Michael Robert Pritchard (born October 26, 1969) 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 ...

player who played college football at the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

and professionally 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 the Atlanta Falcons,

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football franchise based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The team is headquar ...

, Seattle Seahawks over a nine-year career. Pritchard grew up in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

and starred as an all-purpose back. His athletic talent attracted attention from collegiate football programs from across the nation. Pritchard eventually accepted an athletic scholarship offer from head coach

Bill McCartney William Paul McCartney (born August 22, 1940) is a former American football player and coach and the founder of the Promise Keepers men's ministry. He was the head coach at the University of Colorado Boulder for thirteen seasons (1982–1994), ...

of the

. There, Pritchard was a versatile player who excelled at a variety of positions, including wide receiver,

kick returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another positio ...

, and

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. Ther ...

. As a senior in 1990, he was named first-team All- Big Eight at wide receiver, also garnering honorable mention All-American honors from the

UPI United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...

. That same year he was named the most valuable player on CU's national championship team, the only one in school history. Pritchard was later inducted into the University of Colorado sports Hall of Fame in 2015. Pritchard was the first of nine Colorado players selected in the 1991

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 ...

. He was selected 13th overall by the Atlanta Falcons. He played nine seasons in the NFL, spending time with Atlanta (1991–93), Denver (1994–95) and Seattle (1996–99). Pritchard had his best professional season in 1992 while he was with the Falcons. That year he caught 77 receptions for 827 yards and scored 5 touchdowns. In 127 career NFL games, he caught 422 passes for 5,178 yards (12.3 yard average) and scored 26 touchdowns. After his playing career, he moved back to his hometown of Las Vegas where he embarked on a broadcasting career doing color commentary on the

UNLV The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes th ...

radio network. He has also appeared on TV and radio as a commentator and in both the Las Vegas and Denver areas. Pritchard currently co-hosts a radio morning show on KRLV in Las Vegas.

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* 1969 births Living people American football wide receivers American sports radio personalities Atlanta Falcons players Colorado Buffaloes football players Denver Broncos players Seattle Seahawks players People from North Las Vegas, Nevada Sportspeople from Sumter, South Carolina Players of American football from Nevada African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople {{widereceiver-1960s-stub