Robert Terrence Flagler (born September 24, 1964) 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 ...

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 handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

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 the

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

and

Phoenix Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division, and play t ...

. He played college football at

Clemson University Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enr ...

Early years

Flagler attended Fernandina Beach High School, where as a senior he posted 1,683 rushing yards on 200 carries and 20 touchdowns, including one of the greatest games in Northeast Florida high school history, when against West Nassau (October 23, 1981) he had 405 rushing yards and 7 touchdowns. He also practiced

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

and led the district in scoring as a senior.

College career

He accepted a scholarship from

and became a full-time starter until his senior season. He helped the team win an ACC championship, while finishing with 1,258 rushing yards (13th in nation), 10 touchdowns, six 100-yard rushing games (including 2 games with over 200 rushing yards), 274 all purpose yards in one game (school record), 106.9 rushing yards per game in one season (school record). He was a runner-up in the ACC Player of the Year voting. In 2013, he was inducted into the Clemson Athletic Hall of Fame.

Professional career

San Francisco 49ers (first stint)

Flagler was selected by the

in the first round (25th overall) of the 1987 NFL Draft. In three years he only had 42 carries for 145 yards and one touchdown, while playing behind Roger Craig. After asking for a trade, he was sent along with Daniel Stubbs, a third (#81- Craig Veasey) and an eleventh-round (#304-Myron Jones) draft pick to the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divi ...

, in exchange for a second (#47-

Dennis Brown Dennis Emmanuel Brown CD (1 February 1957 – 1 July 1999) was a Jamaican reggae singer. During his prolific career, which began in the late 1960s when he was aged eleven, he recorded more than 75 albums and was one of the major stars of lo ...

) and third-round (#68-Ron Lewis) draft choices on April 19,

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...

Dallas Cowboys

A week after Flagler was acquired by the

to improve the running game, the team selected future hall of fame

Emmitt Smith in the

1990 NFL draft The 1990 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 22–23, 1990, at the Marriott Mar ...

. He was waived on September 2,

Phoenix Cardinals

On September 26,

, he was signed as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

by the

for depth purposes, after

Ron Wolfley Ronald Paul Wolfley "Se'eh"" (born October 14, 1962) is a former American football fullback who played for the St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals from 1985 through 1991. Wolfley was selected four times to the Pro Bowl as a special teams captain. Wolfl ...

was lost for the year. On August 12,

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, he was traded to the

in exchange for a conditional draft choice (not exercised).

San Francisco 49ers (second stint)

Flagler was cut on August 26,

, when the

chose to keep veteran

Spencer Tillman Spencer Allen Tillman (born April 21, 1964) is an American former professional football player who played running back for eight seasons for the Houston Oilers and San Francisco 49ers in the National Football League (NFL). College career Coll ...

Phoenix Cardinals

On September 12,

, he was re-signed after starter

Larry Centers Larry Eugene Centers (born June 1, 1968) is a former American football fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons, mostly for his first-team, the Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals (1990–1998). Centers then played for the Washington ...

was lost for the year with a broken foot. He was released on October 29.

Los Angeles Raiders

On July 19, 1992, he was signed by the

Los Angeles Raiders The Los Angeles Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Los Angeles from 1982 to 1994 before relocating back to Oakland, California, where the team played from its inaugural 1960 season to the 1981 season and then agai ...

as a

. He was waived on August 24.

Jacksonville Tomcats (AF2)

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, he signed with the Jacksonville Tomcats of the Arena Football League 2. He was switched to wide receiver and played until the team folded in 2003.

References

\ {{DEFAULTSORT:Flagler, Terrence 1964 births Living people People from Fernandina Beach, Florida Players of American football from New York City Players of American football from Florida All-American college football players American football running backs Clemson Tigers football players Phoenix Cardinals players San Francisco 49ers players Jacksonville Tomcats players