Clint Kriewaldt (born March 16, 1976) 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 ...

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, ...

. He was drafted by the Detroit Lions in the sixth round of the 1999 NFL Draft. He played college football at Wisconsin–Stevens Point.

Professional career

His first four seasons in the NFL were spent with the Detroit Lions, where he spent most of his time as a backup and on

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

. He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 2003–2007. He made the opening tackle in

Super Bowl XL Super Bowl XL was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Seattle Seahawks and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion f ...

against the Seattle Seahawks. On February 22, 2008 the Steelers released him; Kriewaldt's career was reportedly in jeopardy due to an injury.

In the media

Kriewaldt became a bit of a folk hero in his

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

season among listeners of

WDFN WDFN (1130 AM) is a radio station in Detroit, Michigan. Owned by iHeartMedia, it broadcasts an all-news radio format under iHeartMedia's Black Information Network, targeting Detroit's African American community. Its studios are located in the D ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, despite (or likely due to) his third-string status. The staff recorded a parody of the Christmas standard "

We Wish You a Merry Christmas "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is an English Christmas carol, listed as numbers 230 and 9681 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The famous version of the carol is from the English West Country The West Country (occasionally Westcountry) is ...

", which went: ''"We wish you a merry Kriewaldt'', ''We wish you a merry Kriewaldt,'' ''We wish you a merry Kriewaldt..."'' followed by Kriewaldt himself singing the line: ''"And I hope that I play."''

Personal life

Kriewaldt was an All-State

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

at Shiocton High School, earned All-Region and All-Conference honors as running back and

as a prep senior in 1993, was the 1993 Offensive Player of the Year in Central Wisconsin Conference (large schools), earned Team MVP and team captain in 1993, and set school rushing records for most career yards (3,357), single-season yards (1,552) and single-game yards (317). He earned his college degree in 2000 offseason. Kriewaldt is married. He served as the head coach for Freedom High School football team in Freedom, Wisconsin where he lives from 2012 to 2016, He served as an assistant in the program from 2016-2020 and recently became the head coach again in 2021.Clint Kriewaldt, deputy and former NFL player, to run for Outagamie County Sheriff
Retrieved 2018-10-12. Kriewaldt ran for Outagamie County sheriff in the Primary election on August 14, 2018. His win was a landslide compared to the opposition. His opponents included Co-worker Deputy John Brylski, former Marine, and Alex Bebris.

References

External links

Pittsburgh Steelers bio
1976 births Living people People from Bovina, Wisconsin American football linebackers Detroit Lions players Pittsburgh Steelers players Wisconsin–Stevens Point Pointers football players Players of American football from Wisconsin People from Freedom, Outagamie County, Wisconsin {{linebacker-1970s-stub