Ryan Darrell McNeil (born October 4, 1970) is a former American college and professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who was a

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

in the National Football League (NFL) for eleven seasons. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the University of Miami, and earned All-American honors. He was drafted by the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

in the second round of the

1993 NFL Draft The 1993 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 25–26, 1993, at the Marriot Ma ...

, and also played professionally for the St. Louis Rams, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys,

San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team that played in San Diego from 1961 until the end of the 2016 season, before relocating to Los Angeles, where the franchise had played its inaugural 1960 season. The team is now ...

and Denver Broncos of the NFL.

Early years

McNeil was born in Fort Pierce, Florida.National Football League, Historical Players
Ryan McNeil
Retrieved February 23, 2012. He attended Westwood High School,.databaseFootball.com, Players

. Retrieved February 23, 2012. where he was a two-time offensive player of the year. As a senior

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 ...

he registered 61 tackles (47 solo), six interceptions and 5 fumble recoveries. As a wide receiver he had 23 receptions for 323 yards and 4 touchdowns. In track, he won the district title in the long jump, triple jump and

440-yard dash The 440-yard dash, or quarter-mile race, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. In many countries, athletes compete in the 440 yard dash (402.336 m) – which corresponds to a quarter mile. Many athletic tracks are 440 yards ...

College career

McNeil accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Miami. As a freshman, he was named the starter at cornerback after Kenny Berry was injured, finishing with 15 tackles (9 solo). The next year although he was platooned at the "field" cornerback position with Roland Smith and registered 34 tackles (19 solo), 6 passes defensed and one interception. As a junior, he recorded 38 tackles (21 solo), 5 interceptions, 17 passes defensed, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. In his last year he was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American at cornerback, after finishing with 34 tackles (23 solo), 10 passes defensed and 2 interceptions. He was a member of the Hurricanes' national championship teams in 1989 and 1991.

Professional career

The

traded up to select McNeil in the second round (33rd overall) of the

. He became the starter at left cornerback in his second season.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Ryan McNeil
Retrieved February 23, 2012. In

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

, he recorded 86 tackles and 2 interceptions. The next year, he had 5 interceptions. In

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

, he was declared a free agent and chose to sign the St. Louis Rams, after an offer from the Lions was pulled after the firing of head coach Wayne Fontes. At the end of the year, he led 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 ...

in interceptions with nine and also had 71 tackles. The next year his statistics dropped to one interception and 54 tackles. With the Cleveland Browns in

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 ...

, he registered 81 tackles and recovered four fumbles. On March 2,

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, he signed as a free agent with the Dallas Cowboys reuniting with his former University of Miami secondary coach Dave Campo. He replaced

Deion Sanders Deion Luwynn Sanders Sr. (born August 9, 1967) is an American football coach and former player who is the head coach at the University of Colorado Boulder. Nicknamed "Prime Time", he played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons ...

at right cornerback, who was waived in a salary cap move. Although the team wanted to keep him, the salary cap situation forced them to waive McNeil on February 28,

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. On March 3,

, he was signed by the

. In September, he was named the

AFC AFC may stand for: Organizations * Action for Children, a UK children's charity * AFC Enterprises, the franchisor of Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits * Africa Finance Corporation, a pan-African multilateral development finance institution * A ...

Defensive Player of the Month. At the end of the season, he finished with 8 interceptions and was named to the Pro Bowl to replace an injured Sam Madison. In

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, he was moved to

during training camp and was eventually released on August 12. On November 11,

, he signed with the Denver Broncos to play as a nickel corner, but injuries limited him to 4 games.

Personal life

After McNeil retired from professional football, he founded the Professional Business & Financial Network, an organization designed to provide professional athletes with the fundamental tools they need to succeed in business. He is also the publisher of
OT Magazine
', a lifestyle magazine dedicated to helping professional athletes manage their money. His numerous business interests are managed by David Cornwell and Don West, Jr. Ryan is active in the sports technology industry as the Founder & CEO of SportsID. He also advises and invests in football technology businesses, such as FanWide. His father played tight end in the Canadian Football League with the

Ottawa Roughriders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McNeil, Ryan 1970 births Living people All-American college football players American football cornerbacks American football safeties Cleveland Browns players Dallas Cowboys players Denver Broncos players Detroit Lions players Miami Hurricanes football players People from Fort Pierce, Florida Players of American football from Florida San Diego Chargers players St. Louis Rams players