Joseph Frederick Weary (born April 12, 1974) is an American former college and professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons during the 1990s and 2000s. Weary 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 Florida, was a member of a national championship team, and earned consensus All-American honors. Thereafter, he played professionally for the New Orleans Saints,

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 ...

and St. Louis Rams of the NFL.

Early years

Weary was born in Jacksonville, Florida.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Fred Weary
Retrieved Marsh 4, 2011. He attended Mandarin High School in Jacksonville,databaseFootball.com, Players
Fred Weary
. Retrieved March 4, 2011. where he played for the Mandarin Mustangs high school football team.

College career

Weary received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, and played for coach

Steve Spurrier Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former American football, football quarterback and coach who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often ...

's Florida Gators football team from

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 77, 88, 93–94, 97, 98, 125, 149, 153–154, 186 (2011). Retrieved August 31, 2011. As a junior, Weary was a starter on the Gators'

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

team that defeated the

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivis ...

52–20 in the

1997 Sugar Bowl The 1997 Nokia Sugar Bowl was the 63rd edition to the annual Sugar Bowl game and served as the Bowl Alliance's designated national championship game for the 1996 season. It matched No. 1 Florida State of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) against ...

to win the Bowl Alliance national championship. As a senior team captain and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

for the Gators, Weary had six interceptions, and fifteen in his college career—the most in school history. He was a first-team All- Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in 1996 and 1997, and a consensus first-team All-American in 1997. He finished his four-year college career with fifteen interceptions and thirty-five blocked passes.

Professional career

Weary was chosen in the fourth round (ninety-seventh pick overall) of the

1998 NFL Draft The 1998 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 18–19, 1998, at the Theater at M ...

by the New Orleans Saints. He played for the Saints from 1998 to 2001.National Football League, Historical Players
Fred Weary
Retrieved May 22, 2010. During his second and third seasons with the Saints, Weary became a regular starter at right cornerback; his fourth year, however, he only started in a single game. Weary finished his NFL career with the Atlanta Falcons in and the St. Louis Rams in , seeing only limited playing time in a backup role. In his six NFL seasons, Weary appeared in eighty-three regular season games, and started twenty-five of them; he recorded 191 tackles, seven interceptions, and one interception return for a touchdown.

References

Bibliography

* Carlson, Norm, ''University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators'', Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). . * Golenbock, Peter, ''Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory'', Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). . * Hairston, Jack, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). . * McCarthy, Kevin M.,
Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football
', Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (2000). . * Nash, Noel, ed., ''The Gainesville Sun Presents The Greatest Moments in Florida Gators Football'', Sports Publishing, Inc., Champaign, Illinois (1998). . {{DEFAULTSORT:Weary, Fred 1974 births Living people Mandarin High School alumni Players of American football from Jacksonville, Florida American football cornerbacks Florida Gators football players All-American college football players New Orleans Saints players Atlanta Falcons players St. Louis Rams players Coaches of American football from Florida Edward Waters Tigers football coaches

Early years

College career

Professional career

See also

References

Bibliography