Huey L. Richardson, Jr. (born February 2, 1968) is an American former professional football player who was a

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formations over the years have substantially changed how the position is ...

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 two seasons during the 1990s. Richardson played college football for the Florida Gators and earned All-American honors. He was a first-round pick in the 1991 NFL Draft and played for the Pittsburgh Steelers,

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

and the New York Jets.

Early years

Richardson was born in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

, in 1968.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Huey Richardson
Retrieved July 6, 2010. He attended Lakeside High School in Atlanta,databaseFootball.com, Players
Huey Richardson
. Retrieved July 6, 2010. and played high school football for the Lakeside Vikings.

College career

Richardson accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played defensive end for coach

Galen Hall Galen Samuel Hall (born August 14, 1940) is a retired American college and professional football coach and player. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and an alumnus of Penn State University, where he played college football. Hall was previously t ...

and coach Steve Spurrier's Gators teams from

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

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 ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 88, 92, 96–97, 98, 99, 100, 124, 153, 185 (2011). Retrieved August 31, 2011. Richardson was a first-team All-

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

(SEC) selection in

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...

and 1990 and a first-team All-American in 1990, and was selected as a senior team captain. At the end of his four years as a Gator, he totaled 26.5 quarterback sacks and 50.5 tackles for a loss, still third and fourth, respectively, on the Gators' all-time record lists. Richardson was honored as an SEC Academic Honor Roll selection all four years, received an NCAA post-graduate scholarship, and graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1990. He was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2003. Nine Inducted Into UF Hall of Fame
," GatorZone.com (April 11, 2003). Retrieved July 21, 2011.

Professional career

Richardson was the first round draft choice (fifteenth pick overall) of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1991 NFL Draft.Pro Football Hall of Fame, Draft History
1991 National Football League Draft
Retrieved May 26, 2010. Based on a conversation with the former Steelers director of scouting, Max McCartney, with three picks remaining before the Steelers picked at number 15, they had three players targeted that they would be willing to select:

Tennessee Volunteers The Tennessee Volunteers and Lady Volunteers are the 20 male and female varsity intercollegiate athletics programs that represent the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Volunteers compete in Division I of the National Collegi ...

wide receiver

Alvin Harper Alvin Craig Harper (born July 6, 1967) is a former football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Redskins and New Orleans Saints. He was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the first ...

Colorado Buffaloes The Colorado Buffaloes are the athletic teams that represent the University of Colorado. The university sponsors 17 varsity sports teams. Both the men's and women's teams are called the Buffaloes (Buffs for short) or, rarely, the Golden Buffalo ...

wide receiver Mike Pritchard and

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member ...

running back

Leonard Russell Leonard Russell may refer to: * Leonard Russell (American football) Leonard James Russell (born November 17, 1969) is an American former professional football player who was a running back for six seasons in the National Football League (NFL). ...

. When those three players were all selected with the three immediately preceding picks (by 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 ...

, Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots, respectively), the Pittsburgh draft managers were unprepared and were forced to make a selection before their fifteen-minute time limit expired, and they settled on Richardson. Richardson played only five games with the Steelers in , registering two tackles, plus another on special teams.National Football League, Historical Players
Huey Richardson
Retrieved May 26, 2010.Ed Bouchette,
Huey Richardson: Steelers' most confounding flop
" ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' (April 19, 2005). Retrieved May 26, 2010. Part of the problem was that the Steelers played a 3-4 defense, and Richardson didn't have the build to play defensive end in that scheme. The Steelers made him an

inside 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, ...

, and he didn't make the adjustment very well. Following the 1991 season, long-time head coach

Chuck Noll Chuck is a masculine given name or a nickname for Charles or Charlie. It may refer to: People Arts and entertainment * Chuck Alaimo, American saxophonist, leader of the Chuck Alaimo Quartet * Chuck Barris (1929–2017), American TV producer * C ...

retired and was replaced by

Bill Cowher William Laird Cowher (born May 8, 1957) is an American sports analyst, former football player and coach. Following a six-year playing career as a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL), he served as a head coach in the NFL for 15 se ...

, who tried to switch Richardson to outside linebacker (his position for the first three years of his collegiate career). When that didn't work, Cowher asked player development director

Tom Donahoe Tom Donahoe is the senior director of player personnel for the Philadelphia Eagles. Previously, he was general manager of the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL. Biography Donahoe was born and raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of ...

if it was too soon to cut him. When Donahoe said he should keep the top forty-seven players regardless of their draft history, Richardson was traded to the Washington Redskins for a seventh-round draft pick; if a trade had not been possible, Richardson would have simply been waived. After four uneventful games with the Redskins, he was released and signed with the New York Jets. At the end of the season, after seven games with the Jets, Richardson's short NFL career was over.

Life after football

Richardson returned to college and earned his master's degree in business administration from

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

in Atlanta in 2000, and currently works as a financial analyst for Merrill Lynch in New York City. He was in the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

for a meeting on the morning of the terrorist attacks of

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

. His meeting was scheduled to take place on an upper floor of the building, but he was delayed in the lobby before boarding the elevator, and was able to leave the World Trade Center safely after the first plane hit the building. He now lives in

Mahwah, New Jersey Mahwah is the northernmost and largest municipality by geographic area () in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population of the township was 25,487, a decline of 403 from the 25,890 counted in the ...

, with his wife and two kids.

References

Bibliography

* Carlson, Norm, ''University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators'', Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). . * Golenbock, Peter, ''Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory'', Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). . * Hairston, Jack, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). . * McCarthy, Kevin M.,
Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football
', Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (2000). . * Nash, Noel, ed., ''The Gainesville Sun Presents The Greatest Moments in Florida Gators Football'', Sports Publishing, Inc., Champaign, Illinois (1998). . {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Huey 1968 births Living people Players of American football from Atlanta American football linebackers Florida Gators football players All-American college football players New York Jets players Pittsburgh Steelers players Washington Redskins players