Raion Yance Hill (born September 2, 1976) 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 with ...

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

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). He played two seasons for the

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

. He attended Brother Martin High School in

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, and graduated in 1994. He then went on to play at Louisiana State University. However, he broke his leg in 1995 and had a titanium rod placed in it. In his first defensive start against

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

, he returned one interception 39 yards for a touchdown and another interception 98 yards for two points on a two-point conversion. The game was dubbed "The Night the Barn Burned". Hill finished his college career with 102 tackles and three interceptions. After going undrafted in the

1999 NFL draft The 1999 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 17–18, 1999, at the Theater at M ...

, Hill was cut by the

and signed to their practice squad later in the season. He made the final roster in 2000 and played in all 16 games, leading the special teams unit with 39 tackles. Hill became the team's starting

strong safety Safety is a position in gridiron football on the defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety and the strong safety. Their dut ...

in 2001 after the release of veteran Henry Jones.

Personal life

On the morning of January 22, 2001, Hill was carjacked at gunpoint in Louisiana, suffering a leg injury in the incident. One of his two assailants, 23-year-old Lionel Redditt, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for his role in the crime.

References

1976 births Living people People from Marrero, Louisiana Players of American football from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana American football safeties LSU Tigers football players Buffalo Bills players Brother Martin High School alumni {{defensiveback-1970s-stub