Albert Gene Anthony Connell (born May 13, 1974) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

wide receiver who played for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

and the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

, and for the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-o ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

College career

He played college football at

Trinity Valley Community College Trinity Valley Community College (TVCC) is a public community college based in Athens, Texas. It has four campuses serving five counties across the southeast and eastern parts of the state. About TVCC operates four campuses serving the Texas co ...

in Athens, Texas for two years, and was a member of the 1994 Junior College National Championship team. He was teammates with Al Harris of the

Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the thi ...

Matt Bryant Steven Matt Bryant (born May 29, 1975), nicknamed "Money Matt", is a former American football placekicker. He played college football for the Baylor Bears, and was signed as an unrestricted free agent by the AFL's Iowa Barnstormers in 2000. A ...

of the

Buccaneers Buccaneers were a kind of privateers or free sailors particular to the Caribbean Sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. First established on northern Hispaniola as early as 1625, their heyday was from the Restoration in 1660 until about 1688 ...

, coach Frank Induisi of St Thomas Aquinas High School, and coach Mark Sartain of East Texas Baptist University. He then went on to play two years at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

. In the Aggies' game against Colorado on September 28, 1996, he had 18 receptions.

Professional career

Connell was drafted in the fourth round of the

1997 NFL Draft The 1997 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 19–20, 1997, at the Paramount T ...

, the 115th overall pick. The 6'2", 190-pound receiver played in five games in his first season with the

. He had nine receptions for 138 yards and two touchdowns. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, he played in fourteen games and had 28 receptions for 451 yards and two touchdowns. In

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, he played in fifteen games and had 62 receptions for 1,132 yards and a career-high seven touchdowns. In

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, he played in 13 games and had 39 receptions for 762 yards and three touchdowns. In the spring of 2001, the

signed him to a five-year, $13 million contract that included a $2.5 million signing bonus. In 2001, he played 12 games for the Saints, recording 12 receptions for 191 yards and two touchdowns. His future in the NFL was cut short when he was accused of stealing from Deuce McAllister. He allegedly stole $4,000 from his former Saints teammate and was released from the team. He never played in the NFL again.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Connell, Albert 1974 births Living people American football wide receivers Calgary Stampeders players Canadian football wide receivers New Orleans Saints players Players of American football from Fort Lauderdale, Florida Texas A&M Aggies football players Trinity Valley Cardinals football players Washington Redskins players Piper High School (Florida) alumni