Richard Tardits (born July 30, 1965), 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 ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, p ...

for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

of 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), and a former

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

footballer for the

United States national rugby union team The United States men's national rugby union team represents the United States in men's international rugby union. Nicknamed the Eagles, it is controlled by USA Rugby, the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United Stat ...

. He held the record for most sacks in a career at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

, until surpassed by

David Pollack David M. Pollack (born June 19, 1982) is a former professional American football linebacker who played in two seasons in the National Football League (NFL), having suffered a career-ending injury in the second game of his second season. He play ...

in 2004, and he was referred to as 'Le Sack' by fans because of his French birth.

Playing career

Tardits was born in

Bayonne, France Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...

. He was former player on the French junior national rugby team and a participant in the

Running of the Bulls A running of the bulls ( es, encierro, from the verb ''encerrar'', 'to corral, to enclose'; oc, abrivado, literally 'haste, momentum'; ca, correbous, 'run-bulls') is an event that involves running in front of a small group of bulls, typicall ...

at Pamplona, he was a walk-on for the

Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference ( ...

. During his NFL playing days, he sponsored a semipro football team in his French hometown of Biarritz. During his NFL career, he also helped the

Mystic River Rugby Club The Mystic River Rugby Club, sometimes called Boston Mystic, is a New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) club, founded in 1974, located in Malden, Massachusetts and Melrose, Massachusetts, who field teams in Division 1 American Rugby Premiersh ...

reach the national finals. He later represented the United States in

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

NFL career

Phoenix Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play th ...

*1989: 5th round Draft pick (123rd overall)

*1990: 2 G, 1 GS *1991: 16 G, 1FR *1992: 9 G Career Totals: 27 Games, 1 Game Start, 1 Fumble Recovery

Rugby Career (USA Eagles)

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

(1 +1 Game) Rugby World Cup Qualifiers *1994–1996 (3 Games, 1 Try) Pacific Rim Championship *1996–1997 (3 Games) *1997–1998 (1 Game) *1998–1999 (5 Games) Pan-American Championship *1996–1997 (1 Game) Friendlies *02/10/1993 v Australia *12/03/1994 v Bermuda (1 Try) *21/05/1994 v Canada *05/11/1994 v Ireland *06/01/1996 v Ireland (1 Try) *11/01/1997 v Wales *12/04/1998 v Spain (Sub) *25/07/1998 v Fiji (Sub) Other Club Affiliations: * French National Team (under 21) *

Biarritz Olympique Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque (; ), usually known simply as Biarritz, is a French professional rugby union team based in the Basque city of Biarritz, Nouvelle-Aquitaine which competes in the Pro D2, the second division of French rugby. Biarritz p ...

(France) *

(USA)

References

1965 births Living people Sportspeople from Bayonne Rugby union players from Nouvelle-Aquitaine French players of American football American football linebackers American rugby union players French rugby union players Georgia Bulldogs football players New England Patriots players United States international rugby union players Bull runners Footballers who switched code Mystic River Rugby players Rugby union flankers 1999 Rugby World Cup players {{France-rugbyunion-bio-stub