Travis Peter Goethel (born July 27, 1987) 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 wi ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, ...

He was drafted in the sixth round, (190th overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft. He played college football for

Arizona State Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

High school

Goethel attended Vista High School in

Vista, California Vista (; Spanish for "view") is a city in San Diego County, California. Vista is a medium-sized city within the San Diego-Carlsbad, CA Metropolitan Area and has a population of 101,638. Vista's sphere of influence also includes portions of u ...

. As a junior, he recorded 155 tackles, including 14 tackles for loss, 8 quarterback sacks, and 5 interceptions, two which he returned for touchdowns. He was rated as high as the No.10 linebacker in the country by ''

Rivals.com Rivals.com is a network of websites that focus mainly on college football and basketball recruiting in the United States. The network was started in 1998 and employs more than 300 personnel. History Rivals.com was founded in 1998 by Jim Heckma ...

''. He picked

over scholarship offers from

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

College career

He played in all 50 games over his four-year career at Arizona State, including 41 starts. He totaled 228 tackles (143 solo), 19.0 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, nine pass break-ups, three interceptions, three forced fumbles and one fumble recovery in his career. He was an Honorable Mention Pac-10 All selection in his senior season, and in his freshman season, garnered Pac-10 All freshman honors and honorable mention Freshman All-American.

Professional career

Goethel was drafted by the Oakland Raiders in the sixth round, (190th overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft. In addition to his normally assigned position as

, Goethel served as a backup

long snapper In American football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a center on special teams whose duty is to snap the football over a longer distance, typically around 15 yards during punts, and 7–8 yards during field goals and extra point att ...

. During the 2012 season opener, regular

Jon Condo Jonathan Condo (born August 26, 1981) is an American former professional football long snapper who played in the National Football League (NFL) for the Oakland Raiders, the Atlanta Falcons and the San Francisco 49ers. He played college footb ...

suffered a concussion, forcing Goethel into duty. Out of his 4 snaps, 3 resulted in blocked punts against the San Diego Chargers. Oakland Raiders head coach Dennis Allen defended Goethel, who had not long snapped since

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, by stating he had not been prepared during full-team drills. On July 23, 2013, Goethel was waived by the Oakland Raiders.

''The Onion'' article

Shortly after he was drafted in 2010, Goethel was the subject of an article by satirical publication ''

The Onion ''The Onion'' is an American digital media company and newspaper organization that publishes satire, satirical articles on international, national, and local news. The company is based in Chicago but originated as a weekly print publication on ...

'' saying that the Raiders selected him to be a

realtor A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...

. Ironically, Goethel's fictional "switch to realtor" was described as being "better than being asked to switch to ��long snapper," when Goethel would in fact gain infamy for his struggles as Oakland's long snapper in 2012.

References

External links

Oakland Raiders bio

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goethel, Travis 1987 births Living people Sportspeople from Oceanside, California People from Vista, California American football linebackers Arizona State Sun Devils football players Arizona State University alumni Oakland Raiders players Players of American football from California American real estate brokers Ed Block Courage Award recipients