Nathan Filipo Ilaoa (born April 4, 1983) 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 ...

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

. He was drafted by the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team play ...

in the seventh round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played college football at

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

. Ilaoa has also been a member of the

Columbus Destroyers The Columbus Destroyers were an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Columbus, Ohio, with home games in Nationwide Arena. The team was founded in as the Buffalo Destroyers, based in Buffalo, New York, and relocated to Columbus in . They fol ...

Early years

Ilaoa played

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

North Stafford High School North Stafford High School is one of the five high schools in the Stafford County, Virginia public school system. It instructs students in grades 9 through 12. History Completed in 1981, North Stafford High School was the second high school to b ...

in Stafford, Virginia as both a wide receiver and

. In his junior season, he set the

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

AAA record for receiving yards in a season (1,299 in 12 games). Ilaoa was the 2000 ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large na ...

'' Offensive Player of the Year and two-time All-Met.

College career

Ilaoa began his collegiate career on the

Hawaii Warriors football The Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football team represents the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in NCAA Division I FBS college football. It was part of the Western Athletic Conference until July 2012, when the team joined the Mountain West Conferenc ...

team in 2001. Ilaoa started 8 games in the 2002 season as a wide receiver. In 2005, Ilaoa moved to the

position and rushed for a team-high 643 yards. He was granted a rare sixth year of eligibility because of injuries in 2006 and amassed 1,827 all-purpose yards. Ilaoa's 20 career rushing touchdowns are sixth in Hawaii history.

Professional career

Philadelphia Eagles

Ilaoa was drafted 236th overall in the 2007 NFL Draft by the

. On July 22, 2007, Ilaoa agreed to a four-year contract with the

Eagles Eagle is the common name for many large birds of prey of the family Accipitridae. Eagles belong to several groups of genera, some of which are closely related. Most of the 68 species of eagle are from Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, jus ...

. He was cut by the Eagles on September 1, 2007.

Columbus Destroyers

In 2008, Ilaoa played with the

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 ...

. However, he was eventually sidelined by a shoulder injury. At the end of that season, the Arena Football League ceased operations.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ilaoa, Nate 1983 births Living people American football fullbacks American football wide receivers Hawaii Rainbow Warriors football players Philadelphia Eagles players Columbus Destroyers players American sportspeople of Samoan descent Players of American football from Oakland, California Players of American football from Virginia High school football coaches in Hawaii People from Stafford, Virginia