Shahriar Pourdanesh (born July 19, 1970) 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 ...

offensive lineman In gridiron football, a lineman is a player who specializes in play at the line of scrimmage. The linemen of the team currently in possession of the ball are the offensive line, while linemen on the opposing team are the defensive line. A numbe ...

who played 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 ...

for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

, and

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Raide ...

from 1996 to 2001 when in 2001 a severe knee injury cut his career short. He is distinguished as being the first

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

to play in the

Early years

Pourdanesh is a graduate of University High School in

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, master-planned city in South Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the 1960s and the city was formally incorporated on ...

. An All-American and All Conference selection, and two time team captain for the

University of Nevada The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant ...

at Reno, where in 1992 he was awarded Nevada's Most Outstanding Offensive Player award. He was an integral part and leader of one of the nation's top offenses during that span, and helped lead the Wolfpack to three conference titles and a spot in the 1990 1AA National Title game. He was inducted into the Nevada athletic Hall of Fame in 2005.

Professional career

He previously played with the

Baltimore Stallions The Baltimore Stallions (known officially as the "Baltimore Football Club" and previously as the "Baltimore CFL Colts" in its inaugural season) were a Canadian Football League team based in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States, which played ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

from 1994–1995, where he was an All-Star and won the

CFL's Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award The Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award is annually awarded to the best offensive lineman in the Canadian Football League. The two nominees for the award are the Leo Dandurand Trophy winner from the East Division, and the DeMarco-Becket Memor ...

in 1994 (the first ever rookie to be honored so), and was a member of the Grey Cup Championship team in 1995. He was also signed to a one-year deal with the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

in 1993 under coach

Bill Belichick William Stephen Belichick (; born April 16, 1952) is an American professional football coach who is the head coach of the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). Additionally, he exercises extensive authority over the Patri ...

. He played for the

before being traded to

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in August 1999 for a conditional seventh-round selection in the 2000 draft. He is the only Iranian-born football player in NFL history and has over 80 professional starts in his career.

Personal life

Shar and his family escaped revolution in 1979 and fled to Europe. The Pourdanesh family settled in

in 1983 after spending 3 years in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

. He was introduced to football at age 15.

References

1970 births Living people American football offensive tackles Baltimore Stallions players Iranian emigrants to the United States Nevada Wolf Pack football players Oakland Raiders players Sportspeople from Irvine, California Sportspeople from Tehran Sportspeople of Iranian descent Pittsburgh Steelers players Washington Redskins players {{offensive-lineman-1970s-stub