Derek Alan Combs (born February 28, 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 ...

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

who played 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 the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

and

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

. 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

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 ...

.Derek Combs
pro-football-reference.com

High school career

Combs graduated from

Grove City High School Grove City High School is a high school in Grove City, Ohio, United States. It is one of the five high schools in the South-Western City Schools, Franklin County, Ohio, South-Western City Schools district. It houses about 1,900 students in gra ...

Grove City, Ohio Grove City is a city in Franklin County, Ohio, Franklin County, Ohio, United States which was founded in 1852. It is a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus. The population was 41,252 according to the 2020 Census. History Until the mid-19th century, ...

, where he was the star tailback and was voted Ohio's Mr. Football in 1996. He has his own spot in the trophy case at Grove City High School.

College career

He was a tailback in college for the

Buckeyes.

Professional career

Combs was selected by the

in the 7th round (228th overall pick) of the

2001 NFL Draft The 2001 NFL Draft was the 66th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible professional football players. The draft, which is officially referred to as the "NFL Player Selection Meeting," was held at the ...

as a

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

. He played in four games for the Raiders in 2002 and eight games for the

in 2003.

References

1979 births Living people Players of American football from Columbus, Ohio American football halfbacks American football cornerbacks Ohio State Buckeyes football players Oakland Raiders players Amsterdam Admirals players Green Bay Packers players {{defensiveback-1970s-stub