Rocky Ayres Calmus (born August 1, 1979) is an American former college and professional football player who was a

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, ...

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) for three seasons during the early 2000s. He played college football for the

University of Oklahoma , mottoeng = "For the benefit of the Citizen and the State" , type = Public research university , established = , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.7billion (2021) , pr ...

, earned consensus All-American honors twice, and was recognized as the nation's top college linebacker. The

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their hom ...

picked him in the third round of the 2002 NFL Draft.

Early years

Calmus was born in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

. He is one of several

high school football High school football (french: football au lycée) is gridiron football played by high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both countries, but its popularity is declining, part ...

players to reach the professional ranks from the highly successful football program at

Jenks High School Jenks High School is a secondary school located within Tulsa County in Jenks, Oklahoma, United States. It serves students from the town of Jenks and students from the south side of the city of Tulsa. The high school has over 2,800 students in grad ...

Jenks, Oklahoma Jenks is a city in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, United States, and a suburb of Tulsa, in the northeastern part of the state. It is situated between the Arkansas River and U.S. Route 75. Jenks is one of the fastest-growing cities in Oklahoma. The city' ...

. There, he was a star linebacker and running back on a team ranked third in nation and helped start a run to six consecutive Oklahoma Class 6A state championships.

College career

While attending the

, Calmus played for coach John Blake and Bob Stoops's Oklahoma Sooners football team from 1998 to 2001. He was a three-time first-team All-

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its f ...

selection (1999, 2000, 2001), and a two-time consensus first-team All-American (2000, 2001). Calmus was recognized as the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year as a junior and senior, and won the

Butkus Award The Butkus Award, instituted in 1985 by the Downtown Athletic Club of Orlando, is given annually to the top linebackers at the high school, collegiate and professional levels of football. The award, named in honor of College Football Hall of Fame ...

as the nation's premier college linebacker following his senior season in 2001. Calmus was a key defensive starter on the 2000 Sooners team that defeated the Florida State Seminoles 13–2 in the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. It has been played annually since January 1, 1935, making it, along with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl, the second-oldest bowl game ...

to win the BCS National Championship.

Professional career

The Tennessee Titans selected Calmus in the third round (77th overall pick) of the 2002 NFL Draft, and he played for the Titans from to . Signed by the Indianapolis Colts for the season, he appeared in no regular season games for the team. Hampered by injuries throughout his professional career, he retired after the 2005 season. As of 2010 he owned a landscaping business in

Franklin, Tennessee Franklin is a city in and county seat of Williamson County, Tennessee, United States. About south of Nashville, it is one of the principal cities of the Nashville metropolitan area and Middle Tennessee. As of 2020, its population was 83,454 ...

Personal

His uncle, Dick Calmus, was a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

who was signed as a bonus baby and played for the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...

and Chicago Cubs in the 1960s.Austin Murphy
"Big 12 battle: Oklahoma anticipating showdown with Nebraska"
''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'', October 20, 2000.

References

External links

"All-American: Rocky Calmus"
at Oklahoma Sooners football official website
Rocky Calmus
at

NFL.com 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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Calmus, Rocky 1979 births Living people All-American college football players American football linebackers Indianapolis Colts players Oklahoma Sooners football players Players of American football from Oklahoma Sportspeople from Tulsa, Oklahoma Tennessee Titans players