Gosder Cherilus (; born June 28, 1984) is a former

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

offensive tackle Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tendency to cause acts of violence by the ...

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). 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 ...

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

, and was selected by the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. The team plays their home game ...

17th overall in the

2008 NFL draft The 2008 NFL draft was the 73rd NFL draft, annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. The draft took place at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, New York (state), New York ...

. Cherilus also played for the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...

and

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

Early life

Cherilus played

high school football High school football, also known as prep football, is gridiron football played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular high school sports, interscholastic sports in both c ...

at Somerville High School in

Somerville, Massachusetts Somerville ( ) is a city located directly to the northwest of Boston, and north of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the city had a total population of 81, ...

. Playing for Somerville head coaches Tony Gulla and Francis McCarthy, Cherilus earned All-State honors.

College career

2003 season

Cherilus

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

for the

Boston College Eagles The Boston College Eagles are the athletic teams that represent Boston College, located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level ( Football Bowl Subdivis ...

2004 season

Cherilus was the only redshirt freshman to start for the Eagles. He helped the Eagles to average 385.4 yards per game in total offense.

2005 season

He started all 12 contests at right tackle during 2005 season. He worked well with right guard Josh Beekman, as the pair helped the Eagles record 387.75 total yards per game.

2006 season

In 2006, Cherilus started in all 13 games at right tackle and paved the way for seven 100-yard rushing games and a collective 1,424 rushing yards by L. V. Whitworth and Andre Callender. He helped the team average 114.5 yards per game on the ground and 355.6 yards in total offense. He played at the 2006 Meineke Car Care Bowl win over

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

2007 season

He was named all-

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...

(ACC) second-team selection and recipient of the team’s Unsung Hero Award, Cherilus started 14 games at left tackle, helping BC rank seventh in the nation with an average of 323.9 yards per game passing, he registered 77 knockdowns with twelve touchdown-resulting blocks, finishing with a 78.0 percent grade for blocking consistency and also helped hold opponents to only 61 tackles-for-loss (fifth in the nation) and 22 sacks. He served as team captain, along with Nick Larkin, Jo-Lonn Dunbar and Matt Ryan, who was also selected in the first round; third overall to

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

of the

. He was part of an offensive line that helped support Ryan in his record-setting season including a career-high five touchdown passes against Wake Forest and pave the way for the Eagles 5,924 yards in total offense. He started in the victory over

Michigan State Spartans The Michigan State Spartans are the athletic teams that represent Michigan State University. The school's athletic program includes 23 Varsity team, varsity sports teams. Their mascot is a Spartan Army, Spartan warrior named Sparty, and the sc ...

in the 2007 Champs Sports Bowl and in the 2007 ACC Championship Game loss to

Virginia Tech The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...

. Cherilus started a school-record 51 straight games.

Professional career

Detroit Lions

The Lions selected Cherilus in the first round with the 17th overall pick in the 2008 NFL Draft. As a rookie, Cherilus became a starter in the offensive line in his third game in the league replacing George Foster, and held that position for most of the 2008 season. As a rookie, he appeared in 16 games and started 13. In the 2009 season, he started all of the regular season games but Week 5. In the 2010 season, he started the first 12 games before suffering a season-ending knee injury. In the 2011 season, he started in all of the regular season games but Week 2. In addition, he started in the Lions' playoff game. In the 2012 season, he started in all 16 regular season games.

Indianapolis Colts

On March 12, 2013, Cherilus signed a five-year, $35 million with the

. Upon signing his contract with the Colts, Cherilus was the highest paid right tackle in the NFL at that time. He played the right tackle position opposite left tackle Anthony Castonzo. In 2013, he started all 16 games and started in the Colts' two postseason games. In 2014, Cherilus started 13 games, including his 100th career start in week 15. He missed the final two weeks of the regular season due to injury, and was placed on season-ending injured reserve on December 31, which is New Year's Eve. On July 26, 2015, Cherilus was released by the Colts, two years into his five-year contract, having started 29 games.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

On August 17, 2015, Cherilus signed a two-year contract with the

. During the 2015 season with the Buccaneers, Cherilus started in all 13 games he played for the team. In the 2016 season, he played in 15 games, starting in three. On March 16, 2017, Cherilus announced his retirement from the NFL.

Personal life

Cherilus established the Gosder Cherilus Foundation, a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

with a goal to "improve the lives of underserved and underprivileged populations in the United States and Haiti." On August 18, 2024, Cherilus was arrested "after he allegedly urinated on another passenger during a cross-Atlantic flight." His actions caused the

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

flight he was on, which had departed

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

for

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, to return to Boston, where he was arrested by

Massachusetts State Police The Massachusetts State Police (MSP) is an agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, responsible for law enforcement and vehicle regulation across the state. As of 2024, it has 2,500 sworn troop ...

. In a statement issued the following day, Cherilus noted, in part, that he "took a sleeping medication that I don’t normally use, which resulted in behavior that is not representative of my character".

References

External links

Boston College Eagles bio
via

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched for public access in 2001, the service allows users to go "back in ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cherilus, Gosder 1984 births Living people American football offensive tackles Boston College Eagles football players Detroit Lions players Indianapolis Colts players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Haitian emigrants to the United States Haitian players of American football Players of American football from Middlesex County, Massachusetts Sportspeople from Somerville, Massachusetts