Darren Mickell
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Darren Mickell (born August 3, 1970) 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
defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...
for 10 seasons 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) during the 1990s and early 2000s. Mickell 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
Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the College sports in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, Florida, Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni an ...
, and thereafter, he played in the NFL for the
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...
, the
New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. Since 1975, the team ...
, the
San Diego Chargers The San Diego Chargers were a professional American football team in the National Football League (NFL). The Chargers played in San Diego, California from 1961 until 2016, before relocating back to the Greater Los Angeles area, where the franch ...
and the
Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team based in Oakland, California, from its founding in 1960 to 1981, and again from 1995 to 2019 before Oakland Raiders relocation to Las Vegas, relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan ...
.


Early years

Mickell was born in
Miami, Florida Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
, in 1970.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Darren Mickell
Retrieved July 19, 2010.
He attended
Miami Senior High School Miami Senior High School, also known as Miami High School, is a public high school located at 2450 SW 1st Street in Miami, Florida, and operated by Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Founded in 1903, it is one of the oldest high schools in Miam ...
, and played high school football for the Miami
Stingaree The Stingaree was a neighborhood in downtown San Diego from the boom of the 1880s until it was demolished during a vice eradication campaign of 1916. It was the site of the city's Chinatown.Elizabeth Perl (Spring, 1977). San Diego's Chinese Mis ...
s.databaseFootball.com, Players, . Retrieved July 19, 2010.


College career

Mickell accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
in
Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, United States, and the most populous city in North Central Florida, with a population of 145,212 in 2022. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gainesv ...
, where he played for coach
Steve Spurrier Stephen Orr Spurrier (born April 20, 1945) is an American former football player and coach. He played ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL) before coaching for 38 years, primarily in college. He is often referred to by his nicknam ...
's Gators teams in
1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...
and
1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...
.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 98, 154, 184 (2011). Retrieved August 31, 2011.
Mickell was a highly regarded recruit who was signed by the Gators' previous head coach,
Galen Hall Galen Samuel Hall (born August 14, 1940) is a retired American college and professional football coach and player. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and an alumnus of Penn State University, where he played college football. Hall was previously the ...
, but he did not qualify academically and was ineligible to play under the NCAA's Proposition 48 legislation during his
freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...
season in
1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...
. Spurrier subsequently benched him for the first five games of the 1991 season for his failure to attend classes as required. After his return to the playing field, Mickell was one of the defensive heroes in the Gators' 14–9 upset of the
Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University (FSU) located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I, prima ...
in November 1991—widely regarded as one of the closest and hardest-fought games in the Florida-Florida State rivalry series. Mickell lettered in 1990 and 1991, and left school a year early, after being suspended for the 1992 season for undisclosed violations of team rules.Associated Press,
Chiefs take former Gator Mickell in draft
" ''The Gainesville Sun'', p. 1C (August 25, 1992). Retrieved July 20, 2010.


Professional career

The
Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) West division. Established in 1959 ...
selected Mickell in the second round of the 1992 NFL Supplemental Draft. He played for the Chiefs for four seasons from to .National Football League, Historical Players
Darren Mickell
Retrieved July 19, 2010.
Mickell was traded to the New Orleans Saints after the 1995 season, and was a consistent starter for the Saints from to . He signed with the San Diego Chargers a one-year deal as a free agent in ,Associated Press,
Chargers sign Chancey, Mickell
" ''Lodi News-Sentinel'', p. 14 (February 26, 2000). Retrieved July 20, 2010.
and the Oakland Raiders in . In his eight NFL seasons, Mickell played in eighty-nine regular season games, started sixty-one of them, and recorded 178 tackles and eleven forced fumbles.


Life after football

Mickell is the father of four children: eldest son Darren C. Mickell, Delesha Mickell, Darreon Mickell and Anyae Mickell.


See also

*
Florida Gators football, 1990–99 The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Southeastern Confe ...
* List of Kansas City Chiefs players * List of New Orleans Saints players


References


Bibliography

* Carlson, Norm, ''University of Florida Football Vault: The History of the Florida Gators'', Whitman Publishing, LLC, Atlanta, Georgia (2007). . * Golenbock, Peter, ''Go Gators! An Oral History of Florida's Pursuit of Gridiron Glory'', Legends Publishing, LLC, St. Petersburg, Florida (2002). . * Hairston, Jack, ''Tales from the Gator Swamp: A Collection of the Greatest Gator Stories Ever Told'', Sports Publishing, LLC, Champaign, Illinois (2002). . * McCarthy, Kevin M.,
Fightin' Gators: A History of University of Florida Football
', Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (2000). . * Nash, Noel, ed., ''The Gainesville Sun Presents The Greatest Moments in Florida Gators Football'', Sports Publishing, Inc., Champaign, Illinois (1998). . {{DEFAULTSORT:Mickell, Darren 1970 births Living people American football defensive ends Florida Gators football players Kansas City Chiefs players New Orleans Saints players Oakland Raiders players Players of American football from Miami San Diego Chargers players Miami Senior High School alumni