Last week, I tracked down the whereabouts of former Cougar basketball and baseball players. This week, I’ll turn my attention to football and any other Cougs out there making waves that I can find.
It’s somehwat tricky to get the most up-to-date information on the roster status of NFL players these days. Apparently the players left their keys in the house or something. Get it? They’re locked out. Zing! I’ll do my best to find the details of where our Cougs stand. Here we go…
Hamza Abdullah – The older of the the Brothers Abdullah, Hamza played appeared in six games last year for the Arizona Cardinals. He was signed to a one year deal in the spring of 2010 and was yet to be re-signed before the lockout so he’ll likely be on the market when NFL business resumes.
Husain Abdullah – Hamza’s younger brother made more of a mark on the league last year, starting 15 games for the Vikings totalling 75 tackles and three interceptions. Husain was tendered an offer on March 3 so it’s likely we’ll see him back in a Vikings jersey next season.
Tyron Brackenridge – The 2007 graduate will enter his fifth season in the NFL next year and third with the Jaguars after re-signing with the team on March 3. Look for Tyron to add to his career total of zero interceptions next season. This is the year!
Erik Coleman – The pride of Spokane was so in demand this offseason that he signed with the Lions during the brief period of time that NFL transactions actually could occur. According to Twitter, Coleman will be back in his old stomping grounds next weekend to check out the spring game. Feel free to stop by the WSU Football Blog tailgate, Erik. Lunch is on us.
Jed Collins – JedZillah’s football odyssey continues. His story is fairly incredible really. Since leaving WSU in 2008, Collins has now been a member of a quarter of the NFL’s teams, primarily as a practice squad player. Over three years and eight teams, Collins has only appeared on an active gameday roster twice (for the Browns in 2008). He spent last season on the Saints practice squad. Enormous credit goes to Jed for sticking with it all these years. It remains to be seen if the journey will continue in 2011.
Eric Frampton – Making his living on special teams, Frampton shares a smiliar bio to Husain Abdullah’s. He was also tendered an offer on March 3 and will also likely continue his career in Minnesota next season. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s five defensive backs in the first six players.
Brandon Gibson – Remember the names Arkelon Hall and Shelton Danzy? They were the more heralded of three tightly knit recruits in WSU’s class of 2005. The third member of that trio and the only one to ever make an impression in Pullman was Gibson. Now making his mark in the NFL, Gibson spent 2010 with the upstart Rams, racking up 53 catches for 620 yards. Catching balls from Sam Bradford over the next few years could be a pretty sweet gig. An interesting nugget I found out about Brandon while looking up his information is that he and I share the same birthday and were both born in Germany (albeit six years later for me). Awesome, but how did I not know this?
Jason Hanson – Assuming he plays in 2011, Hanson will enter his 21st season in the NFL. 21st! Jason Hanson’s NFL career can buy beer. For arguments sake, is Jason Hanson the best Cougar NFLer of all time? Discuss among yourselves.
Jerome Harrison – The Ghost finally was set free from Cleveland last season. After what seemed to be a breakout season in 2009 (862 yards and 5 TD’s), Harrison was relegated back to his back-up role for the Browns before being traded to Philly. Things were looking good there when he had a 100 yard day in his second game as an Eagle, but his carries in the subsequent five weeks were 0, 1, 3, 1 and 1. With the outcome of the season no longer in doubt, Harrison got 21 carries in week 17 and piled up 99 yards, only to be irrelevant in the Eagles’ playoff lost to the Packers. What does this guy have to do to get a full-time shot somewhere?
Jason Hill – Another Cougar who seems to inexplicably get bounced around in spite of promising performances, Hill seemed to find a home with the Jaguars at the end of 2011. Hopefully his seven catches over the last two weeks of 2010 will carry over to a steady role in 2011.
Rian Lindell – 2010 was another fairly solid one for Lindell, his 12th in the league. The Bills didn’t exactly get into field goal range a lot, but Lindell hit 16 of his 21 field goal attempts. Three of those misses were from 50 yards or more. On top of that, he added 4 tackles and was credited with two forced fumbles last season. That’s how you roll when you’re 6’3”, 233 lbs.
Karl Paymah – Another Coug whom one could give the NFL Journeyman label, Paymah latched on with the Texans last season, but rarely saw time on the active roster. Expect Paymah to get a shot in someone’s camp this summer, or fall or whenever NFL camps open.
Ropati Pitoitua – If you watched Hard Knocks on HBO last year (and why wouldn’t you?!), you’ll know that the big man from Tacoma was a featured player in the dreaded “things are really looking good for this guy, he’s probably gonna help the team, but damn he suffered a season ending injury” storyline. Let’s hope for a return to good health in 2011.
Marcus Trufant – You tell me, Seahawk fans. The local boy turned Pro Bowler signed a six deal back in 2008 and has remained a fixture in the starting lineup, but has seemingly struggled (either with injury or performance) the last couple seasons. Are you Hawk fans out there satisfied with his performance?
That’s it for Cougs currently listed as active on NFL rosters, but there are of plenty of other Cougs getting paid to play football at various levels. I won’t get into too much detail, but here is a rundown of those that I could find:
WSU alums in the CFL include Alex Brink, Adam Braidwood and Joe Eppele.
Wale Dada is a member of the Las Vegas Locomotives in the United Football League, while Devard Darling is a teammate of Maurice Clarett’s for the Omaha Nighthawks of the same league. Also on a UFL roster is Sam Lightbody with the Sacramento Mountain Lions.
Apple Cup hero Trandon Harvey is listed on the roster of the Arizona Rattlers in the Arena Football League.
Charles Dillon is now on the Chicago Rush of the AFL.
Alex Teems remains in Eastern Washington as a member of the Spokane Shock.
The Wenatchee Valley Venom of the Indoor Football League has become a home for former Cougs Ian Bell, Michael Graise and Demaundray Woolridge. Also, former Cougar commit turned USC washout Vincent Joseph is also on their roster. Those that follow recruiting closely should find that name familiar.
Also in the IFL are the Kent Predators, who are by far my favorite indoor team since they had the brilliance to add the one and only Mike Bush to their team. The Preds also feature A’i Ahmu, Jesse Feagin, Xavier Hicks, Greg Trent and Vaughn Lesuma. The Predators look pretty loaded to me. The IFL team in Tri Cities really needs to step their game up and sign some Cougs!
That’s everyone that I can track down. If there are others out there, I’d love to know where they are.
Michael Bumpus recently made headlines in that other football, futbol if you will. That’s right, “Bump City” is now playing soccer with for Tacoma Tide FC. He fared well enough at an open tryout to receive a callback to the next stage of the process. I’ve gotta say I didn’t see this headline coming, but best of luck to him!
Bernard Lagat continues to do WSU proud as the reigning American champ in the 5000m. I just got tired while typing 5000m. Lagat is simply amazing.
Admittedly I’d hoped to find information on other WSU alumni finding success in other sports (track and field, golf, swimming, soccer, etc.) but wasn’t having a lot of luck. Is there anyone out there with better information than what I have? Please add it to the comments if you do.
I hope to meet some readers in Spokane next week at the Spring game. I can’t wait! Until then…
Go Cougs.
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