Orenthal O'Neal (born September 8, 1983) is an American former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who was a fullback for the

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL). He played

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 ...

for the

Arkansas State Red Wolves The Arkansas State Red Wolves are the athletic teams of Arkansas State University. They are a member of the Sun Belt Conference in all sports except women's Ten-pin bowling, bowling, a sport not sponsored by that league, competing at the National ...

and was selected by the

in the sixth round of the

2007 NFL draft The 2007 NFL draft was the 72nd annual meeting of National Football League franchises to select newly eligible American football players. It took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York, on April 28 and April 29, 2007. The draf ...

Early life

O'Neal attended Stuttgart High School in Stuttgart, Arkansas and was considered a hard-working student. He was a letterman in track and field athletics and football, including a two-time All-Conference selection for football where his primary position was offensive lineman.

College career

O'Neal played collegiately at

Arkansas State University Arkansas State University (A-State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States. It is the flagship campus of the Arkansas State University System and the second-largest university in the st ...

for six years. After joining Arkansas State in 2001 as a walk-on, O'Neal was diagnosed with

chylothorax A chylothorax is an abnormal accumulation of chyle, a type of lipid-rich lymph, in the pleural space surrounding the lung. The lymphatic vessels of the digestive system normally return lipids absorbed from the small bowel via the thoracic duct, ...

and subsequently had part of his lung removed. He returned to the football team in 2002 and worked on getting stronger. Before the 2003 season, O'Neal earned a scholarship and was later granted a sixth year of eligibility by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

. His story was told in 2006 by

CBS SportsLine CBSSports.com (formerly CBS SportsLine.com and SportsLine USA) is an American sports news website operated by Paramount Streaming, a division of Paramount Global. It is the website for CBS' CBS Sports, Sports division featuring news, highlight ...

when he was chosen as "National Walk-On of the Year". In the article, he told of sleeping on friends' floors and doing anything else necessary to get by as a walk-on with very little money or resources.

Professional career

O'Neal was selected by the Raiders in the sixth round of the

with the 175th overall pick. He was named the rookie of the year by then-Raiders coach

Lane Kiffin Lane Monte Kiffin (born May 9, 1975) is an American football coach who is the head coach at Ole Miss Rebels football, Ole Miss. Kiffin was the offensive coordinator at USC Trojans football, USC from 2005 to 2006, head coach of the National Foo ...

. He worked his way up the roster both on offense and special teams and played 14 games in 2007, recording one rushing attempt for one yard. O'Neal suffered a knee injury, which was initially thought to be possibly career-threatening, and was placed on injured reserve for the 2008 season on August 25. He was cut by the Raiders in April 2010.

References

;Notes ;Sources
Walking on: Arkansas State fullback refuses to be stopped

External links

Oakland Raiders bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneal, Oren Living people 1983 births People from Stuttgart, Arkansas American football fullbacks Arkansas State Red Wolves football players Oakland Raiders players Players of American football from Arkansas