Brian Schaefering (born August 20, 1983) is a former American football defensive end for the Cleveland Browns,

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

and Dallas Cowboys. 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 ...

at Lindenwood Lions and for the Illinois Fighting Illini.

Early years

Schaefering earned three football varsity letters at

Hazelwood East High School Hazelwood East High School is one of three high schools in the Hazelwood School District, St. Louis County, Missouri, the others being Hazelwood West High School and Hazelwood Central High School. It is at 11300 Dunn Road in Spanish Lake, Missour ...

in St. Louis and was also First-team All-State, two-time First-team All-Suburban North and first-team North District selection and Two-time All-Conference selection. He had seven

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 ...

s, 130 tackles and two interceptions as a senior. He posted 60 tackles and six

blocked punt In gridiron football, a punt is a kick performed by dropping the ball from the hands and then kicking the ball before it hits the ground. The most common use of this tactic is to punt the ball downfield to the opposing team, usually on the final ...

s as a junior and served as the team's punter. He also earned letters in

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

College career

Schaefering started his

career with the Illinois Fighting Illini. In 2001, he played the final nine games of the season along the defensive line as a true freshman and finished the season with eight tackles and one sack. In 2002, he played in all 12 games, earning two starts and finished the season with a team third best of four sacks and a team fifth best with five

tackles-for-loss The following terms are used in American football, both conventional and indoor. Some of these terms are also in use in Canadian football; for a list of terms unique to that code, see ''Glossary of Canadian football''. 0–9 ...

(TFL). He registered 34 tackles on the season. During the 2003 season, he took a

medical redshirt Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

ed due to a shoulder injury. He appeared in 8 games for Illinois in 2004 totaling 19 tackles, one sack and two forced

fumble A fumble in gridiron football occurs when a player who has possession and control of the ball loses it before being downed (tackled), scoring, or going out of bounds. By rule, it is any act other than passing, kicking, punting, or successful ...

s. He did not play in 2005 and 2006 while sitting out during his school transfer. Schaefering played at

Lindenwood University Lindenwood University is a private university in St. Charles, Missouri. Founded in 1827 by George Champlin Sibley and Mary Easton Sibley as The Lindenwood School for Girls, it is the second-oldest higher-education institution west of the Missis ...

St. Charles, Missouri Saint Charles (commonly abbreviated St. Charles) is a city in, and the county seat of, St. Charles County, Missouri, United States. The population was 65,794 at the 2010 census, making St. Charles the ninth-largest city in Missouri. Situated on t ...

for his senior year in 2007, after transferring from the Fighting Illini. He led the team with 7.5 sacks and also recorded 37 tackles, including 19 solo tackles, 9.5 TFL, one recovered fumble and one blocked kick during 2007, while helping Lindenwood to the NAIA National Football Championship series.

Professional career

Schaefering was 6-4¾ and weighed 286 when measured at his NFL Pro Day workout and ran a 4.85 forty-yard dash and did 18 reps of 225 pounds, and a 34½ vertical jump. He was signed by the Cleveland Browns as an undrafted free agent on May 1, 2008. He was waived on August 26. Schaefering was signed by the

on December 18, 2008. He was waived on December 29 before being re-signed to a futures contract on January 1, 2009. He was waived again on June 9. Schaefering was re-signed by the Cleveland Browns on August 25, 2009, after wide receiver and former Jets teammate Paul Raymond was waived.Wayne A. Lett
Browns sign DL Brian Schaefering; waive WR Paul Rymond
Cleveland Browns, August 25, 2009 Schaefering was promoted to the active roster on December 2, when Shaun Rogers was put on the injured reserve list. Schaefering finished the

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

regular season with 12 tackles and 1.5 sacks. He was cut on September 1, 2012. He finished his Browns career after appearing in 37 games, while posting 72 tackles and 2 sacks from his nose tackle position. On December 12, 2012, he was signed by the Dallas Cowboys, reuniting with defensive coordinator Rob Ryan who held the same position when Schaefering was with the Cleveland Browns. He was signed to replace

Josh Brent Joshua Aaron Price-Brent (born January 30, 1988) is a former American football defensive tackle who played in National Football League (NFL) for five seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Illinois and was selected by the ...

, who left the team to focus on the charges he was facing for the death of Jerry Brown. Schaefering was not re-signed after the season.

Personal life

After football, he was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the possibility of also having chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaefering, Brian 1983 births Living people Players of American football from St. Louis American football defensive tackles American football defensive ends Illinois Fighting Illini football players Lindenwood Lions football players Cleveland Browns players New York Jets players Dallas Cowboys players