Shawn A. Mayer (born March 4, 1979 in

Hillsborough Township, New Jersey Hillsborough Township is a township in Somerset County, New Jersey, United States. The township is centrally located in the Raritan Valley region within the much larger New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the ...

) is a former professional

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 ...

defensive back, and currently a Player Development Coach at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...

. Originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the New England Patriots in 2003, Mayer played in 9 games that season, compiling 15 tackles, including one in Super Bowl XXXVIII. That one Super Bowl tackle remarkably was of

Carolina Panthers The Carolina Panthers are a professional American football team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Panthers compete in the National Football League (NFL), as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. ...

wide receiver Ricky Proehl, who attended the same Hillsborough High School as Mayer. He would appear in only 3 games in 2004, and in February 2005 he signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Falcons who then allocated him to NFL Europe. Mayer excelled as a member of the Hamburg Sea Devils, matching the NFL Europe record for

interception In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team ...

s in a game (3), setting team records for interceptions in a season (5) and in a game (3) and earning All-NFL Europe honors. He would return to play for Hamburg during the 2006 season, this time allocated by the Cleveland Browns. Mayer started 23 games while at Penn State University and finished his career with 252 tackles, 5 interceptions, 1.5 sacks and 8 tackles for loss. He earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in Administration of Justice from Penn State University in 2003. He grew up in

and was twice-named a ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n and New Jersey SuperPrep following his junior and senior seasons at Hillsborough High School where he also excelled 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 eve ...

References

External links

NFL player page
www.nfl.com
Player profile
www.nfleurope.com
Transaction history
''Sportsnet'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Mayer, Shawn 1979 births American football safeties Atlanta Falcons players Cleveland Browns players Hamburg Sea Devils players Living people New England Patriots players Penn State Nittany Lions football players Sportspeople from Hillsborough Township, New Jersey Hillsborough High School (New Jersey) alumni