit — and always with the same underlying question: Is it good for the Jews? This week, hosts Eric Goldbrener and Larry Rosen mull over a pair of football-playing Jews.

LARRY ROSEN: So there’s two brothers, Jeff and Mitch Schwartz, who are good for the Jews.

ERIC GOLDBRENER: Good names, at the very least.

LR: They’re pro football players. They just released a book called “Eat My Schwartz.”

EG: Cute!

LR: I read an excerpt last night. It was all right. First time Jewish brothers have played in the NFL since 1923.

EG: These Schwartz brothers: Real Jews? Raised Jewish?

LR: Picture in the book of their joint bar mitzvah. Good for the Jews. Actual Jewish sports heroes.

EG: What position do these guys play?

LR: They’re linemen. Big guys.

EG: Big, tough Jews. You can’t get anything past these Jews. Are they on the same team?

LR: No.

EG: What would happen if they had to play each other? That would be terrible! How many brothers are there in the league?

LR: Quite a few, actually. But when these brothers make up 20 percent of the Jews in the entire league …

EG:  20 percent. That’s something. Well, you know, football isn’t really a Jewish sport.

LR: That’s true, but I think it’s interesting that so many Jews who’ve been in the NFL have been linemen. Believe it or not, those are the smart guys. The linemen. They have a million things to think of on every play.

EG: And you’re saying that Jews are smarter than the rest, and the linemen are the smarter players.

LR: Empirical evidence might show that Jews have gravitated to this position, yes.

EG: So the linemen are the smart guys. Not the quarterbacks?

LR: QBs have to be smart. I don’t think I could do that.

EG: You’re not big enough to be a football player. I mean, you’re big for a Jew, but…

LR: I’m as big as a high school football player. You know, the ironic thing here is that linemen, the smart guys, are also the ones who get their heads bashed in.

EG: I thought they were the guys who bash into people?

LR: Right. Every play they bash into people. With their heads.

EG: But they’re bigger and stronger than everyone else!

LR: Guys on the other side are just as big and strong. But these brothers, the Schwartzes, they were raised Conservative-ly, and they’re not only playing football but also using it to teach people about Judaism. They’ve faced all kinds of ignorance. The excerpt I read told a story of how someone asked one of them if it was true that Jews get buried with a blank check to buy their way into heaven. That’s as good as “Where are your horns?”

EG:  “So you’re a Jew? Do you get buried with a blank check to buy your way into heaven?” Who could possibly ask that?

LR: “Do you use a special helmet to cover your horns?” So, good for the Schwartz brothers. They’re out there. They’re playing football. They’re educating people. They’re making tons of latkes. They have parties at Hanukkah, and they make the latkes.

EG:  Can you imagine going to a Hanukkah party at the Schwartzes’ with all of these giant football players there?

LR: I can’t imagine how many latkes they must have to make? 50 guys? Each eating 10,000 calories a day? You’d need a truck to bring in all the latkes.

EG: That’s a lot of latkes. Amazing.

LR: So hats off to the Schwartz brothers. You are, indeed, good for the Jews.

Larry Rosen is a writer, husband, father and the author of “The Rabbi Has Left the Building,” a memoir about his son’s bar mitzvah. Eric Goldbrener is a Libertarian, autodidact technologist, Zionist, atheist and lover of Israel. Rosen and Goldbrener are the hosts of the podcast “(Is it) Good for the Jews?” which appears on J.’s homepage.