Daniel Stubbs, II (born January 3, 1965) 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 wit ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is 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 ma ...

(NFL) for the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

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 divis ...

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The club's home ...

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 play ...

, and

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pl ...

. He played college football at 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, ...

Early years

Stubbs attended

Red Bank Regional High School Red Bank Regional High School (often abbreviated RBR) is a comprehensive regional four-year public high school and school district that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from the boroughs of Little Silver, Red Bank and Shrewsbur ...

Little Silver, New Jersey Little Silver is a borough in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 6,131, an increase of 181 (+3.0%) from the 2010 census count of 5,950, which in turn reflected a drop ...

. He was a three-year starter in football. He also was a standout in

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, finishing with a school-record 74 careers blocks, while leading his team to a state

title as a junior. He was recruited by

Howard Schnellenberger Howard Leslie Schnellenberger (March 16, 1934 – March 27, 2021) was an American football coach with long service at both the professional and college levels. He held head coaching positions with the National Football League's Baltimore Colts ...

to play college football at the

, but Schnellenberger left for the

USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

before his freshman season started, making Jimmy Johnson his new

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...

. As a sophomore, he was moved from

outside 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, pla ...

, becoming a starter midway through the season and finishing with a team-best 12 sacks. His production as a junior was even better, as Stubbs tallied 97 tackles and 17 sacks. He earned Second Team All-America honors for a Hurricanes team that finished was narrowly defeated at the

1987 Fiesta Bowl The 1987 Fiesta Bowl was a college football bowl game that served as the final game of the 1986 NCAA Division I-A football season. Part of the 1986–87 bowl game season, the 1987 Fiesta Bowl also served as the National Championship Game, between ...

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High ...

14-10 for the National Championship. Noted as a defensive stalwart as a senior in 1987, opposing offenses tried to steer plays away from Stubbs direction, but he still posted 75 tackles and 9.5 sacks and helped the team win their second National Championship. The season was punctuated by a 20-14 win over Oklahoma in the 1988 Orange Bowl. He was named a consensus All-American and selected to play in the

Japan Bowl The Japan Bowl (in Japanese, ジャパンボウル) was a post-season college football all-star game played in Japan each January from 1976 to 1993, which showcased East and West all-star teams made up of college football players from the United S ...

in Tokyo.

Hurricane Legacy

Stubbs finished his college career as the school's all-time career (39 1/2) and single season (17 in 1986) sack leader. He also had 25 tackles for loss, 267 total tackles and the school record for his position with 139 assisted tackles. In 1999, Stubbs was inducted into the University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame.

Professional career

San Francisco 49ers

Stubbs was selected by the

in the second round (33rd overall) of the

1988 NFL Draft The 1988 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 24–25, 1988, at the Marriot M ...

. As a rookie, he was a situational pass rusher behind Kevin Fagan and Larry Roberts. He registered 25 tackles, 6 sacks, one pass defensed and was named to the NFL All-Rookie team. In

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker ru ...

, he posted 13 tackles and 4.5 sacks. In the

Super Bowl XXIV Super Bowl XXIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion f ...

victory over the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

, he had 2 sacks and returned a fumble recovery to the one-yard line to set up a 49ers

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Americ ...

. On April 19,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

, he was traded along with

Terrence Flagler Robert Terrence Flagler (born September 24, 1964) is a former professional American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the San Francisco 49ers and Phoenix Cardinals. He played college football at Clemson Univers ...

, a third (#81-

Craig Veasey Craig Veasey (born December 25, 1966 in Houston, Texas) is a retired defensive tackle/nose tackle in the NFL. While attending the University of Houston from 1985 to 1989, Craig earned was a 4-year letterman, and a starting 3 of those years. In ...

) and an eleventh-round (#304-Myron Jones) draft pick to the

, in exchange for a second (#47-

Dennis Brown Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD (1 February 1957 – 1 July 1999) was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of lo ...

) and third-round (#68-Ron Lewis) draft choices.

Dallas Cowboys

, he reunited with head coach Jimmy Johnson. He was named the starter at left defensive end and finished tied with defensive tackle

Jimmie Jones Jimmie Sims Jones (born January 9, 1966) is a former professional American football defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams, and Philadelphia Eagles. He played college football a ...

for the team lead with 7 1/2 sacks, while also tallying 59 tackles, 30 quarterback pressures (led the team), 6 passes defensed and 2 forced fumbles. The next year, he had a contract holdout and was passed over on the depth chart by Tony Tolbert. He was waived nine games into the season on November 4,

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the ...

Cincinnati Bengals

On November 6,

, he was claimed off waivers by the

and had a career-high 9 sacks (second on the team). The next year, he led the team with 5 sacks, while playing mostly in passing situations. On August 16,

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

, he was released in a salary-cap move.

Philadelphia Eagles

On April 7,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

, he was signed as a

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 ...

by the

, reuniting him with

Ray Rhodes Raymond Earl Rhodes (born October 20, 1950) is a former American football player and coach. Rhodes played wide receiver and cornerback for the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. He served as the head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles an ...

, a former defensive assistant with the 49ers. He started 6 games and had 5 1/2 sacks (tied for fourth on the team).

Miami Dolphins

On April 4,

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

, he rejected an offer from the Eagles and signed instead a one-year contract with the

, reuniting with Jimmy Johnson. He started 15 games at right

and finished with 9 sacks (second on the team). The next year, he was re-signed, but after not missing any games during his career, he was lost for the season with a right knee injury he suffered in the season opener. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

, his play suffered because of injuries, managing 2 tackles and no sacks. He was released in February

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

NFL statistics

Personal life

The Stubbs Sandwich is a food item named in his honor, that is sold in a restaurant chain in

Coppell, Texas Coppell ( ) is a city in the northwest corner of Dallas County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a suburb of Dallas and a bedroom community in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its population was 42,983 at the 2020 census. A small area in t ...

and heavily endorsed by

John Madden John Earl Madden (April 10, 1936 – December 28, 2021) was an American football coach and sports commentator in the National Football League (NFL). He served as the head coach of the Oakland Raiders from 1969 to 1978, who he led to eight pla ...

. On February 3, 2012, because of injuries sustained while playing, Stubbs entered into a law suit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against the

(NFL).

References

External links

The 50 Greatest Miami Hurricanes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stubbs, Danny 1965 births Living people Sportspeople from Long Branch, New Jersey All-American college football players American football defensive ends Miami Hurricanes football players San Francisco 49ers players Dallas Cowboys players Cincinnati Bengals players Philadelphia Eagles players Miami Dolphins players Red Bank Regional High School alumni Players of American football from Monmouth County, New Jersey