Shaun Lanard Gayle (born March 8, 1962) 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 ...

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 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). He played twelve seasons, eleven for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

(1984–1994), and one for the

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 ...

(1995). He was a member of the Bears squad that won

Super Bowl XX Super Bowl XX was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Chicago Bears and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

. He was also a member of the "Shuffling Crew" in the video The

Super Bowl Shuffle "The Super Bowl Shuffle" is a song performed by the Chicago Bears football team (credited as the Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew) in . It was released in December 1985 on Chicago-based Red Label Records and distributed through Capitol Records two mo ...

. Gayle attended

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. Gayle owns the distinction of returning the shortest punt for a touchdown in NFL history, when he returned a punt five yards for a touchdown against 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 Bears 1985 divisional playoff victory. Shaun often appears with former teammates at Chicago Bears Fan Conventions, and currently works as an NFL analyst for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

, appearing on the weekly NFL

broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum ( radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

. He is also known for getting bullied by 49er QB Steve Young in the end zone during a playoff game after Young scored a touchdown right in front of him.

Personal life

Murder of Rhoni Reuter

Gayle had a relationship with Rhoni Reuter, originally of

Potosi, Wisconsin Potosi is a village in Grant County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 688 at the 2010 census. The village is in the Town of Potosi. History Potosi is located where Wisconsin's lead ore belt intersects with the Mississippi. The pos ...

. On October 4, 2007, Reuter was about seven months pregnant with Gayle's child when she was shot and killed at her condominium in

Deerfield, Illinois Deerfield is a north shore suburb of Chicago in Lake County, Illinois, United States, with a small portion extending into Cook County, Illinois. The population was 19,196 at the 2020 census. Deerfield is home to the headquarters of Walgreens Boo ...

. On March 3, 2009, a Chicago woman, Marni Yang, 41, was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Yang was also in a relationship with Gayle. It was alleged that Yang was wearing a disguise when she shot and killed Reuter in a jealous rage. In March 2011, Yang was convicted of first-degree murder for the killing. The Deerfield police have stated that they did not consider Gayle to be a suspect in the murder. Yang's attorney has asserted that Gayle provided false information to the police, and that his whereabouts were unknown for the time of the murder. , the case was under judicial review.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gayle, Shaun 1962 births Living people Sportspeople from Newport News, Virginia Players of American football from Virginia American football cornerbacks American football safeties Ohio State Buckeyes football players Chicago Bears players National Conference Pro Bowl players San Diego Chargers players Ed Block Courage Award recipients Brian Piccolo Award winners