Michael Joseph Alstott (born December 21, 1973), 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 ...

fullback who played in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) for 12 seasons with the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

. Nicknamed "A-Train", 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 ...

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 ...

and was selected by the Buccaneers in the second round of the

1996 NFL Draft The 1996 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 20–21, 1996, at the Paramount ...

. Alstott received six

Pro Bowl The National Football League All-Star Game (1939–1942), Pro Bowl (1951–2022), or Pro Bowl Games (starting in 2023) is an annual event held by the National Football League (NFL) featuring the league's star players. The format has changed thro ...

and three first-team

All-Pro All-Pro is an honor bestowed upon professional American football players that designates the best player at each position during a given season. All-Pro players are typically selected by press organizations, who select an "All-Pro team," a list th ...

honors during his career, in addition to being part of the Buccaneers team that won the franchise's first

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

title in

Super Bowl XXXVII Super Bowl XXXVII was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Oakland Raiders and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers to decide the National Football League (NFL) cham ...

. For his accomplishments in Tampa Bay, he was inducted to the Buccaneers Ring of Honor in 2015. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fullbacks of all time.

College career

Alstott attended

Purdue University 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 ...

for four years, where he became the first player in school history named MVP in three consecutive seasons. Alstott scored 12 touchdowns as a sophomore, 14 as a junior, and 11 as a senior, and held the Purdue rushing touchdown record with 39 until

Kory Sheets Kory Gerren Sheets (born March 31, 1985) is a former American football running back. He played college football at Purdue and he was signed by the San Francisco 49ers as an undrafted free agent in 2009. Sheets was also a member of the Miami Dolphi ...

broke it in 2008. He averaged 5.6 yards per attempt during his Purdue career before graduating in 1995 with a bachelor's degree in business. He finished as Purdue's all-time leading rusher with 3,635 yards, including a school-best 1,436 yards in 1995.

Professional career

Alstott was selected in the second round (35th overall) by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Buccaneers utilized Alstott primarily as a running fullback as opposed to a blocking fullback that teams were starting to switch to at the time. He was a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers team that won

(2002), played at

Qualcomm Stadium San Diego Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium on the west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. The stadium opened in 1967 as San Diego Stadium and was known as Jack Murphy Stadium from 1981 to 1997. From 1997 to 2017, the stadiu ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. Alstott rushed for 15 yards and the first Super Bowl touchdown in Tampa Bay Buccaneers history. He also caught five passes for 43 yards. Alstott signed a one-year contract to stay in Tampa Bay for the 2005 season, and signed a similar contract at the conclusion of the 2006 season after contemplating retirement. However, he spent all of the 2007 season on injured reserve because of neck problems, leading to his retirement on January 24, 2008. In the summer of 2007, shortly before he suffered his season-ending and ultimately career-ending neck injury, Alstott appeared in a

television commercial A television advertisement (also called a television commercial, TV commercial, commercial, spot, television spot, TV spot, advert, television advert, TV advert, television ad, TV ad or simply an ad) is a span of television programming produce ...

for ESPN Fantasy Football along with former teammate

Warrick Dunn Warrick De'Mon Dunn (born January 5, 1975) is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for twelve seasons. He was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 12th overall in the 1997 ...

, who was later signed by the Falcons. He was ranked No. 10 on the

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NFL ...

's "Top Ten Power Backs". With 71 total touchdowns as a Buccaneer, Alstott broke the previous franchise record of 46 by running back James Wilder when he scored his 47th career TD on November 26, 2001. Alstott remained the Buccaneers' all-time leading touchdown scorer until November 22, 2021, when wide receiver Mike Evans scored his 72nd TD as a Buccaneer.

NFL career statistics

Rushing statistics Receiving statistics

Personal life

Alstott and his ex-wife, Nicole Alstott, have three children. His son Griffin was the back-up quarterback at

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

after spending the 2017 season at

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alstott, Mike 1973 births Living people American football fullbacks National Conference Pro Bowl players Players of American football from Illinois Purdue Boilermakers football players Sportspeople from Joliet, Illinois Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Ed Block Courage Award recipients