Edward Charles Judie (born July 6, 1959) 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 college football for Northern Arizona (1977–1980) and professional football 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

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 ...

(1982-1983), the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

(1983), and Miami Dolphins (1984). He appeared in 24 NFL games, eight of them as a starter.

Early years

Judie was born in 1959 in Tyler, Texas. He was born five weeks premature and spent his early weeks in an incubator. He attended Tempe High School (Arizona), Tempe High School in Tempe, Arizona. During his junior year in high school, a blood vessel in his head ruptured; doctors opined he would not survive, but he walked out of the hospital five days later. Judie played college football for the Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football, Northern Arizona Lumberjacks from 1977 to 1980. He switched to outside linebacker in 1978. He had 83 tackles, including 17 quarterback sacks, in 1977 playing at defensive end. Judie survived a second ruptured blood vessel in his head in the spring of 1981 while working out in the weight room.

Professional football

He signed with the San Francisco 49ers in 1981 but spent the year on injured reserve. During the 1982 and 1983 seasons, he appeared in 11 games, three as a starter. He was acquired by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the 1983 season. He appeared in 11 games for Tampa Bay, 11 of them as a starter. In 1984, he signed with the Miami Dolphins late in the season. He appeared in two games for the Dolphins.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Judie, Ed 1959 births Living people American football linebackers San Francisco 49ers players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Miami Dolphins players Northern Arizona Lumberjacks football players Players of American football from Tyler, Texas