Brett Christopher Romberg (born October 10, 1979) 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 with ...

center Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...

who last played for the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

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 played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

, earned consensus All-American honors, and was recognized as the outstanding college center by receiving the Dave Rimington Trophy. He was signed by the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2003, and has also played for the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

Early years

Romberg was born in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

, Canada. He started his football career in the ninth grade playing for the Belle River District High School football team.

College career

Romberg attended the University of Miami, where he played for the

Miami Hurricanes football The Miami Hurricanes football team represents the University of Miami in college football. The Hurricanes compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the Coastal Division of the Atlanti ...

team from 1999 to 2002. As senior in 2002, he was distinguished as the best center in the nation when he was awarded the

Dave Rimington Trophy The Dave Rimington Trophy is awarded to the player considered to be the best American football center in college football. Dave Rimington was a center who played at the University of Nebraska from 1979 to 1982. A member of the National College F ...

and was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American at center.''2011 NCAA Football Records Book''
Award Winners
National Collegiate Athletic Association, Indianapolis, Indiana, p. 11 (2011). Retrieved June 23, 2012. With Romberg at center, the Hurricanes won 35 of 37 games, one

BCS National Championship The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college foot ...

(2001), three Big East Conference championships (2000, 2001, 2002), a Sugar Bowl (2001) and a Rose Bowl (2002). Romberg never allowed a

quarterback sack In gridiron football, a sack occurs when the quarterback (or another offensive player acting as a passer) is tackled behind the line of scrimmage before throwing a forward pass, when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage in th ...

at center except against

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl and was part of an offensive line that helped produce three 1,000-yard rushers ( James Jackson,

Clinton Portis Clinton Earl Portis (born September 1, 1981) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons. He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes. He was drafted b ...

and

Willis McGahee Willis Andrew McGahee III (born October 21, 1981) is a former American football running back. He played college football at Miami, where he was recognized as a consensus All-American, and was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the first round of t ...

), a

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

(

Ken Dorsey Kenneth Simon Dorsey (born April 22, 1981) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the offensive coordinator for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at the University of Miami, ...

) who set every major Hurricanes career passing record and an offense that averaged more than 465 yards per game for the balance of his three years as the starting center.

Professional career

Romberg was drafted by the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

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 ...

in the

2002 CFL Draft The 2002 CFL Draft took place on Thursday, April 25, 2002. From a list of 442 eligible CIS football players from Canadian universities and Canadian players in the NCAA and NAIA, 54 players were chosen, including 26 players from Canadian Interuni ...

but didn't play there. After a stint with the

, Romberg became the starting center for the

for a brief time in 2006 and 2007, replacing an injured

Andy McCollum Andrew Jon McCollum (born June 2, 1970) is an American former professional football player who was a center for 15 seasons in the National Football League for three teams. He played college football at Toledo Rockets. He was signed by the Mil ...

, but he was replaced in 2009 by Jason Brown. In 2009, Romberg was a reserve offensive lineman for the Atlanta Falcons. He was released by the Falcons on September 4, 2010. Due to an injury to starting center

Todd McClure Ryan Todd McClure (born February 16, 1977) is a former American football center who spent his entire 13-year career playing with the Atlanta Falcons in the National Football League. He was drafted by the Falcons in the seventh round of the 1999 ...

, the Falcons re-signed Romberg on August 30, 2011. However, he was released during final cuts on September 3 to avoid a guaranteed contract, but was re-signed on September 12 where he remained on the active roster for the remainder of the 2011 season. Romberg finally retired from the National Football League in 2012. Romberg was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame in March 2013 for his football accomplishments. He hosted a morning sports show in South Florida (Zaslow/Romberg/Amber show), where he was well known for his impressions of Goran Dragic, and his segments Romdog's Grill and Shout Outs. He left the show in July 2019.

References

External links

Miami Hurricanes bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Romberg, Brett 1979 births Living people All-American college football players American football offensive guards American football centers Atlanta Falcons players Canadian players of American football Jacksonville Jaguars players Miami Hurricanes football players Sportspeople from Windsor, Ontario St. Louis Rams players Gridiron football people from Ontario