Josh Heinrich Taves (a.k.a. Josh Heinrich; born May 13, 1972, in

Watsonville, California Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, located in the Monterey Bay Area of the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. The population was 52,590 according to the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Predomi ...

) is a former professional

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 ...

player.

Biography

Taves is Jewish. He grew up in Truro, MA, played football for

Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School is a suburban public high school (grades 812) in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, United States. It opened in 1957 and was expanded and renovated in 1979, and again in 2006. The school serves the communities of Yarmout ...

, and for

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

, where he twice made the Jewish All-American team."NFL EUROPE'S TOP DEFENSIVE PLAYER TO SIGN WITH DOLPHINS"
''Miami Herald'', June 20, 1998 He was named NFL Europe's 1998 Most Valuable Defensive Player, after he was co-leader in sacks in the league with 9 in 10 games for the

Barcelona Dragons Two American football franchises have been referred to as the Barcelona Dragons: * Barcelona Dragons (NFL Europe), active in NFL Europe between 1991 and 2003; * Barcelona Dragons (ELF) The Barcelona Dragons are an American football team based in ...

. In the National Football League, he played

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

for 29 games over three seasons for 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 ...

and the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. T ...

References

1972 births Living people People from Watsonville, California Jewish American sportspeople Players of American football from California American football defensive ends Northeastern Huskies football players Detroit Lions players Jacksonville Jaguars players New England Patriots players Miami Dolphins players Barcelona Dragons players Oakland Raiders players Carolina Panthers players 21st-century American Jews {{defensive-lineman-1970s-stub

Biography

See also

References