Heath Spencer Irwin (born June 27, 1973) 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 wi ...

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

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). He played for the New England Patriots, the

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 p ...

, and the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

. He played college football for the

Colorado Buffaloes The Colorado Buffaloes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Colorado. The university sponsors 17 varsity sports teams. Both the men's and women's teams are called the Buffaloes (Buffs for short) or, rarely, the Golden Buffalo ...

after graduating from Boulder High School. He was both a

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

and college football All-American and a star offensive lineman on a record-setting Colorado offensive unit. In the NFL, his team made the playoffs in five of his first six seasons. He is both the son of a former Colorado football player and the nephew of

Hale Irwin Hale S. Irwin (born June 3, 1945) is an American professional golfer. He was one of the world's leading golfers from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. He is one of the few players in history to win three U.S. Opens, becoming the oldest ever U.S. Op ...

, also a former football player at Colorado, who would eventually go on to win three U.S. Open golf titles and become a

World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site honors both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 go ...

member.

Early life and college

Irwin was a high school All-American (by Super Prep and

Tom Lemming Tom Lemming is an American high school football recruiting analyst. Tom Lemming serves as the host of ''The Lemming Report'' on CBS Sports Network, the only national weekly high school football recruiting show. He is the editor of ''The Tom Lemmin ...

's Prep Football Report) at Boulder High School, where he played

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict in ...

and defensive tackle. He also competed in the shot put and

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an ancient sport, as demonstrated by th ...

in high school. He was a

1995 College Football All-America Team The 1995 College Football All-America Team is composed of the following All-American Teams: Associated Press, United Press International, Football Writers Association of America, American Football Coaches Association, Walter Camp Foundation, ''The ...

first-team selection by the Associated Press for the

1995 Colorado Buffaloes football team The 1995 Colorado Buffaloes football team represented the University of Colorado at Boulder in the 1995 NCAA Division I-A football season. The Buffaloes offense scored 444 points while the defense allowed 240 points. Led by head coach Rick Neuhe ...

and an honorable mention selection by the

United Press International United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20t ...

as a senior as well as a second-team All-American on the 1994 Colorado Buffaloes football team that had a record-setting 5,448 total net yards of offense including the famed

Miracle at Michigan The Miracle at Michigan refers to the final play that occurred during the American football game played on September 24, 1994, between the Colorado Buffaloes and Michigan Wolverines at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The game was decide ...

Professional career

Irwin was drafted 101st overall with the sixth pick in the fourth round of the 1996 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots. He played 87 NFL regular season games, starting 29. He was a member of the Patriots from 1996 to

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

, the Dolphins in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and 2001 and the 2002 St. Louis Rams. He also played in a total of 6 National Football League playoff games, starting 1, while being inactive for an additional three (including Super Bowl XXXI). He was signed to play for the 2003 Denver Broncos, but he was waived at the end of training camp. His team went to the playoffs in five of his first six seasons, and the only losing team he played for was the 7–9 2002 Rams.

Personal

His father Phil Irwin played football for Colorado from 1968 to 1970. He started at

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, ...

on the

1968 The year was highlighted by protests and other unrests that occurred worldwide. Events January–February * January 5 – " Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. * Janu ...

through 1970 teams. He had 4

interception In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team ...

s for the 1969 Colorado Buffaloes football team. His uncle Hale Irwin played a variety of positions at Colorado ranging from

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

to defensive back and punt returner on the

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

through 1966 Colorado teams. He had 100 career rushing yards, 24 pass attempts and 9 interceptions (on defense). Hale Irwin has been described as an average quarterback who became an outstanding defensive back and earned first-team All-

Big 8 Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

recognition in both 1965 and 1966 as a

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

before becoming a Hall of Fame golfer. Heath's wife is named Molly, and they have both a daughter (Bailee) and a son (Houston).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irwin, Heath 1973 births Living people Sportspeople from Boulder, Colorado Players of American football from Colorado American football offensive guards Colorado Buffaloes football players Miami Dolphins players New England Patriots players St. Louis Rams players