Herman Brad Baxter (born May 5, 1967) 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 ...

fullback 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) from 1989 to 1995. 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

Alabama State Hornets The Alabama State Hornets and Lady Hornets represent Alabama State University in Montgomery, Alabama in intercollegiate athletics. They field sixteen teams including men and women's basketball, cross country, golf, tennis, and track and field; wom ...

. Selected 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 11th round of the

1989 NFL draft The 1989 NFL draft (also known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting) was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. The draft was held April 23–24, 1989, at the Marriott Marquis in Ne ...

, Baxter failed to make the team but caught on with the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

. After not seeing the field in 1989 Baxter, the team's starting fullback, made his mark in 1990 by rushing for 539 yards on 124 carries in ten starts. Baxter had perhaps his best year as a pro in 1991, as his eleven rushing

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 ranked third in the NFL (leading the AFC) and he rushed for a career high 666 yards as the Jets made the playoffs. His rushing numbers increased in 1992 as he recorded 696 yards and six touchdowns. After the 1993 season, Baxter's rushing totals began to diminish as he was featured less and less in the offense. He missed the first week of mandatory minicamp in May 1996 due to an incident involving his off-season vocation as a

truck driver A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; an HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...

transporting

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

between

Enterprise, Alabama Enterprise is a city in the southeastern part of Coffee County, Alabama, Coffee County and the southwestern part of Dale County, Alabama, Dale County in Southeastern Alabama, United States. Its population was 28,711 at the 2020 United States cen ...

and

Amarillo, Texas Amarillo ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Potter County, Texas, Potter County, though most of the southern half of the city extends into Randall County, Texas, Randall County ...

. During his final haul the day before reporting for the start of camp, he was detained for twelve hours in

Augusta, Georgia Augusta is a city on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies directly across the Savannah River from North Augusta, South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Augusta, the third mos ...

when

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inspectors checked his

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and discovered that he had been on the road too long without a break. He fell out of favor with

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Rich Kotite and

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

Ron Erhardt Ronald Peter Erhardt (February 27, 1931 – March 21, 2012) was an American football coach at both the collegiate and professional levels. From 1979 to 1981 he served as head coach of the National Football League (NFL)'s New England Patriots. E ...

, was replaced by Richie Anderson as the starting fullback and released by the Jets on August 25, 1996.Eskenazi, Gerald. "Baxter, His Role Shrinking, Cut by Jets," ''The New York Times'', Monday, August 26, 1996.
Retrieved October 9, 2021

NFL career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baxter, Brad 1967 births Living people American football running backs Alabama State Hornets football players New York Jets players Players of American football from Dothan, Alabama