Sam Beal (born August 30, 1996) is 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 with ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

who is a free agent. He played college football at Western Michigan, and high school football at Ottawa Hills High School.

High school career

Playing at Ottawa Hills High School in

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

, Beal started on its varsity football team for three years and played on both sides of the ball. Aside from football, Beal garnered All-American honors his senior year in

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

. He committed to Western Michigan in late July 2014, favoring the college because he lived in

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

before high school. Beal was a two-star prospect.

College career

A nose for contact turned Beal to the defensive side of the ball in college. He played as a true freshman in twelve games and logged 55 tackles as a sophomore. A breakout game against

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

, which included an interception of

Sam Darnold Samuel Richard Darnold (born June 5, 1997) is an American football quarterback for the Carolina Panthers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at USC, where he became the first freshman to win the Archie Griffin Awar ...

, highlighted Beal's junior season, which was marred by an injury that occurred in regulation of a seven-overtime game against Buffalo and kept him out of the following week's game against Akron. Following the season, Beal was named Second Team All-

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

. Beal considered entering the

2018 NFL Draft The 2018 NFL Draft was the 83rd annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible players for the 2018 NFL season. The draft was held on April 26–28 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas; it was the first draft ...

but decided to stay, citing a multitude of reasons. He was projected to go in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft. Beal was named a preseason First Team All-MAC selection for the upcoming 2018 season. In June before his senior season, Beal applied to enter the 2018

NFL Supplemental Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

Professional career

Beal was drafted by the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

in the third round of the 2018 Supplemental Draft. On July 25, 2018, during training camp, Beal suffered a shoulder injury that would keep him out his entire rookie season. He was placed on injured reserve four days later. On September 1, 2019, Beal was placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury. He was designated for return from injured reserve and began practicing on October 16, 2019. He was activated on November 5. On August 5, 2020, Beal announced he would opt out of the 2020 season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On November 9, 2021, Beal was waived from the active roster. On December 18, 2021, Beal was signed to the Giants practice squad. Beal was released on December 28, 2021.

Legal issues

On June 11, 2021, Beal pleaded guilty to a pair of

gun charges Criminal possession of a weapon is the unlawful possession of a weapon by an individual. Many societies both past and present have placed restrictions on what forms of weaponry private citizens (and to a lesser extent police) are allowed to purc ...

stemming back to a June 2020 arrest in Ohio in which he was pulled over and a concealed weapon was discovered, and he was also cited for marijuana possession and a traffic violation. The plea put him on probation through June 2022.

References

External links

New York Giants bio

Western Michigan Broncos bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beal, Sam Living people 1996 births Players of American football from Grand Rapids, Michigan American football cornerbacks Western Michigan Broncos football players New York Giants players