Dorian Etheridge (born November 21, 1998) is an

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 ...

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 ...

for the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

of 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). 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 Louisville.

Early life and high school

Dorian Etheridge was born to Denise and Stephen Dawkins on November 21, 1998 in

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston is the capital and List of cities in West Virginia, most populous city of West Virginia. Located at the confluence of the Elk River (West Virginia), Elk and Kanawha River, Kanawha rivers, the city had a population of 48,864 at the 20 ...

. Etheridge attended Capital High School where he competed as an outside linebacker. While playing for Capital High, Etheridge received Two-Time All-State Selection Honors by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.

College career

Etheridge was a three-star prospect and tabbed the No. 6 player in West Virginia according to Rivals.com and the No. 50-ranked outside linebacker by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

. He committed to Louisville over West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Maryland, Purdue and Marshall. Etheridge played 4 years at Louisville as a linebacker. He appeared in 45 career games totaling 258 tackles, 24.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 sacks and one interception.

Professional career

After going unselected in the 2021 NFL Draft, Etheridge signed as a free agent with the

on May 1, 2021. He made the Falcons roster out of training camp. He played in five games before being waived on November 2, 2021 and re-signed to the practice squad. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Falcons on January 10, 2022. On August 30, 2022, Etheridge was waived/injured by the Falcons and placed on injured reserve. He was released on September 8. On October 18, 2022, Etheridge was signed to the Falcons' practice squad. He signed a reserve/future contract on January 9, 2023.

References

1998 births Living people American football linebackers Atlanta Falcons players Louisville Cardinals football players Players of American football from West Virginia Sportspeople from Charleston, West Virginia {{linebacker-stub