Fearon Kenroy Wright (born September 30, 1978) is a Jamaican-born 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 ...

. 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 ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

. Professionally, he played one season for the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) North division. Founded in 1960 as an expansion ...

in 2001 before a season ending injury. He made a comeback to pro football with the

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

in 2008.

Early life and college career

Born in

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

, Wright emigrated to the U.S. with his mother at age 13. Wright graduated from James J. Ferris High School in

Jersey City, New Jersey Jersey City is the second-most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark. Wright began his college football career at the junior college level at

Dean College Dean College is a private college in Franklin, Massachusetts. It offers bachelor's degrees, associate degrees, and continuing and professional education and certificates. History Dean College was founded by Dr. Oliver Dean as a co-educatio ...

, where he was the leading tackler with 68 tackles and honorable mention all-conference in 1998. Wright transferred to the

University of Rhode Island The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Island ...

, where he played for the Rhode Island Rams at

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

from 1999 to 2000. In 1999, Wright had 24 total tackles, one fumble recovery, and one pass deflected. A team co-captain in 2000, Wright started all 11 games and had 76 tackles, including a team leading 14 tackles for loss. He also had seven sacks, three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and three passes deflected.

Pro career

After 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 ...

, Wright signed with the

as an undrafted free agent on May 31, 2001 as a linebacker. Playing mostly on special teams, Wright had two tackles in seven games. However, Wright had a season ending shoulder injury and was placed on injured reserve in November; the Vikings eventually released Wright on February 21, 2002. Wright retired from football after being released. In 2008, Wright returned to pro football with the

Carolina Speed The Carolina Speed were a professional indoor football team that operated from 2007 to 2011 in Concord and Charlotte, North Carolina, at Bojangles' Coliseum in 2009 and 2011. From 2007 to 2009, the Speed were members of the American Indoor Footba ...

of the

(AIFA). He then played for the

Baltimore Mariners The Baltimore Mariners were an indoor football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The team was a member of American Indoor Football. The team was founded when the American Indoor Football Association expelled the Baltimore Blackbirds for negotia ...

from 2009 to 2011, winning the AIFA championship in 2010, before playing for the Harrisburg Stampede in 2012.

Outside of football

Wright has also been a motivational speaker. He and Baltimore Mariners teammate Isaiah Grier made guest appearances on ''

The Steve Wilkos Show For the talk show hosted by Steve Harvey, see Steve (talk show) ''The Steve Wilkos Show'' is a syndicated American tabloid talk show hosted by Steve Wilkos. The series is a spin-off of the long-running ''Jerry Springer'' show. ''The Steve Wilk ...

'' episode "Teen Boys in Trouble" aired on April 15, 2010 talking teenage boys against joining a gang. Wright then appeared on the ''Wilkos'' episode "I'm Black, But I Want To Be White" in 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Fearon 1978 births Living people American football defensive ends American football linebackers Baltimore Mariners players Harrisburg Stampede players Jamaican emigrants to the United States Jamaican players of American football James J. Ferris High School alumni Junior college football players in the United States Minnesota Vikings players Players of American football from Jersey City, New Jersey Rhode Island Rams football players Carolina Speed players