Roderick Shoate (April 26, 1953 – October 4, 1999) was an

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 wi ...

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 ...

. He was a four-time All-

Big 8 Conference The Big Eight Conference was a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-affiliated Division I-A college athletic association that sponsored football. It was formed in January 1907 as the Missouri Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Associatio ...

Player and a three-time All-American at 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 ...

. He played seven seasons in the NFL for the New England Patriots, and then in the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

for the

New Jersey Generals The New Jersey Generals were a franchise of the United States Football League (USFL) established in 1982 to begin play in the spring and summer of 1983. The team played three seasons from 1983 to 1985, winning 31 regular season games and losing ...

and

Memphis Showboats The Memphis Showboats were an American football franchise in the United States Football League. They entered the league in its expansion in 1984 and made the 1985 playoffs, losing in the semifinal round to the Oakland Invaders. Perhaps the mo ...

. Shoate, who died in 1999 after a long illness, was elected posthumously to the College Football Hall of Fame. in 2013. Former coaches and teammates attribute Shoate's speed, attention to detail, and relentless pursuit of the other team to his success as a player.http://newsok.com/oklahoma-football-rod-shoates-college-football-hall-of-fame-election-a-blessing-for-his-family/article/3807403

References

1953 births 1999 deaths All-American college football players American football linebackers College Football Hall of Fame inductees Memphis Showboats players New England Patriots players New Jersey Generals players Oklahoma Sooners football players People from Spiro, Oklahoma Players of American football from Oklahoma {{linebacker-1950s-stub