DaShon Lamor Polk (born March 13, 1977) is a former

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ma ...

(NFL). He played professionally for the

Buffalo Bills The Buffalo Bills are a professional American football team based in the Buffalo metropolitan area. The Bills compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division ...

and Houston Texans.

Early life

Polk was born in Pacoima, California and attended Taft High School where he was selected for All-City. Polk played college football at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. ...

and was a three-year starter.

Professional career

Polk was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in the seventh round (251st pick overall) in the

2000 NFL Draft The 2000 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur U.S. college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 15– 16, 2000, at the Th ...

. He played for the Bills from 2000 to 2003, before playing for the Houston Texans from 2004 to 2006. Polk played seven seasons, accumulating 224 tackles, 4.5 sacks, and two forced fumbles, in the NFL before retiring. Now Dashon L. Polk has retired (2007). He has a wife of 17 years and 3 children, Dashon Polk II, Trinity Polk, and Cherish Polk.

References

External links

Los Angeles Times: DaShon Polk
1977 births Living people American football linebackers Buffalo Bills players Houston Texans players Arizona Wildcats football players William Howard Taft Charter High School alumni {{Texas-bio-stub