Garth TenNapel (born March 27, 1954) 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 ...

player. After playing

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 ...

for

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...

, he was drafted by the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

of 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) in 1976. TenNapel played in the NFL between 1976 and 1978. His career ended after his third NFL season when he suffered severe injuries in an automobile accident.

Biography

TenNapel was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

on March 27, 1954. He attended

Trinity High School Trinity High School is the name of high schools: United Kingdom * Trinity High School, Renfrew, Renfrewshire, Scotland * Trinity High School, Rutherglen, Lanarkshire, Scotland * Trinity High School and Sixth Form Centre, in Redditch, England *Trini ...

Euless, Texas Euless ( ) is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, United States, and a suburb of Dallas and Fort Worth. Euless is part of the Mid-Cities region between Dallas and Fort Worth. In 2020 Census, the population of Euless was 61,032. The population of the ...

. He then played football at Texas A&M University. Early in the 1974 season,

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sportswriter Herschel Nissenson wrote, "Remember the name Garth TenNapel. It's TenNapel, no space; not Ten Napel. Pretty soon it may be Garth Twenty-Tackle." TenNapel had recorded 20 tackles for Texas A&M in a game against

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...

and again in an upset win over

LSU Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 near ...

the next week. He was designated Lineman of the Week by the

after the LSU game. He was named an All-American linebacker in 1975. He played in the

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City ...

that year against

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

. TenNapel was later inducted into the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame. TenNapel was selected in the 7th round (198th overall) of the

1976 NFL draft The 1976 National Football League draft was an annual player selection meeting held April 8–9, 1976, at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, New York. The draft lasted 17 rounds, with the expansion Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks m ...

by the

. He was battling to make the active roster that year when he returned a punt for a touchdown and returned an interception to the opposing three yard line in a preseason game against Baltimore. TenNapel played in 14 games for the Lions in 1976 and another 14 games in 1977. He was traded to the Falcons after the 1977 season. On April 4, 1979, TenNapel and Falcons teammate

Andy Spiva Howard Andrew Spiva (February 6, 1955 – April 3, 1979) was an American football player for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). He appeared in 13 games for the Falcons in 1977. He was killed in a car accident. Teammat ...

were involved in a car accident. It had been raining in Atlanta that day and Spiva's sports car collided with a tree. Spiva was killed and TenNapel was seriously injured. TenNapel was comatose for more than three weeks and lost more than 50 pounds after the accident. By August of that year, he had recovered sufficiently to begin working out at the Falcons football camp, where he expressed hopes of making a football comeback. In December 1979, TenNapel announced his retirement, saying that although he had improved, his speed had never returned during his rehabilitation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:TenNapel, Garth Living people 1954 births Texas A&M Aggies football players Players of American football from Texas Detroit Lions players Atlanta Falcons players