Ralph Everette "Pete" Hunter (born May 25, 1980) is a former professional

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 ...

defensive back who played 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

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 ...

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

and Seattle Seahawks. He played college football at

Virginia Union University Virginia Union University is a private historically black Baptist university in Richmond, Virginia. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. History The American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) founded the school as Rich ...

Early years

Hunter graduated from

Atlantic City High School Atlantic City High School (ACHS) is a comprehensive public high school in Atlantic City, in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. It is the lone secondary school of the Atlantic City School District. The current school building opened ...

with honors. He attended NCAA Division II

. As a freshman, he was converted from a wide receiver into a

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

and appeared in only 3 games. The next year, he was moved to free safety, registering 40 tackles, 2 sacks, 10 passes defensed, 6 interceptions (led team), 2 fumble recoveries and 3 blocked kicks. As a junior, he recorded 52 tackles (third on the team), 9 tackles for loss, 3 interceptions (second on the team), 3 recovered fumbles and 13 passes defensed (led the team). In his last year he was switched to strong safety, helping lead his team to a CIAA football championship, also led the conference with 11 interceptions (1 per game) and 6 blocked kicks, while also making 50 tackles and 13 passes defensed (led team). He finished his college football career with 10 blocked kicks and graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice. He also worked as a volunteer substitute teacher with grades ranging from K-8.

Professional career

Dallas Cowboys

Hunter was selected by the

in the fifth round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He was declared inactive for the first 2 games of the season. He also missed 2 games with an ankle injury. He finished the year after playing in 11 games (2 starts), registering 27 tackles (21 solo) and one interception. The next year, he suffered a fractured left forearm and was forced to miss the first three preseason games. He recovered in time to play in all 16 regular season games and finished with 19 tackles (18 solo), 4 passes defensed and one interception. He played the nickel back role and was one of the leaders in

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

tackles (11). Hunter entered his third season as the team's starting right corner before suffering an ACL tear in his right knee in the third game of the season and being placed on the injured reserve list, after registering 9 tackles, one interception, one sack and one pass defensed. In 2005, it was implied that he might be moved to

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

after

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Anthony Henry was signed to take over the right

job. Hunter and his agent started to ask for a trade and on July 14 he was sent to the New York Jets for a conditional sixth round draft pick in the 2007 NFL Draft (#200-Melila Purcell), after he stated to the Dallas media that he did not want to be moved to

and he only wanted to play the

position. In his time with the Cowboys, he racked up 43 tackles and three interceptions in 30 games.

New York Jets

In 2005, the New York Jets acquired Hunter to replace the retired

Donnie Abraham Nathaniel Donnell Abraham (born October 8, 1973) is an American football coach and former cornerback who is the current Defensive Coordinator for St. Louis Battlehawks. In his career, he played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1996–2001) and the ...

at the left cornerback position. Missing some practices early in training camp due to knee swelling, he was waived on August 10, after being on the team for less than three weeks.

Cleveland Browns

On December 6, 2005, the

signed him as a

. He saw action as a

player in the last four games but accumulated no statistics. His contract was terminated prior to the start of the regular season on September 2, 2006.

Seattle Seahawks

On January 2, 2007, he was signed as a

to the Seattle Seahawks on the recommendation of head coach

Mike Holmgren Michael George Holmgren (born June 15, 1948) is a former American football coach and executive. He began his NFL career as a quarterbacks' coach and later as an offensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers, where they won Super Bowls XXI ...

, to provide depth after they lost three of their four active cornerbacks to injury prior to the playoffs. On January 6, he played his first game in Seattle, a Wild Card Playoff game against his former team the

. Hunter had three tackles, defended one pass, and recovered a

Jason Witten Christopher Jason Witten (born May 6, 1982) is an American former professional football player who was a tight end for 17 seasons, primarily for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Univers ...

fumble. He was also the player who knocked down the Cowboys last second Hail Mary pass to seal the victory. In a postgame interview on the Seahawks team site, he was quoted as saying: "I don't know when I'm going to wake up – I'm not going to go to sleep tonight". This was also the game where

Tony Romo Antonio Ramiro Romo (born April 21, 1980) is an American sportscaster and former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Eastern Illino ...

serving as the holder for the

kicker Kicker or The Kicker may refer to: Sports * Placekicker, a position in American and Canadian football * ''Kicker'' (sports magazine), in Germany * Kicker, the German colloquial term for an association football player * Kicker, the word used i ...

, fumbled the snap of a potential game-winning field goal with 1:19 to play. On January 14, he played against the

Bears Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

in Chicago in a divisional playoff game. When

Rex Grossman Rex Daniel Grossman III (born August 23, 1980) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons, most notably with the Chicago Bears. He played college football at Florida, where he rece ...

underthrew a receiver, Hunter intercepted a pass at a pivotal point in the fourth quarter, preventing the Bears from scoring a touchdown. Unfortunately, the Seahawks threw an interception on the very next play and would lose the game with a field goal in overtime. He was waived on September 1, 2007.

All American Football League

On January 26, 2008, Hunter was selected in the fourth round of the inaugural

2008 AAFL Draft The 2008 All American Football League Draft took place in Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital city, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It ...

by Team Florida. However, the

All American Football League The All American Football League (AAFL) was a proposed professional american football minor league. The league, which was to combine a professional pay structure with the requirement that all players be college graduates, had originally been sch ...

announced that it was postponing its inaugural season until 2009 due to financial constraints.

Dallas Desperados (AFL)

On March 20,

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; ...

, he signed with the

Dallas Desperados The Dallas Desperados were a professional arena football team based in Dallas, Texas. The Desperados played in the Eastern Division of the Arena Football League from 2002 to 2008. The franchise began play in as an expansion team, and have post ...

of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

, who were owned by

Jerry Jones Jerral Wayne Jones (born October 13, 1942) is an American businessman who has been the owner, president, and general manager of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL) since February 1989. Early life Jones was born in Los Ange ...

, who also owned the

. He played in six games with five starts (inactive in five games), registering 23.5 tackles (fifth-most on the team), one interception and three passes defensed. He was placed on the reserve/left squad on June 10, for undisclosed reasons.

Toronto Argonauts (CFL)

On August 25,

, Hunter was signed to the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

practice roster In sports, the practice squad, also called the taxi squad or practice roster, is a group of players signed by a team but not part of their main roster. Frequently used in gridiron football, they serve as extra players during the team's practices, ...

. He was released at the end of the

training camp A training camp is an organized period in which military personnel or athletes participate in a rigorous and focused schedule of training in order to learn or improve skills. Athletes typically utilise training camps to prepare for upcoming events, ...

on June 25.

Personal life

After being cut by the

, he moved back to Dallas and began his career as a loan officer with the Petra Lending Group. He also begun training to be a United States border agent.

References

External links

The Rookie
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Pete 1980 births Living people Atlantic City High School alumni Sportspeople from Atlantic City, New Jersey Players of American football from New Jersey American football cornerbacks Virginia Union Panthers football players Virginia Union University alumni Dallas Cowboys players Dallas Desperados players Cleveland Browns players Seattle Seahawks players Toronto Argonauts players