Paul Ryan Grasmanis (born August 2, 1974) 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 ...

defensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

from

Jenison, Michigan Jenison is a census-designated place (CDP) in Ottawa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The community is located within Georgetown Charter Township. The population of the CDP was 17,211 as of the 2000 census. The current estimated population ...

of Latvian descent. He was a ten-year veteran of the NFL and was picked in the fourth 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 ...

by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

. Paul was also a standout defensive tackle during his career at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

. In 1999, he spent one week with the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arri ...

and was dropped and picked up by the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquart ...

. He signed onto the Eagles in 2000, and retired prior to the 2006 season due to his persistent injuries.

References

1974 births Living people American football defensive tackles Chicago Bears players Denver Broncos players Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Philadelphia Eagles players St. Louis Rams players American people of Latvian descent Players of American football from Grand Rapids, Michigan People from Jenison, Michigan Sportspeople from Ottawa County, Michigan {{defensive-lineman-1970s-stub