Rick Sherrod (born January 19, 1979) 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 ...

free 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 ...

for the Columbus Destroyers and collegiately for the West Virginia Mountaineers. He also played in the

NFL 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 major ...

with the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

, Jacksonville Jaguars, and

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

Collegiate career

Rick Sherrod enrolled at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

in 1998. He played sparingly his freshman season, totaling only one tackle. As a sophomore, 1999, Sherrod totaled 24 tackles on the season. He also tied a career-high two pass break-ups against Rutgers. In 2000, as a junior, Sherrod started at free safety beside strong safety Shawn Shawn Hackett under defensive backs coach David Lockwood. Sherrod totaled 104 tackles and a career-high 3 interceptions. He also recorded two fumble recoveries and 12 pass break-ups. His best game came against

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

, when he recorded a career-high 13 solo tackles. In 2001, as a senior, Rick Sherrod totaled a career-high 156 tackles and an interception. He also forced two fumbles and recovered a fumble to go along with his 5 tackles for a loss. Sherrod also had a career-high 18 tackles against

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

. His 15.6 tackles-per-game average set the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) single-season record which stood until 2011 when it was broken by

Luke Kuechly Luke August Kuechly (; born April 20, 1991) is an American former professional football middle linebacker who played all eight seasons of his career with the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL). He is generally recognized a ...

. He was named second-team All- Big East at the conclusion of the season. Sherrod finished his career with 287 tackles, four interceptions and 17 pass deflections, which is tenth on the school's all-time career list. Sherrod also made at least ten tackles in 13 of his 25 starts.

Professional career

National Football League

Rick Sherrod went undrafted in the

2002 NFL Draft The 2002 NFL draft was the 67th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually sinc ...

, but was signed as a free agent by the

. However, he was released on August 27, 2002, before the season began. After being released by the Saints, Sherrod was picked up by the

. Sherrod saw no game time however, and was cut on June 5, 2003. Sherrod signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars in July, 2003, but was released shortly after.

Columbus Destroyers

Following his stint in the

, Sherrod moved on to 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 ...

. He was signed by the Columbus Destroyers on May 13, 2005. Sherrod played one season with the Destroyers, then was cut on January 9, 2006.

References

External links

Rick Sherrod's WVU Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sherrod, Rick 1979 births Sportspeople from Charleston, West Virginia West Virginia Mountaineers football players American football defensive backs Living people New Orleans Saints players Dallas Cowboys players Jacksonville Jaguars players Players of American football from West Virginia