James Kovach (born May 1, 1956) is an American entrepreneur,

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

, attorney and 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 ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

who played seven 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) for 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 ...

and

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners and nicknamed the Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member ...

. 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 ...

at the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

, where he also studied medicine.

Early life

Kovach played as a

at University of Kentucky while studying pre-medicine. Because he had an injury-related

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Sports * Redshirt (college sports) 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 ...

season, he played his senior year of eligibility while taking his freshman year at University of Kentucky College of Medicine.

Career

National Football League

Kovach was drafted by the

in the

1979 NFL draft The 1979 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 3–4, 1979, at the Waldorf Astoria ...

and played for the team for six seasons, while completing his medical education at University of Kentucky College of Medicine in the off-seasons. October 7, 1984 James Kovach was the player that tackled Walter Payton on the play that Walter Payton broke Jim Browns rushing record. In 1985, he played as a linebacker for the

. After his retirement from the NFL, Kovach earned his J.D. degree from Stanford University School of Law and practiced as an intellectual-property attorney before becoming a business owner.

Post-NFL career

Kovach has also worked with several organizations in the fields of aging research. He is a former president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Kovach is a member of the National Football League concussion committee. In 2010, Kovach was recognized by the

College Sports Information Directors of America College Sports Communicators (CSC) is a membership association for all strategic, creative and digital professionals working in intercollegiate athletics across all levels for colleges, universities and conferences across the United States and Cana ...

as member of the

Academic All-America The Academic All-America program is a student-athlete recognition program. The program selects an honorary sports team composed of the most outstanding student-athletes of a specific season for positions in various sports—who in turn are give ...

Hall of Fame. Kovach was the COO and SVP of Business Development of CrowdOptic. He is currently the Director, Entrepreneurism and Innovation at the University of California Davis Health.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kovach, Jim 1956 births Living people American football linebackers Kentucky Wildcats football players New Orleans Saints players San Francisco 49ers players American businesspeople American geriatricians American lawyers People from Parma Heights, Ohio Players of American football from Cuyahoga County, Ohio Stanford Law School alumni University of Kentucky College of Medicine alumni

Early life

Career

National Football League

Post-NFL career

See also

References