James David Laughlin (born July 5, 1958) 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

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

in 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

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tree, ...

. Laughlin selected in the fourth round of the

1980 NFL draft The 1980 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 29–30, 1980, at the New York Sh ...

by the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

with the 91st overall pick.

Playing career

Laughlin played

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

at Charles F. Brush High School in his hometown of

Lyndhurst, Ohio Lyndhurst is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States, and an eastern suburb of Cleveland. The population was 14,050 at the United States Census 2020, 2020 census. A small part of Lyndhurst was originally part of Mayfield Township, Cuyahoga ...

. He graduated from Charles F. Brush High school in 1976. As a team captain during his senior year of 1979 at Ohio State, Laughlin (along with Mike D'Andrea) had a share in a blocked punt against

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, which was returned for what eventually proved to be the winning touchdown by Todd Bell. The play put the Buckeyes on top 18–15, sending the team to the 1980 Rose Bowl. In 1979 Laughlin was the Buckeyes MVP and an Academic All-

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...

honoree. He was also a 1979 winner of the National Football Foundation and Hall of Fame Scholarship, awarded annually to the top 13 players in college football.

References

1958 births Living people American football linebackers Atlanta Falcons players Green Bay Packers players Los Angeles Rams players Ohio State Buckeyes football players Players of American football from Cleveland NFL replacement players 20th-century American sportsmen {{linebacker-1950s-stub