Steve "Speedy" Gonzalez (born May 1, 1981) 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 ...

wide receiver who played one season with the

Philadelphia Soul Philadelphia soul, sometimes called Philly soul, the Philadelphia sound, Phillysound, or The Sound of Philadelphia TSOP, is a genre of late 1960s–1970s soul music characterized by funk influences and lush instrumental arrangements, often feat ...

of 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 ...

. He first enrolled at

Modesto Junior College Modesto Junior College (MJC) is a public community college in Modesto, California. It is part of Yosemite Community College District along with Columbia College. MJC, and Columbia College, belong to the California Community College system al ...

before transferring to

Menlo College Menlo College is a private college specializing in business and is located in Atherton, California. Campus Menlo College is situated on 45-acre (0.18 km2) campus in Atherton, California, 25 miles southeast of San Francisco and 20 miles nort ...

. Gonzalez was also a member of the

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 ...

Manchester Wolves The Manchester Wolves were a professional arena football team, based at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, New Hampshire, which folded at the end of the 2009 season along with the rest of the league. They played in the East Division of the ...

Green Bay Blizzard Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combina ...

and

Dallas Vigilantes The Dallas Vigilantes were an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Dallas, Texas. Like its AFL predecessor, the Dallas Desperados, the Vigilantes played at the American Airlines Center. The Vigilantes and the Jacksonville Sharks began play ...

. He appeared on

Michael Irvin Michael Jerome Irvin (born March 5, 1966) is an American sports commentator and former professional football wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). In 2007, he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame ...

's reality show ''4th and Long''.

Early years

Gonzalez played football, baseball and basketball at Ceres High School in

Ceres, California Ceres is a city in Stanislaus County, California. Its population was 49,302 at the 2020 U.S. Census, up from 45,417 at the 2010 U.S. Census. It is part of the Modesto metropolitan statistical area. Ceres is located in the San Joaquin Valley a ...

College career

Gonzalez first played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

for the Modesto Junior College Pirates, starting at

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 ...

and wide receiver for two years. He then transferred and played for the

Menlo Oaks The Menlo Oaks are the athletic teams that represent Menlo College, located in Atherton, California, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Golden State ...

for one year before dropping out of college after his junior year. Unable to pay the tuition, he instead took jobs such as working for a moving company and a coffee shop.

Professional career

San Diego Riptide

Gonzalez played 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 2005. He played in 13 games for the Riptide during the 2005 season, leading the af2 in kick return yards with 1,666 and kick return touchdowns with six. He was also fourth in the league in all-purpose yards with 2,792 and tenth in scoring with 206 points. Gonzalez earned Second Team honors on the National Conference All-af2 team.

Manchester Wolves

Gonzalez was signed by the

of the af2 in November 2005 and played for the team during the 2006 season. He played offense in fifteen games for the Wolves, recording 1,355 receiving yards and 45 touchdowns on 118 receptions. He saw action on defense in two games, accumulating seven pass breakups and one interception. Gonzalez was also fourth in the af2 with 2,525 all-purpose yards and second in scoring with 276 points. He suffered an ankle injury that caused him to miss the last two games of the regular season and all of the playoffs. He was named the sixth best kick returner in af2 history in 2009.

Philadelphia Soul

Gonzalez signed with the

in October 2006 and played for the team during the 2007 season. He was released by the Soul on August 1, 2007.

Green Bay Blizzard

Gonzalez played for the

of the af2 in 2008.

''4th and Long''

Gonzalez was the fifth cut on

's reality show ''4th and Long''.

Dallas Vigilantes

Gonzalez was signed by the

on January 13, 2010.

References

External links

Just Sports Stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Steve Living people 1981 births American football wide receivers Modesto Pirates football players Menlo Oaks football players San Diego Riptide players Manchester Wolves players Philadelphia Soul players Green Bay Blizzard players