Moritz Wilhelm Böhringer (born October 16, 1993) is a German professional

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...

. He was drafted by the

Minnesota Vikings The Minnesota Vikings are a professional American football team based in Minneapolis. The Vikings compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. Founded in 1960 as ...

in the sixth round of the

2016 NFL draft The 2016 NFL draft was the 81st annual draft of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. As in 2015, the draft took place at the Auditorium Theatre and Grant Park in Chicago. The draft beg ...

. Böhringer was the first European player to be selected in the

NFL draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

without playing any

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

Early life

Böhringer played youth soccer in two local clubs in his hometown of

Aalen Aalen (; Swabian German, Swabian: ''Oole'') is a town located in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, about east of Stuttgart and north of Ulm. It is the seat of the Ostalbkreis district and is its largest town. It is ...

. He says that he was inspired to play

after watching a highlight reel of former

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 American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...

Adrian Peterson on

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when he was 17. In 2010, the town had the fledgling ''Aalen Limes Praetorians'' and even a baseball team, but no opportunity to play American football in a local junior team. Prior to being drafted into the NFL, Böhringer was majoring in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

at .

Professional career

Crailsheim Titans

Böhringer joined the Crailsheim Titans under-19 junior team in 2011. In 2013 and 2014, he played for the Crailsheim Titans senior squad in

Oberliga Baden-Württemberg The Oberliga Baden-Württemberg is the highest association football league in the States of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg and the Baden-Württemberg football league system. It is one of fourteen Oberliga (football), Oberligas in German footb ...

Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns (first stint)

For the 2015 season, he moved to the nearby two-time German champions, the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns of the

German Football League The German Football League (GFL) is a professional American football league in Germany. The league was formed in 1979. In 1999, the league changed to its current name from American-Football-Bundesliga.

(GFL). Parallel to the national league regular seasons, some of the best European American football clubs, mainly from German-speaking countries plus France, compete for the Eurobowl in the BIG6 European Football League. Böhringer's first big game was the Eurobowl XXIX 21–14 loss at the Braunschweig New Yorker Lions in June 2015. The Unicorns placed first in the GFL South Conference, advancing to the playoffs which ended in another loss (41–31) to the Lions in German Bowl XXXVII. Böhringer played 16 GFL games and had 59 receptions for 1,232 yards and 13

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s. He also had 14 kickoff returns for 415 yards and two touchdowns.

National Football League

Pre-draft

In early 2016, NFL scouts invited Böhringer to a

Pro Day The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

hosted by the

Florida Atlantic Owls football The Florida Atlantic Owls football program represents Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in the sport of American football. The Owls compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegia ...

team.

Minnesota Vikings

Böhringer was selected in the sixth round (180th overall) of the

by the

. He signed his contract with the team on May 2, 2016. The same month, the NFL approved the use of the umlaut on his jersey, similar to the use of the

cedilla A cedilla ( ; from Spanish language, Spanish ', "small ''ceda''", i.e. small "z"), or cedille (from French , ), is a hook or tail () added under certain letters (as a diacritic, diacritical mark) to indicate that their pronunciation is modif ...

for Pierre Garçon. On September 3, 2016, Böhringer was released by the Vikings as part of final roster cuts and was re-signed to the

practice squad In gridiron football, 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. They serve as extra players during the team's practices, often as part of the scou ...

the next day. After spending the entire season on the practice squad, Böhringer signed a reserve/futures contract with the Vikings on January 2, 2017. On September 2, 2017, Böhringer was waived by the Vikings.

Cincinnati Bengals

On May 1, 2018, Böhringer was signed by the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

as part of the NFL's International Player Pathway program after he chose to transition to

. He was waived on September 1, 2018, and was signed to the practice squad the next day. He signed a reserve/future contract with the Bengals on December 31, 2018. On August 31, 2019, Böhringer was waived during final roster cuts and signed to the practice squad the next day. He signed a

futures contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The item tr ...

with the Bengals on December 30, 2019. He was waived on August 3, 2020.

Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns (second stint)

Böhringer once more played for the Unicorns in the 2021 GFL season in which his team went 10–0 in the regular season before losing German Bowl XLII 28–19 to the Dresden Monarchs. In 13 games (regular season and playoffs combined) Böhringer had 37 receptions for 691 yards, leading his team in both categories. He scored 9 touchdowns through the air and had a rushing touchdown with three rushes for 30 yards.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bohringer, Moritz 1993 births Living people Sportspeople from Stuttgart American football tight ends American football wide receivers German players of American football German Football League players Minnesota Vikings players Cincinnati Bengals players International Player Pathway participants German expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate players of American football