Footballer Messiah Swinson is a tight end who was born and raised in Bay Shore and attended Long Island Lutheran High School, in Brookville, and was recently signed by the Green Bay Packers.

Post-high school, Swinson attended University of Missouri for three years then transferred to Arizona State University, where he played football for two seasons. Swinson played in one game in 2019 for Missouri and played two full seasons in 2020 and 2021 with the Missouri Tigers.

The tight end played in 10 games in 2020 and 12 in 2021, spending a lot of time blocking on the offensive line, and he reeled in seven passes for 84 yards, averaging 11.3 yards per reception for the Tigers.

The following year, he transferred to Arizona State and spent two years of service as a tight end for the Sun Devils in Tempe, Ariz., making catches and blocking on the offensive side of the ball.

The Bay Shore collegiate athlete played in all 12 games in 2022 and 2023. Swinson snagged 15 catches for 185 total yards in 2022 (his longest catch was 18 yards), averaging 12.3 yards per catch and scored two touchdowns.

In 2023, Swinson caught six passes for 48 yards and his longest reception was for 35 yards.

In five total seasons of NCAA football, the Bay Shore native summated 28 receptions for 317 yards, averaged 11.3 yards per catch and two touchdowns in 47 games and was a powerful asset on the O-line on offensive plays from scrimmage for the Tigers and Sun Devils.

Swinson graduated last spring from Arizona State, earning a liberal arts degree. His father, Corey Swinson, was a Bay Shore alumnus and was a defensive tackle for the St. Louis Rams in 1995 and post his NFL career coached varsity football at Bay Shore High School.

He dominated in high school, where he seized 34 passes for 508 yards with four trips to the end zone his junior year and corralled 10 catches for 179 yards as a sophomore and also played defensive end in high school.

The towering and lofty tight end is 6 feet, 8 inches, 260 pounds, and post the NFL draft a couple of weeks, ago the Green Bay Packers signed Swinson as an undrafted free agent.

Swinson will report to Ray Nitschke Field in Ashwaubenon, Wis., next week and become a part of the 13-time NFL Champion Green Bay Packers, where he will etch his name amongst the historic franchise.

Next week, Swinson will partake in two weeks of OTA’s (organized team workouts), then the first week of June will participate in Mini Camp. Packers training camp begins in July.

IB: How would you say your Bayshore roots helped pave the way to the NFL?

Swinson: I feel it helped tremendously. Bay Shore is a super-tight nit community. Since I was a kid playing football Bay Shore PAL, my dad, being one of my coaches, he had a really big voice in the community and that helped my because my dad passed when I was 13 and everybody around the community knew him and because of that they also knew me and when he passed, I was in middle school. I had the support of everybody around me. Coaches, teachers, people that worked in the schools, I feel the community helped me a ton.

IB: Can you think of a favorite moment in your career at Arizona State?

Swinson: Probably scoring my first-ever collegiate touchdown. We were playing Utah in 2022 and I scored my first touchdown on a pop route over the middle in the red zone and that was just an awesome feeling for me in my fifth year of school going through a lot with injury and transferring. It was just a long road and I felt I worked for that for a long time. It was an awesome feeling.

IB: Talk about what it means for you to put on the Green and Gold uniform and be a member of the historic franchise.

Swinson: It’s awesome. When I got the call that they were signing me right at the end of the draft, the feeling was indescribable. Playing for the Green Bay Packers, [they’re] such a historic franchise and it was just an amazing feeling being up here in Green Bay. It’s a first-class organization. Everyone around the building has a championship standard. Everybody has that mindset and it’s just a great place to be. It’s a super young team, all the guys are not too much older than me, so we can all connect on the same things. Guys have the same interests and easy to talk to, so I love my time here. It’s just a great place to come and focus on football and doing your job, so it’s an amazing job to wake up every day and go clock into.

IB: I know it’s very early, but how are the vibes amongst the team? The Packers did well last year with a win vs. Dallas in the playoffs. I’m assuming everyone has high expectations.

Swinson: Yeah, the vibes are awesome. You can tell the energy is contagious around the building. Super young group of guys, super positive, everybody’s looking forward to the future. The talk around the building is we’re looking for a 14th World Championship, that’s the standard, and that’s what everybody holds each other to. A group of guys that want to be here, they want to make each other better, so it’s just a great environment to be in, especially being young. Like I said, we got these other young dudes that just generally want to help and they’re super cool and they’re super easy to relate to. These last couple days here have been great, rookie Minicamp was great. Everybody’s just super positive and looking forward to the season and the schedule just came out, so everybody’s super excited for that and looking forward to September.