Jonathan Freeny (born June 15, 1989) 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 with ...

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, p ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

. He has also been a member of the

Miami Dolphins The Miami Dolphins are a professional American football team based in the Miami metropolitan area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member team of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The team pla ...

Chicago Rush The Chicago Rush were a professional arena football team based in Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Located immediately northwest of Chicago, as of the 2010 census it had a population of 4,20 ...

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 its ...

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division. The team play ...

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

, and

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

College career

Freeny chose to accept a scholarship to

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

due to then head coach

Greg Schiano Gregory Edward Schiano (born June 1, 1966) is an American football coach. He is the head football coach at Rutgers University, a position he held from 2001 to 2011 and resumed before the 2020 season. Schiano served as the head coach for the Tampa ...

's connections to South Florida from his time with the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

. Freeny would play 46 games at Rutgers and primarily played at defensive end and linebacker.

Professional career

Miami Dolphins

Freeny signed with the

as an undrafted free agent on July 28, 2011. He was released by the team on September 3, 2011.

Chicago Rush

Freeny was assigned to the

on October 4, 2011. He was exempted by the Rush on December 6, 2011.

Miami Dolphins

Freeny was signed to the Dolphins' practice squad on December 7, 2011. He then spent the following 3 seasons on the Dolphins active roster. At the end of the 2014 season Freeny became a restricted free agent but was not tendered a contract by Miami and therefore became an unrestricted free agent.

New England Patriots

On March 12, 2015, Freeny signed with the

on a one-year deal. On September 24, 2015, the Patriots extended Freeny's contract through 2016 after emerging as a core special teamer. He played in 13 regular season games with seven starts registering 43 tackles, one sack, one pass breakup, one forced fumble, two fumble recoveries and two special teams tackles. On August 27, 2016, the Patriots signed Freeny to a two-year contract extension. He was placed on injured reserve on October 15, 2016 with a shoulder injury. On February 5, 2017, Freeny's Patriots appeared in

Super Bowl LI Super Bowl LI was an American football game played at NRG Stadium in Houston, Houston, Texas, on February 5, 2017, to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2016 NFL season, 2016 season. The American Football Confer ...

. In the game, the Patriots defeated the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

by a score of 34–28 in overtime. On September 2, 2017, Freeny was released by the Patriots.

Baltimore Ravens

On September 27, 2017, Freeny signed with the

. He was released on October 17, 2017.

Jacksonville Jaguars

On October 24, 2017, Freeny signed with the

, but was released four days later.

New England Patriots (second stint)

On December 6, 2017, Freeny was re-signed by the Patriots, but was released one week later.

New Orleans Saints

On December 14, 2017, Freeny was claimed off waivers by the

Detroit Lions

On March 26, 2018, Freeny signed with the

, reuniting him with former defensive coordinator in New England,

Matt Patricia Matthew Edward Patricia (born September 13, 1974) is an American football coach who is the senior football advisor and offensive line coach for the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He has served 15 non-consecutive sea ...

. He was released on September 1, 2018.

Personal life

Freeny is distant cousins with

Dwight Freeney Dwight Jason Freeney (born February 19, 1980) is an American former football player who played as a defensive end and outside linebacker for 16 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Syracuse University, ...

References

External links

Rutgers bioMiami Dolphins bioNew England Patriots bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freeny, Jonathan 1989 births Living people American football linebackers American football defensive ends People from Margate, Florida Players of American football from Broward County, Florida Rutgers Scarlet Knights football players Sportspeople from the Miami metropolitan area Miami Dolphins players Chicago Rush players New England Patriots players Baltimore Ravens players Jacksonville Jaguars players New Orleans Saints players Detroit Lions players