John Reeves (born February 23, 1975) 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 ...

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 ...

. 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 ...

for

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

Early life and high school

Reeves was born and grew up in

Bradenton, Florida Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698. History Late 18th and early 19th centuries ...

and attended Southeast High School, where he played football alongside NFL wide receiver

Peter Warrick Peter L. Warrick (born June 19, 1977) is an American former college and professional football player who was a wide receiver in National Football League (NFL) for six seasons. He played college football at Florida State University, and was reco ...

. As a senior, he led the Seminoles to a perfect record and a Class 4A state championship and broke the school's record for touchdown passes in a season.

College career

Reeves had to sit out his freshman season due to academic issues. As a sophomore, he played in six games at quarterback and completed 26 of 57 passes for 285 yards with one touchdown and six interceptions. Reeves missed most of the following spring practice due to spinal meningitis, but eventually worked his way to becoming the Boilermakers starting quarterback in the middle of the season before losing the starting job to

Billy Dicken Billy Charles Dicken (born December 28, 1974) is a former arena football quarterback who is currently the defensive quality coach for the NC State Football team. Dicken played in the Arena Football League from 2001 to 2006 for the Chicago Rush, ...

. Reeves finished the season with 772 yards with six touchdowns and five interceptions on 51 of 102 passing. Reeves moved to defensive back going into his senior season and played the position in all 12 of Purdue's games. Reeves also had to take extra classes in order to graduate in four years and earn an extra year of eligibility. In his fifth year Reeves played linebacker.

Professional career

Reeves was signed by the

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

as an undrafted free agent in 1999. He spent two seasons with the Chargers, playing in 14 total games.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reeves, John 1975 births Living people American football linebackers American football quarterbacks Purdue Boilermakers football players San Diego Chargers players Players of American football from Bradenton, Florida