Amid the confetti and jubilation on the field after Super Bowl XLII in Arizona, two friends and Northwestern alums met at the 50-yard line, experiencing all that a Super Bowl celebration had to offer, talking about what they had just seen.

The same two friends met again on Nov. 8 after the New York Giants and San Diego Chargers played each other, catching up on all that had transpired since they last saw each other.

No, this story does not end with a pair of Medill grads talking about their time covering NFL.

Instead, it’s Barry Cofield (’06), defensive tackle for the Giants, and Luis Castillo (’05), defensive end for the Chargers — two friends who have found success as NFL linemen.

“It’s been a blessing,” said Cofield about his time with the Giants.

“It’s been a beautiful experience, that’s about the only way to put it,” said Castillo.

Both Castillo and Cofield have been starters virtually since they entered the NFL. Cofield, a fourth round pick in 2006 has started 55 of 56 regular season games, while Castillo, a first round pick in 2005, has started 57 of 60 games.

Cofield credits his time at Northwestern for preparing him for the rigors of an NFL season.

“We had difficult practices, we had difficult off-season training,” Cofield said. “It makes the NFL workload look easy.”

Head football coach Pat Fitzgerald reasons that it is something completely different that has prepared Cofield and Castillo for their success.

“Those guys worked really hard to get where they are today,” Fitzgerald said. “They put the time in the weight room and with the coaches to get to that level.”

Those efforts paid off for both Cofield and Castillo. Cofield won a Super Bowl in his second season with the Giants as a key contributor to the defensive line that propelled New York to victory over the New England Patriots. Castillo had a career high seven sacks in 2006 when the Chargers went a league-best 14-2, and was rewarded for his efforts in the 2008 offseason with a 5 year, $43 million extension from the Chargers.

It’s that kind of success that has made the Northwestern football program and Coach Fitzgerald appreciative of what the two have accomplished.

“It really shows the strength of our program that we can have those guys be successful in the NFL,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s helped us in recruiting.”

With defensive tackle John Gill (‘08) signing a contract with the Indianapolis Colts practice squad and senior defensive end Corey Wootton destined for the NFL, high school linemen are taking notice. The success of players like Cofield and Castillo have already made impacts in recruiting, with the current class of 2010 featuring three defensive linemen and three on the offensive side of the ball.

Castillo and Cofield do their best to stay in touch with the program, even though they play in San Diego and New York, respectively. Castillo keeps in touch with a lot of former players like Napoleon Harris and Barry Gardner. Cofield stays in touch with Fitzgerald by exchanging texts.

“I’ll shoot Fitz a text every now and then,” Cofield says. “I was also able to come back on a bye week and catch up then.”

Naturally, they still closely follow the team on the field. After Northwestern’s huge upset over Iowa, Castillo compared it to the 33-27 overtime victory he and Cofield had over Ohio State in 2004.

“If I had to rank all the victories I’ve had in my career, that still remains number one,” Castillo said. “I’m sure that’s what a lot of the guys there are feeling now.”

Cofield said it is a lot of fun to play against other Northwestern alums in the NFL.

“Obviously it’s intense, playing for opposite teams, but it’s great to talk to them before the game and after the game, catch up and talk about old Northwestern stories,” he said.

So when Cofield and Castillo played against each other in a 21-20 Chargers victory, it was more cordial because Castillo said couldn’t get in the jabs he wanted to.

“After that experience with him [at the Super Bowl], I don’t think there’s much I can jaw at him for,” Castillo said.