Barry L. Cantrell II (born November 2, 1976) is an American former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

punter. He played

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at Fordham. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

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 ...

(NFL). He also played for the

Frankfurt Galaxy Two American football franchises have been referred to as the Frankfurt Galaxy: * Frankfurt Galaxy (NFL Europe), active in NFL Europe between 1991 and 2007 * Frankfurt Galaxy (ELF) The Frankfurt Galaxy is an American football team in Frankfurt, ...

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

and the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

of the NFL.

College career

While at Fordham, Cantrell earned Academic All-American honors as well as being named the

Patriot League The Patriot League is a collegiate athletic conference comprising private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United States. Outside the Ivy League, it is among the most selective gr ...

Scholar Athlete of the Year in football in 1996 and 1997.

Football

In 1997, as a senior, he was named

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First-team All-American when he set a school record of 45.8 yards-per-punt average, which also let NCAA I-AA. He also set a school record in yards (2,890), which stood for eight years, before being broken by Anthony DiFino. He was also named First-team

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All-American and Second-team All-American by the

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. When he graduated, he held numerous school records including career punts (267), career punting yardage (10,649), and career average (39.9). He also held the Patriot League record for season and career averages. In 2001, he was named to the Patriot League 15th Anniversary team, and in 2011 to the 25th Anniversary team.

Track and field

As a senior, Cantrell won the 1998

Atlantic 10 The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

Indoor Championships high jump competition, as well as recording a meet record jump of 7' 1.75", a still standing record (as of March 25, 2020). He also earned 1998 Indoor All-American honors by finishing 11th at the NCAA National Championships.

Professional career

Cantrell when undrafted in the

1998 NFL draft The 1998 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 18–19, 1998, at the Theater at M ...

by the

of the

(NFL). He was then assigned to the

. While playing for the Galaxy, he punted 39 times, for 1,602 yards, with an average of 41.1 yards, and a long of 58 yards. He helped the team finish 6-4 and win the

World Bowl The World Bowl was the annual American football championship game of the World League of American Football/NFL Europe. The World Bowl was played each year from 1991 to 2007 (except 1993 and 1994). The game was conceived as the final of the NFL-r ...

championship. He then joined the

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 ...

and appeared in two games.

Personal life

After leaving football, Cantrell returned to Florida and served as a

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for Bernstein Investment Research & Management, before moving on to become the director of financial planning for

Edelman Financial Engines Edelman Financial Engines is an American financial planning and investment advisory company. , it has $291 billion in assets and more than 1.3 million clients. The company was formed by the 2018 merger of Financial Engines (founded in 1996) and Ed ...

References

External links

Fordham Sports Hall of Fame bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cantrell, Barry 1976 births Living people Players of American football from Broward County, Florida St. Thomas Aquinas High School (Florida) alumni Track and field athletes from Florida American football punters Fordham Rams football players Philadelphia Eagles players Frankfurt Galaxy players Dallas Cowboys players American male high jumpers