When Josh Pokrywka and his friends — all die-hard Ravens fans and road-trip junkies — drove to New Orleans for Super Bowl 47, they made a pitstop in Knoxville, Tennessee, drawn by curiosity to one of college football’s most historic stadiums.
It was after dusk but the lights were still on and a door unlocked, so they moseyed right in. Pokrywka tossed around a football at midfield. He felt the orange checkered end zones under his toes. And as his eyes surveyed around the 100,000 seats of Neyland Stadium, an idea was born.
“How easy it was to just kind of get on there and get to live out some of our childhood dreams of being on fields like that because, unfortunately, we’re not [Division I] athletes,” Pokrywka said. “I wanted to kind of see if others were the same.”
Then in 2021, on a road trip helping a friend move across the country, he added a new layer of difficulty: make a field goal. And now, Pokrywka, 31 and living in Baltimore, is setting out to (legally) sneak into every Division I college football stadium in the country and kick one through the uprights.
Pokrywka will take a Friday off from his day job as a loan advisor and plan a long weekend road trip. Usually, there’s a major sporting event he’s working around — like in December when he hit 11 stadiums en route to Jacksonville for a Ravens vs. Jaguars game on “Sunday Night Football.” His wanderlust leads him to as many stadiums as possible in a short window.
“I try to build in an hour for each stadium,” said Pokrywka, who has over 150,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok as @bigggjenk. “You never know how easy it’s gonna be to get into some of these places but, especially the bigger ones, I want to enjoy the stadium for its uniqueness and beauty.”
Football and kicking tee in hand, Pokrywka starts circling the perimeter looking for an open gate. There’s always one. He wears sneakers so as not to damage the grass and defaults to a 40-yard field goal — 30 if he’s pressed for time.
“I’ll take a 30-second stretch and just rip it,” Pokrywka said.
The Owings Mills native and University of Maryland alumnus who hasn’t missed a home Ravens game since 2006 has successfully maneuvered onto, and made a field goal at, 120 DI football fields, split between 66 Football Bowl Subdivision and 54 Football Championship Subdivision schools.
Each comes with its own harrowing tale.
LSU was a fortress that required two full laps before finding an unlocked entry point. In the two years since he started this hobby religiously, South Carolina’s William-Brice Stadium was the only field he surrendered after hours of searching for a way in. Pokrywka nearly got stuck overnight at Southern Mississippi, set his personal record (52 yards) at Kansas, made a kick on a dirt field in Alaska while wearing a Ray Lewis jersey and took a side quest on an engagement trip only to be escorted out of a Gaelic football stadium in Ireland.
Perhaps the craziest run-in was at the University of Georgia’s Sanford Stadium. “That was the scariest for me,” Josh’s mom, Helene, said. Because of the heat and the long walk, she opted to wait outside while her son ventured onto the field. He got in fairly quickly and sank the kick. Then security noticed. If he ever came back, they said, they’d arrest him.
Josh complied, got back to the car and realized his keys were not in his pocket. They were still on the field and the only way to get them back would be if Helene went in. But Josh couldn’t remember where exactly they were.
“I’m just ready to have a panic attack,” Helene said.
She got inside and went down the steps toward the field. The whole time she’s sobbing, thinking, “If I don’t find these keys, we’re screwed.” It only took about 10 minutes of searching before she found them and escaped in one piece. That story is immortalized with Josh’s video titled, “How did my mom end up in Georgia’s end zone by herself?”
He’s become a kicking enthusiast over the past few years — dropping everything and calling for his fiancee to come see any critical kick on TV. Naturally, Ravens veteran Justin Tucker is Josh’s favorite. He also admires Brandon Aubrey of the Dallas Cowboys and thinks he could be the first to connect from 70 yards.
Josh’s affinity for road trips stems from his upbringing. He grew up in a close-knit family that was always on the go — camping, visiting family and seeing other parts of the country. There’s at least one Ravens away game every year. “We’re no fair-weather fans,” Josh’s dad, Greg, said, having faithfully sat through snow and rain.
This passion project is a perfect amalgamation of Josh’s love for football and travel, taking him all over the map and putting him on grass (or turf) beyond his wildest childhood dreams.
“It’s really amazing to think I’m just there by myself when other people have been here in these 100,000-person raucous environments,” Josh said. “It’s almost therapeutic when you’re able to sit there and just be by yourself in the silence of a giant stadium.”
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