Mason Espinosa 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 wi ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and current coach for the

DePauw Tigers football The DePauw Tigers football team is the American football program for DePauw University, which began in 1884. DePauw has the 20th most victories in Division III history. The Tigers have been the co-champions of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Confe ...

team. He has also played for the Albany Empire, the

Erie Explosion The Erie Explosion was a professional American indoor football team based in Erie, Pennsylvania. Founded in 2007 as the Pittsburgh RiverRats, the Explosion played in the Professional Indoor Football League, the United Indoor Football League, the ...

and the Billings Wolves. Espinosa played college football for Ohio Wesleyan University. He currently holds 17 individual Ohio Wesleyan records, as well as being the all-time

North Coast Athletic Conference The North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) is an NCAA Division III athletic conference composed of colleges located in Ohio and Indiana. When founded in 1984, the league was a pioneer in gender equality, offering competition in a then-unprecede ...

(NCAC) career leader in passing yards and total yards, while also setting a single season NCAC record for completions. He was also an assistant football coach at Granville,

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

-based

Denison University Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...

, for the 2016–17 and 2017-18 seasons.

College career

Espinosa played college football at Ohio Wesleyan University. He was a 4-time all NCAC selection, and was the NCAC Player of the Year in 2012. In addition he was named the ohiocollegefootball.com First-Team All-Ohio quarterback in 2012, and a Beyond Sports Network All-American that same year. He was the MVP of the 2013 National Bowl Game. In total, Espinosa finished as the record holder to 17 different records for Ohio Wesleyan, in addition to being the Conference's all-time record holder in career passing yards (11,069), total yards (10,839), and completions (1004), ranking him statistically among the best to have played Division III football.

Professional career

Erie Explosion

Espinosa signed with the

of the

Professional Indoor Football League The Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) was a professional indoor football league that played four seasons from 2012 to 2015. Like the Lone Star Football League, the PIFL was mainly composed of teams formerly part of Southern Indoor Foo ...

(PIFL) for the 2015 season. In his rookie year, he was an Honorable Mention for Rookie of the year and was the Week 9 PIFL Offensive Player of the week.

Columbus Lions

Espinosa started the 2016 season with the

Columbus Lions The Columbus Lions are a professional indoor football team based in Columbus, Georgia and are a member of the American Indoor Football Alliance. The were a founding member of the National Arena League (NAL) for the 2017 season. The Lions were ...

American Indoor Football American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

(AIF).

Billings Wolves

In late March 2016, Espinosa signed with the Billings Wolves of the

Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2008 out of the merger between the Intense Football League and United Indoor Football. It has one of the largest number of currently active teams am ...

(IFL). He led the Wolves to their only playoff appearance and was the IFL's week 10 Offensive Player of the Week.

Columbus Lions (second stint)

For the 2017 season, Espinosa signed and played with the Columbus Lions of the NAL. He was voted 2nd team All-NAL and was 2-time NAL Player of the Week, while leading Columbus to the NAL championship game against the

Jacksonville Sharks The Jacksonville Sharks are a professional indoor football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, playing their home games at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. Beginning in 2017, the Sharks began play as charter members of the National Arena Leag ...

, where they lost 27–21. He has re-signed with the Lions for 2018.

Albany Empire

On March 5, 2019, Espinosa was assigned to the Albany Empire 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 ...

Columbus Lions (third stint)

With the AFL closing down its teams in anticipation of either closure or reformatting as a touring league, the Columbus Lions re-signed Espinosa for the 2020 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Espinosa, Mason Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American football quarterbacks Ohio Wesleyan Battling Bishops football players Erie Explosion players Billings Wolves players Columbus Lions players Denison Big Red football coaches Albany Empire (AFL) players