Jason Heath Sehorn (born April 15, 1971) 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 ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

who played professionally 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) for the

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

from 1994 to 2002 and

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 ...

in 2003. 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 ...

at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(USC).

Early years

Sehorn was born in

Sacramento, California ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...

. He played only one year of

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 ...

Mount Shasta High School Mt. Shasta High School is a public high school located in Mount Shasta, California in southern Siskiyou County. It is one of the five members of the Siskiyou Union High School District. Mt. Shasta High school's mascot is a bear and the rivaling ...

Mount Shasta, California Mount Shasta (also known as Mount Shasta City) is a city in Siskiyou County, California, at about above sea level on the flanks of Mount Shasta, a prominent northern California landmark. The city is less than southwest of the summit of its na ...

College career

Sehorn played his first two years of college football at

Shasta College Shasta College is a public community college in Redding, California, with branch campuses in Burney, Weaverville, and Red Bluff. It was founded in 1950 and later moved to a much larger campus while the original campus became the new locati ...

, a junior college in

Redding, California Redding is the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and the county seat of Shasta County. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern border wi ...

, where he was a standout wide receiver, kick returner and punt returner. He then played two years at the

, where he was moved to safety due to an abundance of talent at wide receiver.

Professional career

Sehorn was drafted in the second round of the

1994 NFL Draft The 1994 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 24–25, 1994, at the Marriott Mar ...

by the

, and spent most of his career playing

for them. After back-to-back successful seasons in 1996–97, Sehorn suffered a debilitating knee injury, tearing his anterior cruciate (ACL) and

medial collateral ligament The medial collateral ligament (MCL), or tibial collateral ligament (TCL), is one of the four major ligaments of the knee. It is on the medial (inner) side of the knee joint in humans and other primates. Its primary function is to resist out ...

s (MCL) while returning the opening kickoff in a 1998 preseason game against the

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 ...

. Though Sehorn returned the next season, his speed was diminished. Still, he started 73 games for the Giants at cornerback in six seasons played from 1996 to 2002. He represented the Giants in

Super Bowl XXXV Super Bowl XXXV was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Baltimore Ravens and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

. The Giants released Sehorn on March 7, 2003, and in May of that year he signed with the

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 risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

. He missed the first six games of the season with a broken foot, but played in the last ten. The next year, his contract with the Rams was terminated after he failed a physical examination before the start of the 2004 season. Sehorn was signed by the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...

after just one season of playing American Legion Baseball following his senior year of high school. An outfielder, Sehorn failed to produce as a hitter, batting just .184 in 49 games in 1990 for the rookie league Huntington Cubs. Sehorn played a firefighter for one episode on the

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

show, ''

Third Watch ''Third Watch'' is an American crime drama television series created by John Wells and Edward Allen Bernero that aired on NBC from September 26, 1999, to May 6, 2005, with a total of 132 episodes spanning over six seasons. It was produced by ...

'', in which his character is killed in a warehouse blaze. Sehorn is now the Director of Communications at the Hendrick Automotive Group in Charlotte, NC, an automotive retailer in the United States. In 2005, Sehorn joined

Fox Sports Net Fox Sports Networks (FSN), formerly known as Fox Sports Net, was the collective name for a group of regional sports channels in the United States. Formed in 1996 by News Corporation, the networks were acquired by The Walt Disney Company on Mar ...

, where he was a panelist on their Sunday NFL pregame show. Sehorn participated in ABC's '' Superstars'' competition during the NFL offseason. As a testament to his athleticism, he won the competition three consecutive years from 1998 to 2000. Sehorn is also a college football analyst for ESPNU. He joined the network in 2011 as the in-studio analyst for Thursday and Saturday night games on ESPNU.

Personal life

Sehorn was briefly married to former

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

correspondent Whitney Casey from February 14, 1998 until their divorce in 1999. His marriage to actress

Angie Harmon Angela Michelle Harmon (born August 10, 1972) is an American actress and model. She won ''Seventeens modeling contest in 1987 at age 15, signed with IMG Models, and appeared on covers for magazines such as ''Cosmopolitan'' and ''Esquire''. ...

is well known due to his unusual and public proposal. During one of Harmon's appearances on ''

The Tonight Show with Jay Leno ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed production on March 1, 2010 and ended on February 6, 2014. The fourth incarnation of the ...

'', Sehorn (with the assistance of host

Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's ''The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 2009 ...

) hid backstage and surprised Harmon by getting on one knee and asking for her hand in marriage in front of a live studio audience and millions more watching on television. They were married on June 9, 2001. They have three daughters: Finley, born October 14, 2003; Avery, born June 22, 2005; and Emery, born December 18, 2008 Both publicly support the Republican Party. The couple announced in November 2014 that they were separating after 13 years of marriage, and divorced in December 2015. Sehorn remarried, to Meghann Gunderman, in 2017. On January 19, 1999, Sehorn's high school jersey #1 was retired by his alma mater, Mt. Shasta High School, in a ceremony hosted by his longtime friend, mentor, and former coach, Joe Blevins. The ceremony aired on local cable television.

References

External links

* * * *
Shasta County Sports Hall of Fame Electees
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sehorn, Jason 1971 births Living people American football cornerbacks American football safeties Huntington Cubs players New York Giants players St. Louis Rams players USC Trojans football players Shasta Knights football players People from Mount Shasta, California People from Teaneck, New Jersey Players of American football from Sacramento, California California Republicans