Taylor Mays
Taylor Mays (born February 7, 1988) is an American former professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL). He won Washington state titles in track in both the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash as a high school sophomore, before leaving track and field to dedicate himself to football. He played college football for the USC Trojans, and was a three-time first-team All-American. He was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the second round of the 2010 NFL draft and also played in the NFL for the Cincinnati Bengals and Oakland Raiders, playing in 66 regular season NFL games. Early life Mays was born in Irving, Texas, the son of Stafford Mays, a former NFL defensive tackle, and Laurie Mays (née Black), a Nordstrom executive. He is African-American and Jewish and was raised in his mother's Jewish religion. Growing up he attended Sunday school from a young age, and then Hebrew school twice a week. He had a football-themed bar mitzvah in Februar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Irving, Texas
Irving is a city in Dallas County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and is an Inner suburb, inner city suburb of Dallas. Irving is noted for its #Demographics, racial and ethnic diversity. The city had a population of 256,684 according to the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Texas by population, twelfth-most populous city in Texas, and the List of cities in the United States by population, 90th most populous in the U.S. Irving includes the Las Colinas, Irving, Texas, Las Colinas mixed-use master-planned community and part of the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. History Irving was founded in 1903 by J.O. "Otto" Schulze and Otis Brown. It is believed literary author Washington Irving was a favorite of Netta Barcus Brown, and consequently the name of the town site, Irving, was chosen. Irving began in 1889 as an area called Gorbit, and in 1894 the name changed to Kit. Irving was incorpo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Pac-12 Conference Football Individual Awards
Coaches of the Pac-12 Conference bestow the following awards at the end of each football season. The conference was founded in its current form as the Athletic Association of Western Universities in 1959, but traces its roots to the Pacific Coast Conference, founded in 1915. The conference name changed to Pacific-8 Conference (Pac-8) in 1968 and Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) in 1978. The conference's 2011 expansion to 12 members saw the conference formally renamed as the Pac-12 Conference. Player of the Year Award started in 1975 as Player of the Year, any offensive or defensive players could be winners, but only offensive players won it. The award was replaced with separate offensive and defensive selections in 1983. Offensive Player of the Year Pat Tillman Defensive Player of the Year From 1983 to 2003, this award was known simply as Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. In 2004, the award was renamed as Pat Tillman Defensive Player of the Year in honor of Arizona State's ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Defensive Tackle
A defensive tackle (DT) is a position in American football that typically lines up on the line of scrimmage, opposite one of the Guard (American football), offensive guards; however, he may also line up opposite one of the offensive Tackle (gridiron football position), tackles. Defensive tackles are typically the largest and strongest of the defensive players. Depending on a team's defensive scheme, a defensive tackle may be called upon to fill several different roles. These may include merely holding the point of attack by refusing to be moved, or penetrating a certain gap between offensive linemen to break up a play in the opponent's backfield. If a defensive tackle reads a pass play, his primary responsibility is to pursue the quarterback, or simply knock the pass down at the line if it is within arm's reach. Other responsibilities of the defensive tackle may be to pursue the screen pass or drop into coverage in a zone blitz scheme. In a traditional 4–3 defense, there is no nos ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Stafford Mays
Stafford Earl Mays (born March 13, 1958) is a former American football defensive tackle. Life and career Mays was born in Lawrence, Kansas. He went to Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Washington. Mays played junior college football at Mount Hood Community College. He later played college football at the University of Washington. Mays played in the National Football League as a defensive end and defensive tackle for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Minnesota Vikings between 1980 and 1988. Mays later worked as an executive at Microsoft. Mays's son, Taylor Mays, was a standout player at O'Dea High School in Seattle and then the University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in .... He went on to play safety in both the NFL and CFL. References 19 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2010 NFL Draft
The 2010 NFL draft was the 75th annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible football players. The 2010 NFL draft, draft took place over three days, at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, with the first round on April 22, 2010. The second and third rounds took place on April 23, while the final four rounds were held on April 24. Television coverage was provided by both NFL Network and ESPN. The 2010 St. Louis Rams season, St. Louis Rams, as the team with the worst record during the 2009 NFL season, 2009 season, selected quarterback Sam Bradford with the first pick. Three of the top four picks were members of the Oklahoma Sooners football team, and five of the top six were from the Big 12 Conference. The prime time broadcast of the first round was watched by 7.29 million viewers making it the most viewed first round ever and making ESPN the second most watched network of the night. Overview Of the 255 players drafted 216 (or 84%) were am ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
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, first gained popularity in the United States. Like gridiron football generally, college football is most popular in the United States and Canada. While no single governing body exists for college football in the United States, most schools, especially those at the highest levels of play, are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA. In Canada, collegiate football competition is governed by U Sports for universities. The Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (for colleges) governs soccer and other sports but not gridiron football. Other countries, such as Organización Nacional Estudiantil de Fútbol Americano, Mexico, American football in Japan, Japan and Korea American Football Association, South Korea, also host colle ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
200-meter Dash
The 200 metres, or 200-meter dash, is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400-metre racetrack, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques is needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the '' stadion'' and run on a straight track, was the first recorded event at the ancient Olympic Games. The 200 m places more emphasis on speed endurance than shorter sprint distances as athletes predominantly rely on anaerobic energy system during the 200 m sprint. Similarly to other sprint distances, the 200 m begins from the starting blocks. When the sprinters adopt the 'set' position in the blocks they are able to adopt a more efficient starting posture and isometrically preload their muscles. This enables them to stride forwards more powerfully when the race begins and start faster. In the United States and elsewhere, athletes previously ran the 220-yard dash (201.168 m) instead of the 200 m (2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
100-meter Dash
The 100 metres, or 100-meter dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, the dash is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 for men and since 1928 for women. The inaugural World Championships were in 1983. On an outdoor 400-metre running track, the 100 m is held on the home straight, with the start usually being set on an extension to make it a straight-line race. There are three instructions given to the runners immediately before and at the beginning of the race: "on your marks", "set", and the firing of the starter's pistol. The runners move to the starting blocks when they hear the 'on your marks' instruction. The following instruction, to adopt the 'set' position, allows them to adopt a more efficient starting posture and isometrically preload their muscles: this will help them to start faster. A race-official then fire ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
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 Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and the highest professional level of American football in the world. Each NFL season begins annually with a NFL preseason, three-week preseason in August, followed by the NFL regular season, 18-week regular season, which runs from early September to early January, with each team playing 17 games and having one Bye (sports), bye week. Following the conclusion of the regular season, seven teams from each conference, including the four division winners and three Wild card (sports), wild card teams, advance to the NFL playoffs, playoffs, a single-elimination tournament, which culminates in the Super Bowl, played in early February ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Safety (American Football Position)
Safety (S), historically known as a safetyman, is a position in gridiron football on the American football positions#Defense, defense. The safeties are defensive backs who line up ten to fifteen yards from the line of scrimmage. There are two variations of the position: the free safety (FS) and the strong safety (SS). Their duties depend on the defensive scheme. The defensive responsibilities of the safety and cornerback usually involve pass coverage towards the middle and sidelines of the field. While American (11-player) formations generally use two safeties, Canadian (12-player) formations generally have one safety and two Halfback (Canadian football), defensive halfbacks, a position not used in the American game. As professional and college football have become more focused on the passing game, safeties have become more involved in covering the Eligible receiver, eligible pass receivers.Safeties are the last line of defense; they are expected to be reliable tacklers, and many ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Gridiron Football
Gridiron football ( ),"Gridiron football" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved October 20, 2010. also known as North American football, or in North America as simply football, is a family of team sports derived from (and football, by extension) primarily played in the and . [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
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 touchdown by advancing the football into the opponent's end zone. More specifically, a touchdown is when a player is in possession of the ball, any part of the ball is in the end zone they are attacking, and the player is not down. Because of the speed at which football happens, it is often hard for an official to make the correct call based on their vantage point alone. Most professional football leagues, such as the National Football League (NFL) and the Canadian Football League (CFL), as well as some college leagues, such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), allow certain types of plays to be reviewed. Among these plays are touchdowns, as well as all other scoring plays, dangerous or unsportsmanlike conduct by players o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |