John Christopher Madsen (born May 9, 1983) 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 ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like ...

. He was signed by the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in 2006. 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 ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. He was also member of the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

, Las Vegas Locomotives 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 ...

Early years

He graduated in 2001 from

Hunter High School Hunter High School is a public high school located at 4200 South 5600 West, West Valley City, Utah, United States. It was opened in 1990 with its first graduating class graduating in 1991. During the first school year (1990–1991), the enrollme ...

West Valley City, Utah West Valley City is a city in Salt Lake County and a suburb of Salt Lake City in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 140,230 at the 2020 census, making it the second-largest city in Utah. The city incorporated in 1980 from a large, quic ...

having never played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

. He played

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

in high school. He played

for

Snow College Snow College is a public community college in Ephraim, Utah. It offers certificates and associate degrees in a number of areas, along with bachelor's degrees in music and software engineering and a four-year nursing program. Snow College is part ...

, his first organized team.

Professional career

Oakland Raiders

Originally a wide receiver, Madsen was converted to tight end in order to make the team. He was the only undrafted free agent to make the Raiders' main 53-man squad in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. Madsen was an exclusive-rights free agent in 2008 and re-signed on March 21. He was released by the team on September 20 after

Ben Troupe was signed. Madsen was re-signed by the Raiders after

offensive tackle 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 inj ...

Seth Wand Seth (The Cannon) Phillip Wand (born August 6, 1979) is a former American football offensive tackle. He was drafted by the Houston Texans in the third round of the 2003 NFL Draft. He played college football at Northwest Missouri State. Wand also ...

was placed on injured reserve on October 6, 2008. He was released again on November 13.

Cleveland Browns

Madsen was signed by the

on December 17, 2008 after

Steve Heiden Steve Allen Heiden (born September 21, 1976) is an American football coach and former player who is the current tight ends coach for the Arizona Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL). Playing career College Heiden played college footb ...

was placed on

injured reserve The injured reserve list ( IR list) is a designation used in North American professional sports leagues for athletes who suffer injuries and become unable to play. The exact name of the list varies by league; it is known as "injured reserve" in th ...

. He was waived on August 24, 2009.

Detroit Lions

Madsen signed with the

on May 11, 2010 but was waived on May 14.

External links

*
Utah Utes bioJust Sports Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madsen, John 1983 births Living people Players of American football from Salt Lake City American football wide receivers American football tight ends Snow Badgers football players Utah Utes football players Oakland Raiders players Cleveland Browns players Las Vegas Locomotives players Detroit Lions players