Jermaine Alexander Alfred Cunningham (born April 24, 1988) 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 ...

outside linebacker. He played college football for 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 ...

, and played for two BCS National Championship teams. He was drafted by the New England Patriots in the second round of the 2010 NFL Draft.

Early years

Cunningham was born in the Bronx, New York.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Jermaine Cunningham
Retrieved May 18, 2011. He attended Stephenson High School in

Stone Mountain, Georgia Stone Mountain is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 6,703 according to the 2020 US Census. Stone Mountain is in the eastern part of DeKalb County and is a suburb of Atlanta that encompasses nearly 1.7 square mil ...

, where he played high school football as a linebacker for the Stephenson Jaguars.GatorZone.com, Football History, 2009 Roster
Jermaine Cunningham
. Retrieved May 18, 2011. He made twenty quarterback sacks as a junior. As a senior team captain in 2005, Cunningham averaged 15 tackles per game and recorded 25 sacks, while helping lead his team to the state semifinal game.

College career

Cunningham accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach

Urban Meyer Urban Frank Meyer III (born July 10, 1964) is a college football TV commentator and former American football coach. He spent most of his coaching career at the collegiate level, having served as the head coach of the Bowling Green Falcons fro ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Eastern Division o ...

team from 2006 to 2009.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 81, 97, 98, 153–154, 180 (2011). Retrieved August 28, 2011. As a freshman in 2006, he played in seven games as 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 ...

. He went on to start 13 games at defensive end as a sophomore in 2007, recording 64 tackles, 6.5 sacks, and 12 tackles for a loss. During his 2008 junior season, Cunningham started 13 of 14 games and finished second on the team with six sacks, while also picking up ten tackles for a loss and three forced fumbles. As a senior in 2009, Cunningham started 12 games, and missed two with injuries. He finished with 34 tackles and ranked second on the team with seven sacks, while also finishing fifth in the conference with 12 tackles for a loss. Following his junior and senior seasons in 2008 and 2009, he was a second-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 ...

selection, and he completed his college career with five forced fumbles and 19.5 quarterback sacks—tied for tenth on the Gators' career sacks record list with teammate

Carlos Dunlap Carlos Dunlap (born February 28, 1989) is an American football defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Florida where he won a National Championship in 2009. He was drafted by ...

. During his time as a Gator, the team won two

SEC Championship Game The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. The championship game pits the SEC East Division regular season champion against the West Division regula ...

s ( 2006,

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

) and two

BCS National Championship Game The BCS National Championship Game, or BCS National Championship, was a postseason college football bowl game, used to determine a national champion of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), first played in the 1998 college fo ...

s ( 2007, 2009).

Professional career

New England Patriots

Cunningham was drafted by the New England Patriots in the second round (53rd overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft. He signed a four-year contract on July 24, 2010. Cunningham made his first career start in the third game of his rookie season, surpassing former starter Tully Banta-Cain, and recorded his first career sack in Week 6 against the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays it ...

. Cunningham started 11 of 16 games played as a rookie, finishing with 27 tackles, one sack, and two forced fumbles. Cunningham struggled through his second season, recording only one tackle on the season. On a defense that was ranked 31st out of 32 teams, Cunningham was a regular healthy scratch. Cunningham played mostly special teams and rarely saw action in the defensive line rotation. On November 26, 2012 Cunningham was suspended for violating the NFL performance-enhancing substances policy. After 3.5 sacks in three seasons, the Patriots cut Cunningham on August 31, 2013, not surviving the final cuts.

San Francisco 49ers

Cunningham signed with 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 ...

on October 1, 2013. Cunningham was released by the 49ers on October 29.

New York Jets

Cunningham signed with the New York Jets on November 20, 2013.

NFL statistics

Personal life

Cunningham, along with U.S. Olympic track hopeful

Xavier Carter Xavier Carter (born December 8, 1985) is an American professional track and field athlete. He attended Louisiana State University and was a star on the track and field team as well a member of the football team. Before LSU, Xavier Carter graduat ...

and former Gator Jonathan Demps, was arrested in 2007 after an altercation with a Jimmy John's employee. The group became "verbally abusive, struck the employee with empty soda cans and a sandwich, and fled the store" after the clerk asked them to pay for a bag of chips. In late December 2014, Cunningham was charged with multiple counts in

Union County, New Jersey Union County is a county in the northern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population was 575,345, making it the seventh-most populous of New Jersey's 21 counties. Its county seat is Elizabeth.

References

External links

Jermaine Cunningham
– Florida Gators player profile
Jermaine Cunningham
– New England Patriots player profile
New York Jets bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Jermaine 1988 births Living people American football linebackers American football defensive ends Doping cases in American football Florida Gators football players New England Patriots players New York Jets players People from Stone Mountain, Georgia Players of American football from Georgia (U.S. state) San Francisco 49ers players Sportspeople from the Bronx Players of American football from New York City Sportspeople from DeKalb County, Georgia