Christopher Carroll Slade (born January 30, 1971) is an American former professional

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 ...

player who was a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

in 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) for nine seasons. 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

Virginia Cavaliers The Virginia Cavaliers, also known as ''Wahoos'' or ''Hoos'', are the athletic teams representing the University of Virginia, located in Charlottesville. The Cavaliers compete at the NCAA Division I level ( FBS for football), in the Atlantic C ...

, and earned consensus All-American honors. A second-round pick in the

1993 NFL Draft The 1993 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 25–26, 1993, at the Marriot Ma ...

, he played professionally for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

and

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

of the NFL. Slade was recognized as a

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

selection and All-Pro after the season. He is currently an assistant coach at Virginia.

Personal life

Slade was born in

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

.National Football League, Historical Players
Chris Slade
Retrieved February 16, 2012. He graduated from

Tabb High School Tabb High School is a public high school for located in Tabb, an unincorporated community in southern York County, Virginia, United States. It is part of the York County School Division. The school opened in 1972 and is located near the site ...

in Yorktown, Virginia,databaseFootball.com, Players
Chris Slade
. Retrieved February 16, 2012. where he played for the Tabb Tigers

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

team. Chris was the head football coach at Pace Academy from 2013 to 2021 and has two children.

College career

While attending the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

on an athletic scholarship, Slade played for coach George Welsh's

Cavaliers The term Cavalier () was first used by Roundheads as a term of abuse for the wealthier royalist supporters of King Charles I and his son Charles II of England during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – ). It ...

teams from 1989 to 1992. As a senior in 1992 and a junior in 1991, he was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American. Slade still holds the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

record for most career sacks with 40.

Professional career

The New England Patriots selected Slade in the second round, as the 31st overall pick, of the 1993 NFL Draft. He played for the Patriots from to .Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Chris Slade
Retrieved February 16, 2012. During his final pro season in , he was a member of the Carolina Panthers. In nine NFL seasons, he played in 142 regular season games, started 108 of them, and compiled 665 tackles, 53.5 quarterback sacks, 16 forced fumbles, three interceptions and two touchdowns.

NFL statistics

Coaching career

Slade was the head football coach at

Pace Academy Pace Academy is a K–12 college preparatory private school, located at 966 West Paces Ferry Road in the Buckhead area of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Pace has approximately 1,115 students. History Pace Academy was founded in Atlanta in ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

. His 2015 Pace Academy varsity squad won the AA 2015 Georgia High School football Championship on December 12, 2015. He resigned from Pace Academy on December 7, 2021, and on January 3, 2022, Slade was announced as an assistant coach at Virginia under new head coach Tony Elliott.

References

External links

Virginia profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slade, Chris 1971 births Living people American football linebackers Carolina Panthers players New England Patriots players Virginia Cavaliers football coaches Virginia Cavaliers football players High school football coaches in Georgia (U.S. state) All-American college football players American Conference Pro Bowl players Tabb High School alumni Players of American football from Newport News, Virginia Coaches of American football from Virginia African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American people