Steve LeRoi Papin (born February 28, 1972) 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 specialist In arena football, a specialist was a player, other than a quarterback or placekicker, who was exempt from the league's one-platoon system ("Iron Man"). Under the original Arena football system, six of the eight players on each team were required ...

who played seven seasons in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

(AFL) with the

San Jose SaberCats The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...

and

New York Dragons The New York Dragons were a professional arena football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Dragons participated in the Arena Football League's (AFL) National Conference as a member of the Eastern Division. The team was founded in ...

. He first enrolled at

West Valley College West Valley College is a public community college in Saratoga, California. It is part of the California Community College system. History The college was founded as West Valley Junior College in 1963. It was to serve the footprint of the Campbell ...

before transferring to

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the following two decades ...

. He attended

Piedmont Hills High School Piedmont Hills High School is a comprehensive public four-year high school located in the Berryessa neighborhood of San Jose, California, USA. It is part of the East Side Union High School District and in 2019 was ranked in the highest categories ...

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

. Papin was also a member of the

Scottish Claymores The Scottish Claymores were an American football team based in Scotland. The franchise played in the World League of American Football (later renamed NFL Europe) between 1995 and 2004, initially playing all home games at Murrayfield Stadium, E ...

and

San Diego Riptide The San Diego Riptide was a professional arena football team based in San Diego, California. The team played its home games at the San Diego Sports Arena. The team was originally coached by Cree Morris, then Mouse Davis and finally by Sean Ponde ...

College career

Papin played for the

Portland State Vikings Portland State Vikings is the nickname of the NCAA-affiliated, intercollegiate athletic teams representing Portland State University of Portland, Oregon. The Vikings compete at the NCAA Division I level in basketball, soccer, volleyball, golf, ...

, finishing third in voting for the

Harlon Hill Trophy The Harlon Hill Trophy is an award in American college football given to the individual selected as the most valuable player in NCAA Division II. The award is named for former University of North Alabama and National Football League player Harlo ...

his senior year in 1995 after recording 2,397 all-purpose yards.

Professional career

Papin played for the

of the

World League of American Football NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

in 1997. He played for the AFL's

from 1997 to 2001, earning Second Team All-Arena and Don't Blink! Player of the Year honors twice each. He was released by the SaberCats on December 19, 2001. Papin signed with the

of the AFL on January 10, 2002. He was released by the Dragons on March 4, 2003. He finished his AFL career with 15,413 all-purpose yards for 152 touchdowns and an average of 14.7 yards per touch. Papin also averaged 200.4 all-purpose yards per game. He was a finalist for the

Arena Football Hall of Fame The Arena Football Hall of Fame is the official Hall of Fame of the Arena Football League (AFL). The inaugural class was announced in 1998 and the Hall was not formally organized until 2011. Prior to 2011, there were four classes: 1998–200 ...

in 2013 and 2014. He played in five games for the

of the

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

in 2003 before suffering a knee injury.

Coaching career

Papin was

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

for the San Diego Riptide in 2005. He served as defensive coordinator of the

Central Valley Coyotes The Central Valley Coyotes were a professional arena football team and were a charter member of the AF2. As the newly forming AF2 set aside its plans for a two tier league and began focusing only on bigger markets, Central Valley stepped down an ...

of the af2 in 2006. He was

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

of the af2's

Everett Hawks The Everett Hawks were a professional minor league arena football team based in Everett, Washington. The team was in existence for five years (2002–07) in three leagues, the Northwest Football League (NWFL), the National Indoor Football League ...

in 2007. Papin served as offensive coordinator of the

Tri-Cities Fever The Tri-Cities Fever were a professional indoor football franchise based in Kennewick, Washington. The Fever joined National Indoor Football League (NIFL) in 2005 as an expansion team. The Fever were owned by Teri Carr. From 2005 to 2016, the Fe ...

of the af2 in 2008. He was offensive coordinator for San Jose Wolves of the

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

in 2010. He was wide receivers coach of the San Jose SaberCats in 2011. Papin served as

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

of the Gunderson High School Grizzlies of San Jose, California from 2011 to 2013. He stepped down as the Grizzlies coach in April 2014. He became head coach of the Independence High School 76ers in 2014. He left Independence to take the job at

Menlo-Atherton High School Menlo-Atherton High School (known as M-A to locals) is a four-year public charter secondary school located in Atherton, California. Menlo-Atherton is part of the Sequoia Union High School District.

for the 2019 season, but his contract was not renewed and he returned to Independence in 2020. Following the 2020 season, which had been postponed to the spring of 2021 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 ...

, Papin became the new head coach at

Santa Teresa High School Santa Teresa High School (also referred to as STHS) is a public high school located in the suburban Santa Teresa neighborhood of southern San Jose, California. The school is a member of the East Side Union High School District and serves studen ...

Broadcasting career

In 2015, Papin was hired by

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American pay television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports Television also known as ...

as a sideline analyst for its coverage of the AFL.

References

External links

Just Sports Stats

WLAF stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Papin, Steve Living people 1972 births American football return specialists American football running backs American football wide receivers New York Dragons players Portland State Vikings football players San Diego Riptide players San Jose SaberCats coaches San Jose SaberCats players Scottish Claymores players West Valley Vikings football players High school football coaches in California Players of American football from San Jose, California African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople