Major Wright (born July 1, 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 with ...

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to risk management, the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are ...

. 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 ...

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 was a member of a

BCS National Championship 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 foot ...

team. He was drafted by the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

in the third round of the

2010 NFL Draft The 2010 NFL Draft was the 75th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The 2010 draft took place over three days, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, with the firs ...

Early years

Wright was born in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Major Wright
Retrieved April 7, 2011. He attended St. Thomas Aquinas High School in

Ft. Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...

, where he played high school football for the St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders and ran track.GatorZone.com, Football History, 2009 Roster
Major Wright
. Retrieved April 7, 2011. As a junior, he recorded 58 tackles with six interceptions and as a sophomore had 71 tackles and 10 interceptions. As a senior, he was a finalist for the

Hall Trophy The All-American Bowl Player of the Year Award (formerly known as the Hall Trophy and U.S. Army Player of the Year Award) has been awarded annually since 2000 to the most outstanding high school football player in the United States, comparable to t ...

(U.S. Army Player of the Year Award) after he recorded 72

tackles Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football ** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking up ...

and three

interceptions In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team b ...

. He played in the 2007

U.S. Army All-American Bowl The All-American Bowl is a high school football all-star game, held annually at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Typically played in January, the All-American Bowl is played between all-star teams representing the eastern and western United S ...

. Wright was an All-state selection both years. In

track & field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

, Wright posted personal-bests of 11.1 in the

100-meter dash The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contest ...

, 22.8 in the

200-meter dash The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightl ...

and 41.32 in the 4×100-meter relay.

College career

Wright 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 of ...

team from

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 89, 99, 154, 186 (2011). Retrieved September 1, 2011. As a freshman in 2007, Wright started seven of 13 games for the Gators at free safety, recording 67 tackles, four forced fumbles and an interception. He was a first-team freshman All-American by

CollegeFootballNews.com ''College Football News'' (''CFN'') is a magazine and website published by College Football News, Inc., headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. News coverage includes scores, statistics, rankings, and reports on college football games. Analysis include ...

and second-team freshman All-American 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 ...

. As a sophomore in 2008, Wright started all 14 games at free safety, recording 66 tackles and four interceptions, with one returned for a

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

. He had nine tackles and an interception in the Gators win over the

Oklahoma Sooners The Oklahoma Sooners are the athletic teams that represent the University of Oklahoma, located in Norman. The 19 men's and women's varsity teams are called the "Sooners", a reference to a nickname given to the early participants in the Land Run ...

in the

2009 BCS National Championship Game The 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship Game was an American football game played at Dolphin Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on January 8, 2009. It was the national championship game for the 2008 NCAA Division I FBS football season, and fea ...

. After his junior season, Wright decided to forgo his senior year and enter the

NFL Draft The National Football League Draft, also called the NFL Draft or (officially) the Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the league's most common source of player recruitment. Each team is given a position in the drafting o ...

Professional career

Chicago Bears

The

selected Wright in the third round (75th overall pick) of the

, and was predicted to be a future starter by former Bears general manager

Jerry Angelo Jerry Angelo (born c. 1949) is a former American football executive who was the general manager for the National Football League's Chicago Bears from 2001 to 2011. Prior to joining the Bears, Angelo spent 14 years overseeing Tampa Bay Buccaneers' ...

. During his rookie season, Wright played in eleven of sixteen regular season games. He recorded his first career interception in 2011 off a

Michael Vick Michael Dwayne Vick (born June 26, 1980) is a former American football quarterback. Regarded as having transformed the quarterback position with his rushing abilities, he is the NFL leader in quarterback rushing yards and was the league's firs ...

pass against the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

, when a pass by Vick squirted through linebacker Lance Briggs's hands into Wright, who was able to return the ball 39 yards. A week later against the

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 ...

, Wright intercepted a Matthew Stafford lob and returned it 24 yards for a touchdown, which was the first pick-six of his career. In the 2012 season Wright started all 16 games for the Bears at Strong Safety, recording four interceptions along with 52 tackles for the year. During the Week 3 match up against 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 arri ...

he returned an interception 45 yards for a defensive touchdown.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

On April 4, 2014, Wright agreed to a one-year contract with the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

, reuniting with his former Bears head coach

Lovie Smith Lovie Lee Smith (born May 8, 1958) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Houston Texans of the National Football League (NFL). From 2004 to 2016, he served as the head coach of the Chicago Bears and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a ...

. Wright was cut by the Buccaneers on August 30, 2014. Wright rejoined the team on September 3, 2014. Wright re-signed with the Buccaneers on March 7, 2015. On December 30, 2015, Wright was placed on injured reserve. On August 28, 2016, Wright was waived by the Buccaneers. He was re-signed by the Buccaneers on November 29, 2016. He was released again on December 13, 2016.

NFL statistics

Subsequent activities

On May 8, 2020, Wright announced the his first book called ''Major Pain: Confessions Of A Smash-Mouth Safety''.

References

External links

Tampa Bay Buccaneers bio

Chicago Bears bio

Florida Gators bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Major 1988 births Living people American football safeties Chicago Bears players Florida Gators football players People from Lauderdale Lakes, Florida Players of American football from Florida Sportspeople from Broward County, Florida Tampa Bay Buccaneers players