Jeffrey Lance Gooch (born October 31, 1974) is a

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 ...

who played for 10 seasons for 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 ...

and

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

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 ...

. Gooch played at

John Overton High School John Overton High School (commonly Overton, John Overton, Johnny O or JOHS) is a public high school located in Oak Hill, Tennessee. Compare to the address "4820 Franklin Rd Nashville TN 37220" It is named after prominent Judge John Overton (1766� ...

in Nashville, Tennessee and finished his career there with 215 tackles.https://admin.xosn.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=85760&SPID=10135&DB_OEM_ID=16900&ATCLID=1377578 Gooch went undrafted in the

1996 NFL Draft The 1996 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 20–21, 1996, at the Paramount ...

out of

Austin Peay State University Austin Peay State University () is a public university in Clarksville, Tennessee. Standing on a site occupied by a succession of educational institutions since 1845, the precursor of the university was established in 1927 and named for then-sitt ...

. He was later signed by the

as an undrafted free agent. His rookie year, he appeared in 15 games for the Buccaneers, mostly on special teams. In 1997, he played in all 16 games while starting 5 of them. In 1998, Gooch registered his first career sack in a 24–22 victory over the

Green Bay Packers The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. It ...

as he started all 16 games and recorded 62 tackles. From 1999–2001, Gooch played in 44 out of 48 games, but he recorded only 65 tackles in the three seasons combined. In 2002, he left the Buccaneers to sign with the Detroit Lions where he played in all 16 games in both years with the team (2002–2003), while watching the Buccaneers win a

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

before he returned to play his final season with the team. He later served as the Vice President of Football Operations for the

Tampa Bay Storm The Tampa Bay Storm were a professional arena football team based in Tampa, Florida, US. It played in the Arena Football League (AFL). Originally the team was located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and operated as the Pittsburgh Gladiators. The f ...

of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

References

1974 births Living people American football linebackers Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Detroit Lions players Austin Peay Governors football players Players of American football from Nashville, Tennessee {{linebacker-1970s-stub