Rick Lyle (born February 26, 1971) 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 wit ...

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is p ...

who played for four teams in a 9-year

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(NFL) career.

High school

Lyle attended Hickman Mills High School in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was All State in

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

, finishing fifth in state his senior year. He was also the two-time State Champion in the

shot put The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" (throwing) a heavy spherical ball—the ''shot''—as far as possible. The shot put competition for men has been a part of the modern Olympics since their revival in 1896, and women's ...

during his junior and senior years, winning by over five feet beyond his closest competitor his senior year. He won many city, metro and state honors in football, including honorable mention ''

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'' All-American.

College career

Rick Lyle was named Freshman All-American at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded ...

his redshirt freshman season and was honorable mention all Big Eight his junior and senior years. At his graduation, Rick held the University of Missouri career record for

quarterback sack In gridiron football, a sack occurs when the quarterback (or another offensive player acting as a passer) is tackled behind the line of scrimmage before throwing a forward pass, when the quarterback is tackled behind the line of scrimmage in t ...

s. Lyle was in the top five all time at MU in the five weight lifts used to judge overall strength and was the top lifter in their history at that time in the Power Clean. He was also indoor champion in the shot put and eventually became an outdoor All-American in the shot put, and also held several University of Missouri records. Rick will be inducted into the University of Missouri Athletic Hall of Fame in January.

NFL career

Lyle signed a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

contract with the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

under

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head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...

after graduation from Missouri. He stayed with them through two years, although he missed the second year after a

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injury required surgery. He then moved with the team to

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, where he played as a

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for one year. The next five years were with the New York Jets, under

Bill Parcells Duane Charles "Bill" Parcells (born August 22, 1941) is an American former football coach who served as a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for 19 seasons. He rose to prominence as the head coach of the New York Giants from 1983 ...

and Bill Belichick and later

Herman Edwards Herman Edwards Jr. (born April 27, 1954) is an American football coach and former cornerback who was most recently the head football coach at Arizona State. He played in the National Football League (NFL) for ten seasons, primarily with the Phi ...

. During his time there, he

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67 consecutive

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and

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games, including the 1998 Jets versus Broncos American Conference Championship Game. Lyle's last two seasons in the NFL were with 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 ...

, once again with Belichick, as he was with the Browns and the Jets. His last game was

Super Bowl XXXVIII Super Bowl XXXVIII was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Carolina Panthers and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) c ...

, the Patriots' win over the

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. ...

NFL statistics

Post NFL life

After his retirement from the NFL, Lyle and his family moved to the

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

area where he worked as an assistant coach at Marquette High School, a local high school. In 2006,

Eric Mangini Eric Anthony Mangini (born January 19, 1971) is a former American football coach and current television sports analyst. Mangini had been with the San Francisco 49ers since 2013 and served as the team's tight ends coach for two seasons befor ...

asked Rick to join his new staff when he became

of the New York Jets. Lyle serves as an assistant strength and conditioning coach and is responsible as well to see that the team's food, both at their facilities and on the road, is prepared and served properly, and especially, safely. Rick is married to the former Laura Horstmeyer and has two daughters, Haley and Audrey. He and his family are currently living near the Jets' facilities in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

. They will move to Ohio to work for the Browns once again in June 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyle, Rick 1971 births Living people Players of American football from Monroe, Louisiana American football defensive ends Missouri Tigers football players Cleveland Browns players Baltimore Ravens players New York Jets players New England Patriots players New York Jets coaches