Darin Godfrey Jordan (born December 4, 1964) 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 ...

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 ...

who played four seasons 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) with 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 ...

and

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 ...

. He was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fifth round 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 Marq ...

. 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 ...

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

and attended Stoughton High School in

Stoughton, Massachusetts Stoughton (official name: Town of Stoughton) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 29,281 at the 2020 census. The town is located approximately from Boston, from Providence, Rhode Island, and from Cape ...

. He has also been a member of the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

Early life

Jordan was born on December 4, 1964, in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. He attended Stoughton High School, where he lettered in track and football, captained the football team, and was selected All Hockomock League as both a junior and senior. Before enrolling at

, Jordan worked with his uncle for three summers cleaning all the Venetian blinds, which he said helped him get "a close feeling for the school and the people in it." At Northeastern, Jordan majored in speech communication and was "one of the premier defensive linemen in

Huskies Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that mai ...

history." He was

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Entertainment * ''Red Shirts'' (film), a 1952 film about Anita Garibaldi by Franco Rossi * Redshirt (stock character), originally derived from ''Star Trek'', a stock character who dies soon after b ...

ed as a freshman in 1983, but was in the starting lineup by the fourth game of 1984. By the conclusion of his rookie season, Jordan finished with a total of 24 tackles and two quarterback sacks.

Career

Jordan was drafted by the

in the fifth round of the

. He was released by the Steelers before their first game of the season and was signed shortly thereafter by the Raiders. After three days with the Raiders he was released for he "did not know their system." As a Plan B free agent, he was signed by the

. During the 1994–95 pre-season, Jordan was released by the 49ers on waivers. Prior to re-signing, he kept in shape by skating with former members of the

San Jose Sharks The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are owned by San Jose Sports & Entertainm ...

for he had played pickup hockey until the 10th grade after basketball practice. In January 1995, Jordan was signed by San Francisco as a special teams player and backup linebacker to replace

Anthony Peterson Anthony Peterson (born March 16, 1985) is a professional boxer. He is the younger brother of Lamont Peterson. Amateur career Peterson had an outstanding amateur career, and was the 2003 National Golden Gloves Lightweight Champion. In 2004 he ...

on injured reserve. When speaking of the decision, vice president for football administration John McVay said "he's been here before so it's not like he's a stranger to these players." He played his first game of the season in the

Super Bowl XXIX Super Bowl XXIX was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion San Diego Chargers and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion San Francisco 49ers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champio ...

against the Chargers on their special team.

Personal life

Jordan was married to

Andrea Hayes-Jordan Andrea A. Hayes Dixon (born 1965) is an American surgeon. She was the first pediatric surgeon to perform a high-risk, life-saving procedure in children with a rare form of cancer and developed the first orthotropic xenograft model of metastatic E ...

, the first pediatric surgeon to perform a high-risk, life-saving procedure in children with a rare form of cancer. They have two children together, a son and daughter. After retiring from football, Jordan inspects game balls and uniforms for NRG Stadium under contract of the NFL.

References

External links

Just Sports StatsFanbase profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Darin Living people 1964 births Players of American football from Boston American football linebackers American football defensive ends African-American players of American football Northeastern Huskies football players Pittsburgh Steelers players Los Angeles Raiders players San Francisco 49ers players 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople