Zachary Follett (born July 3, 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 by the Detroit Lions in the seventh round of the

2009 NFL Draft The 2009 NFL Draft was the seventy-fourth annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, on April 25 and 26, 2009. ...

. He played college football at

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

College career

Follett began his career in football at California as a middle linebacker. He switched over to weak-side linebacker as a sophomore and then eventually to strong-side linebacker as a junior. He started 24 of 49 games over the course of his career and finished 10th on California's tackle list with 245. He set a school record and tied the

Pac-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS; formerly Division ...

record for forced fumbles with 13. He finished fifth at California in stops behind the line of scrimmage with 51.0. Included in that total were 23.5 sacks which put him in sixth place on the school's career sacks list. Follett represented California at the

2009 Senior Bowl The 2009 Senior Bowl was an all-star college football exhibition game featuring players from the 2008 college football season, and prospects for the 2009 Draft of the professional National Football League (NFL). It was the 60th edition of the S ...

Professional career

Follett was drafted 235th overall in the seventh round by the Detroit Lions in the

. Follett was released by the Lions during the preseason cuts on September 5, 2009. A day later, he was signed to the team's practice squad. He was activated from the practice squad on October 6, 2009, to help on special teams and made his NFL debut against the Pittsburgh Steelers. His first NFL tackle was on

Danny Amendola Daniel James Amendola (born November 2, 1985) is a former American football wide receiver. He played college football at Texas Tech. He was signed by the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2008. After spending his entire rookie season ...

of the

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arr ...

, which was named hit of the week by the

NFL Network NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NF ...

. On October 17, 2010, Follett was injured while covering a kickoff return against the New York Giants and had to be removed from the field. After the game the team released a statement saying "There is no evidence at this point of a fracture of the cervical spine. He has movement in all four extremities. Zack will remain here tonight and will continue to undergo extensive tests and evaluation." Follett was placed on injured reserve, ending his season. On August 2, 2011, Follett was released by the Lions.

Post-playing career

On November 7, 2011, Follett joined the

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

broadcast team in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

for its Sunday night coverage of the NFL. He was in England for a brief visit to preach as part of a Christian mission and to work with youths and to publicize

. For the next two Sundays he joined the

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

broadcast team for its coverage of the NFL. Zack joined the

broadcast team again January 7–8, 2012, for its coverage of the NFL Wild Card Weekend.

Personal life

Zack is the son of Naomi and Bob Follett. He graduated with a major in

American Studies American studies or American civilization is an interdisciplinary field of scholarship that examines American literature, history, society, and culture. It traditionally incorporates literary criticism, historiography and critical theory. Schol ...

. Zack's dog, a

Shiba Inu The is a breed of hunting dog from Japan. A small-to-medium breed, it is the smallest of the six original and distinct spitz breeds of dog native to Japan. Its name literally translates to "firewood dog". A small, alert, and agile dog that ...

named Zakarian, has been featured on

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...

's ''

Dogs 101 Current programming Former programming References {{DEFAULTSORT:Animal Planet original programming Animal Planet original programming American television-related lists ...

''. Zack currently resides in

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

, where he owns a small chain of coffee shops called Kuppa Joy, located in the greater Fresno area.

References

External links

*
Detroit Lions bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Follett, Zack 1987 births Living people American football linebackers California Golden Bears football players Detroit Lions players Sportspeople from Clovis, California Players of American football from Fresno County, California