Manuel Wright (born April 13, 1984) 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 wi ...

defensive tackle. He was drafted by the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team p ...

in the fifth round of the 2005

supplemental draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

. Wright was also briefly signed to the Buffalo Bills and played for the New York Giants where he earned a Super Bowl ring in Super Bowl XLll.

Early years

Wright earned various team, local and national honors as a member of the football team at

Long Beach Polytechnic High School Long Beach Polytechnic High School, founded in 1895 as Long Beach High School, is a four-year public high school located at 1600 Atlantic Avenue in Long Beach, California, United States. The school serves portions of Long Beach, including Bixby ...

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

. As a junior in 2000, Wright recorded 95 tackles (57 solo) and with 25 sacks. As a senior, Wright was the team's defensive MVP after recording 142 tackles (60 solo), 16 sacks, four fumble recoveries, three forced fumbles, 20 deflections and an interception.

College career

Wright originally signed with USC in 2002 but did not qualify for admission, so he attended

Long Beach City College Long Beach City College (LBCC) is a public community college in Long Beach, California. It was established in 1927 and is divided into two campuses, the Liberal Arts Campus in Lakewood Village and the Pacific Coast Campus in central Long Beach ...

that season as a part-time student. However, he did not play football there. In 2003, Wright served as a backup for Defensive tackles Shaun Cody and Mike Patterson. While appearing in nine games during the season, Wright recorded eight tackles, including two for losses and three pass deflections. His first career sack came against

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

in the Rose Bowl. Wright remained a backup to both Cody and Patterson as a sophomore in 2004. He appeared in 11 games including two starts when Cody was moved to

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 formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is ...

. On the year Wright had 23 tackles, including six for losses, two pass deflections and two fumble recoveries. For his efforts, he was an All- Pac-10 honorable mention.

Early departure

In 2005 Wright was a projected starter for the first time in his career, however, he sat out spring practices in order to work on his academics and remain eligible. However, he was unsuccessful, and was left with the options of either staying in school and not playing football or declaring for the NFL's supplemental draft, which is held by the league to accommodate players who did not enter the regular draft. Wright chose the latter.

Professional career

Miami Dolphins

Leading up to the supplemental draft, many NFL teams showed interest in Wright in the form of visits, workouts and interviews. The

selected Wright in the fifth round of the draft, which essentially replaced their fifth-round pick in the 2006 draft. On July 22, Wright signed a four-year contract with the team. It included a signing bonus of $190,000. Wright endured injuries and battled weight issues during his first training camp while his work ethic and maturity were questioned by some. In a much publicized incident on July 26, Wright broke down in tears during practice after being scolded by

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Nick Saban Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. (; born October 31, 1951) is an American football coach who has been the head football coach at the University of Alabama since 2007. Saban previously served as head coach of the National Football League's Miami Dolphins ...

. As a

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

, Wright was active for three games during the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

. He made his NFL debut on December 4 against the Buffalo Bills, stepping in for injured

Nose tackle A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that will typically line up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the offensive guards, however he may also line up opposite one of the tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the l ...

Keith Traylor. Wright recorded two tackles and a sack. He finished the season with four tackles, one sack and one pass deflected. Wright reportedly gained 28 pounds during the 2006 offseason, but lost most of the weight during training camp. On August 8, a reportedly depressed Wright took a leave of absence from the team. He was quoted as saying he "did not believe he would ever play for the Dolphins again and that he needed a 'fresh start'". Despite requests from his family and from Head coach Nick Saban, Wright remained away from football in 2006. The Dolphins attempted to trade him, unsuccessfully, but were unable to reach an agreement to release him. The team received a roster exemption for Wright in 2006 and he was placed on the non-football injury list. Although Wright had returned to the team during the 2007 offseason under new head coach

Cam Cameron Malcolm "Cam" Cameron (born February 6, 1961) is an American football coach. He is the former offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach of the LSU Tigers football program. Cameron attended Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana and playe ...

, he was released on May 1.

Buffalo Bills

On May 3, the Buffalo Bills claimed Wright on waivers. Less than a week later, he was waived by the Bills. He told Chris Brown of the team's official website that he had 30 pounds to lose. Wright was subsequently cut by the Bills on May 10 after showing up at the team's first minicamp overweight.

New York Giants

Wright signed with the New York Giants on August 15, 2007. He appeared in six games during the regular season and recorded two tackles. He was also a member of the Giants' Super Bowl XLII championship team. On April 10, 2008, the Giants waived Wright.

af2

In 2008 Wright joined the

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

and on December 22 was assigned to the

Stockton Lightning The Stockton Lightning were a professional arena football team based in Stockton, California. They were members of the Western Division of the National Conference of the arenafootball2 (af2). The Lightning joined af2 2006 as an expansion team. Th ...

. However, on May 8, he was suspended by the team.

References

External links

Stockton Lightning bio

Just Sports Stats
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Manuel Players of American football from Compton, California African-American players of American football American football defensive tackles USC Trojans football players Miami Dolphins players Buffalo Bills players New York Giants players Stockton Lightning players 1984 births Living people Las Vegas Locomotives players Utah Blaze players 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American people Long Beach Polytechnic High School alumni