Shawn Wooden (born October 23, 1973) 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 ...

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

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 ...

(NFL) for nine seasons for the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

and 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 ...

. Wooden was drafted in the 6th round by Jimmy Johnson, the then coach of the

. He played for the Dolphins for four seasons and then signed a free agent contract with the

in the 2000 football season. After one year with the

, he returned to the

for the remainder of his career. He is currently a financial advisor with Wooden Wealth Strategies.

Football career

Wooden attended

Abington Senior High School Abington Senior High School is a three-year co-educational high school in Abington, Pennsylvania, United States. The school was a two-year high school known as Abington South Campus from September 1964 until June 1983. In September 1983, Abingt ...

, where he played as

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offen ...

in his senior season. He then accepted a full scholarship to the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...

, where he started as a

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 ...

. One of the highlights of his college career came when he broke up

Charlie Ward Charlie Ward Jr. (born October 12, 1970) is a former American professional basketball player. Ward was an exceptional football player as well, winning the Heisman Trophy, Davey O'Brien Award, and College Football National Championship while quart ...

's final pass, resulting in Notre Dame's (ranked #2 at the time) defeat of the

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

(ranked #1 at the time) in a nationally televised game in 1993 which was coined at that time the " Game of the Century". As a student-athlete he earned a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. Wooden was drafted in the

1996 NFL draft The 1996 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 20–21, 1996, at the Paramount ...

by the

in the sixth round. He had a nine-year professional career, playing for the Miami Dolphins and

Post-football career

He is well known in the

South Florida South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...

community for his volunteer work with various charities and organizations. He was forced to retire in 2004 due to a back injury.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wooden, Shawn 1973 births Living people Players of American football from Philadelphia Players of American football from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania American football safeties Notre Dame Fighting Irish football players Miami Dolphins players Chicago Bears players University of Notre Dame alumni