Gerald Alexander (born June 28, 1984) is an

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 ...

coach and former

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

,. 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 ...

Boise State Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It became a publ ...

, and was selected 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 ...

in the second round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He also played for the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

, and

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

. Alexander was a former graduate assistant with

Arkansas State University Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage la ...

and

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. In July 2015, he became the defensive backs coach at

Indiana State University Indiana State University (ISU) is a public university in Terre Haute, Indiana. It was founded in 1865 and offers over 100 undergraduate majors and more than 75 graduate and professional programs. Indiana State is classified among "D/PU: Doctor ...

. In December 2015, he accepted the position of defensive backs coach at

Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana. It is the state's largest university. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's degrees in 6 ...

, working under head coach

Jeff Choate Jeff Choate (born July 15, 1970) is an American football coach. He is the co-defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach at the University of Texas at Austin. Choate served as the head football coach at Montana State University from Decembe ...

Early years

Alexander attended

Rancho Cucamonga High School Rancho Cucamonga High School is a public high school in the city of Rancho Cucamonga in Southern California's Inland Empire. It is one of nine high schools in the Chaffey Joint Union High School District. Rancho Cucamonga High School opened in A ...

from 1998 to 2002, where he was a

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete as well. He was one of the players who helped lead Boise State to their improbable

Fiesta Bowl The Fiesta Bowl is an American college football bowl game played annually in the Phoenix metropolitan area. From its beginning in 1971 until 2006, the game was hosted at the Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Since 2007, the game has been playe ...

win over

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

in the 2006 season. While at Boise State, Alexander was a four-time First-team All- WAC selection.

Professional career

Detroit Lions

Alexander played all 16 games of his rookie season when safety Daniel Bullocks suffered a season-ending knee injury during a preseason game against the Indianapolis Colts. During that 2007 season Gerald recorded 81 tackles, 59 solo and 22 assisted. He also had 2 sacks, interceptions and fumble recoveries.

Jacksonville Jaguars

On June 26, 2009, he was traded to the Jacksonville Jaguars for

Dennis Northcutt Dennis LaMont Northcutt (born December 22, 1977) is a retired American professional football player who was a wide receiver and punt returner in the National Football League (NFL) for ten seasons. He played college football for the Universit ...

. On October 19, 2010, the Jaguars released Alexander.

Carolina Panthers

On November 23, the Panthers signed Alexander. He became a free agent after the season.

Miami Dolphins

Alexander signed with the

on August 28, 2011. Alexander was released on September 2, 2011, by the Miami Dolphins. Re-signed on October 19, 2011.

New York Jets

Alexander was signed by the

on December 13, 2011, to add depth to the safety position following a season-ending injury to starting safety

Jim Leonhard James Andrew Leonhard (born October 27, 1982) is an American football coach and former player. He was most recently the interim head coach for the Wisconsin Badgers football team. Leonhard played college football at Wisconsin and professionally ...

. He was released on March 14, 2012.

Coaching career

Arkansas State

Alexander served as an undergraduate assistant on the coaching staff of Arkansas State for the 2013 season.

Washington Huskies

Alexander joined the Washington Huskies coaching staff as a graduate assistant in 2014 under head coach

Chris Petersen Christopher Scott Petersen (born October 13, 1964) is a former American football coach who was most recently the head coach at the University of Washington. Previously the head coach for eight seasons at Boise State University, Petersen guided ...

Indiana State

After participating in the Bill Walsh Minority Internship Program with the

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...

during the team's 2015 training camp, Alexander served as the defensive backs coach for Indiana State.

Montana State

Alexander again participated in the Bill Walsh Minority Internship Program in the summer of 2016, this time with 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 ...

. Following the two-week program, Alexander coached Montana State's secondary.

California

Alexander joined

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

's coaching staff in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

as their defensive backs coach. He served in that role through the

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

season.

Miami Dolphins

On January 24, 2020, it was reported that Alexander was hired by the

to serve as the team's defensive backs coach under head coach

Brian Flores Brian Francisco Flores (born February 24, 1981) is an American football coach who is the defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League (NFL). He began his NFL career with the New England Patriots, where he serve ...

. He missed the team's week 9 game against the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play t ...

on November 8, 2020, in accordance with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

protocols. On February 10, 2022, Alexander was fired by the Dolphins.

References

External links

Detroit Lions bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Gerald 1984 births Living people African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football American football safeties Arkansas State Red Wolves football coaches Boise State Broncos football players California Golden Bears football coaches Carolina Panthers players Detroit Lions players Indiana State Sycamores football coaches Jacksonville Jaguars players Miami Dolphins coaches Miami Dolphins players Montana State Bobcats football coaches New York Jets players People from Rancho Cucamonga, California Players of American football from California Sportspeople from San Bernardino County, California Tennessee Titans coaches Washington Huskies football coaches 21st-century African-American sportspeople