Derek Lance Rackley (born July 18, 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 ...

long snapper In American football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a center on special teams whose duty is to snap the football over a longer distance, typically around 15 yards during punts, and 7–8 yards during field goals and extra point at ...

and

tight end The tight end (TE) is a position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football, on the offense (sports), offense. The tight end is often a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide ...

who played 8 seasons 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). Rackley is currently a football analyst and broadcaster for the Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast nightly television show, ''SportsNite'', as well as a game and studio analyst for the Big Ten Network (BTN) and Westwood One. Rackley also regularly appears on ''The Big Ten Pulse'' also on BTN. Derek Rackley worked as an Analyst for select Sunday night Football games on Westward One in 2021.

High school years

Rackley was born in

Apple Valley, Minnesota Apple Valley is a city in northwestern Dakota County in the State of Minnesota, and a suburb of the Twin Cities. The population was 56,374 at the 2020 census, making it the 17th most populous city in Minnesota. In 2014, Money.com' named Apple ...

and attended

Apple Valley High School Apple Valley High School is the name of two high schools in the United States: * Apple Valley High School (California) * Apple Valley High School (Minnesota) {{Schooldis ...

in Apple Valley. As a senior, he was an All-State Honorable Mention honoree and an Academic All-State honoree. He graduated in 1995 from Apple Valley High School with honors.

College career

Rackley attended the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

and was a four-year letterman in football. He saw action as tight end, in addition to handling long snapper duties for four years. He worked for

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company ori ...

in Minnesota before he began his professional career.

Professional career

Rackley caught the only touchdown of his career on December 30, 2001 when the Falcons were playing at the

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

References

External links

Pro-Football-Reference.ComBig Ten Network

1977 births American football tight ends American football long snappers Atlanta Falcons players College football announcers National Football League announcers Living people Minnesota Golden Gophers football players Seattle Seahawks players People from Apple Valley, Minnesota Players of American football from Minnesota Apple Valley High School (Minnesota) alumni {{tightend-1970s-stub