Andrew Joseph "Drew" Butler (born May 10, 1989) 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 ...

punter. 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

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

and was recognized as a unanimous All-American punter. The

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

signed him as an

undrafted 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 ...

following the

2012 NFL Draft The 2012 NFL draft was the 77th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players for their rosters. The draft, which is officially called the "NFL Player Selection Meeting", was held ...

Early years

Butler was born in

Duluth, Georgia Duluth is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, Gwinnett County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Located north of Interstate 85, it is approximately northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, Duluth had a ...

, and is the son of Kevin Butler, a former University of Georgia and NFL placekicker. He attended

Peachtree Ridge High School Peachtree Ridge High School (PRHS) is a public high school in Gwinnett County, in Suwanee, Georgia, United States. It is a part of Gwinnett County Public Schools. It is one of two public schools in the county to use block scheduling, the other b ...

Suwanee, Georgia Suwanee is a city in Gwinnett County and a northeastern suburb of Atlanta in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 15,355; this had grown to an estimated 20,907 as of 2019. Portions of Forsyth and Fulton counties ...

, and played

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 ...

for the Peachtree Ridge Lions. As a junior, he averaged 40 yards per punt with a longest kick of 63 yards and 13 punts inside the 20-yard line. Following his senior season in 2006, ''

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

'' and the Georgia Sports Writers Association named him to their Class 5A all-state first-teams.

Scout.com Scout Media is an integrated sports publishing company that produces Internet content covering hundreds of professional and college teams across America. The company was founded in 2001 and was acquired by Fox Sports in 2005. In 2013, Fox Sports ...

rated him as the No. 9 punter recruit in the nation. He also played Peachtree Ridge Lions golf team, while maintaining a 3.9 grade point average.

College career

Butler attended the

, where he played for coach

Mark Richt Mark Allan Richt (born February 18, 1960) is a retired American football head coach, former player, and television analyst. He was the head football coach at the University of Georgia for 15 years and at the University of Miami, his alma mater, ...

Georgia Bulldogs football The Georgia Bulldogs football program represents the University of Georgia in the sport of American football. The Bulldogs compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Div ...

team from 2007 to 2011. He led the nation in punting average for the

2009 NCAA Division I FBS football season 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

. He was selected as the first-team All-

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities of ...

(SEC) punter, and a unanimous first-team All-American, and he was the winner of the

Ray Guy Award The Ray Guy Award is presented annually to college football's most outstanding punter as adjudged by the Augusta Sports Council. The award is named after punter Ray Guy, an All-American for Southern Mississippi and an All-Pro in the National Foo ...

recognizing him as the best college punter in the nation. In 2010, Butler was selected as the second-team All-SEC punter by the coaches. He was a first-team All-American selection by ''

Pro Football Weekly ''Pro Football Weekly'' (sometimes shortened to ''PFW'') is an American sports magazine, founded in 1967, and website that covers the National Football League (NFL). It was owned by Pro Football Weekly LLC and headquartered in Riverwoods, Illinoi ...

'', a second-team choice by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

and

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...

, as well as an honorable mention selection by ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

''. Butler was once again a finalist for the

in 2010. He was a 2010 first-team

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are giv ...

selection. On December 6, 2011, he was honored as a National Football Foundation (NFF) Scholar-Athlete Award recipient, named a finalist for the

William V. Campbell Trophy The William V. Campbell, formerly the Vincent dePaul Draddy Trophy, is awarded by the National Football Foundation to the American college football player with the best combination of academics, community service, and on-field performance. It i ...

. He was also honored on that same day when he earned honorable mention All-SEC recognition by the Associated Press. On December 8, he repeated in 2011 as a first-team Academic All-America selection.

Professional career

Pittsburgh Steelers

On April 28, 2012, following the

, Butler was one of 12 undrafted free agent rookies signed by the

. During the 2012 season, Butler punted 77 times, and averaged 43.8 yards. For the 2013 NFL season he beat

Brian Moorman Brian Donald Moorman (born February 5, 1976) is an American former football punter in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for Pittsburg State University, and was signed by the Seattle Seahawks as an undrafted free age ...

in preseason to make the 53-man roster.

Chicago Bears

On December 31, 2013, Butler was signed to a future/reserve contract by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

. On May 18, Butler was released.

Detroit Lions

On July 25, 2014, Butler was signed by the Detroit Lions. The Lions released Butler on August 25, 2014.

Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals signed Butler on September 8, 2014. Butler made his debut for the Cardinals later that same day in their 2014 season opener against the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

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 ...

Monday Night Football ''ESPN Monday Night Football'' (abbreviated as ''MNF'' and also known as ''ESPN Monday Night Football on ABC'' for simulcasts) is an American live television broadcast of weekly National Football League (NFL) games currently airing on ESPN, AB ...

. He was released on September 16, 2014. He was re-signed by the Cardinals on September 19, 2014. On October 6, 2014, he became the starting punter after Dave Zastudil was placed on season-ending injured reserve. Butler went on to lead the NFL in punts inside the 20 during the 2014 season. On October 4, 2016, Butler was released by the Cardinals. He was re-signed on November 15, 2016 and released again on December 13, 2016.

Career statistics

Regular season

Postseason

Post-playing career

Butler runs 4th Down Consulting and hosts a pair of college football

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

s titled ''Punt & Pass Podcast'' and ''CampusLore Life''. In March 2021, he was hired by Icon Source, a company helping college athletes receive

student athlete compensation In college athletics in the United States, the National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA") has historically resisted efforts to compensate college athletes. However, after years of effort by those in favor of student athlete compensation, c ...

, as Executive Vice President.

References

External links

Stats at ESPN

Stats at NCAA

{{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, Drew 1989 births Living people People from Duluth, Georgia People from Suwanee, Georgia Sportspeople from the Atlanta metropolitan area Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state) American football punters Georgia Bulldogs football players All-American college football players Pittsburgh Steelers players Chicago Bears players Detroit Lions players Arizona Cardinals players