Jody E. Littleton (born October 23, 1974) 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 ...

long snapper In gridiron football, the long snapper (or deep snapper) is a Center (gridiron football), center on American football positions#Special teams, special teams whose duty is to Snap (gridiron football), snap the football over a longer distance, ty ...

. 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 Baylor and the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...

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 ...

, and

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

during his

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) career.

Early life and college

Born in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, Littleton graduated from Brighton High School in

Brighton, Colorado Brighton is a home rule city located in Adams and Weld counties, Colorado, United States. Brighton is the county seat of Adams County and is a part of the Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor. The c ...

. At

Baylor University Baylor University is a Private university, private Baptist research university in Waco, Texas, United States. It was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Te ...

, Littleton played at long snapper and linebacker for the

Baylor Bears The Baylor Bears are the athletic teams that represent Baylor University. The teams participate in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as one of only three private school members of the Big 12 Conference. Prior t ...

from 1994 to 1997. The first-team long snapper in his final three seasons, he had eight tackles in 1996 and 25 tackles in 1997.

Professional career

Following the

1998 NFL draft The 1998 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 April 18–19, 1998, at the Theater at M ...

, Littleton signed as an undrafted free agent with the

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 ...

but was waived on July 2, 1998. Littleton then was the special teams coordinator at Hico High School in

Hico, Texas Hico (, ) is a small city located in Hamilton County in central Texas, United States. The population was 1,335 at the time of the 2020 census, down from 1,341 in the 2010 census. Over the years, it became a cattle and cotton market. Today, ra ...

until signing with the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

on May 14, 2001. He was waived during the preseason on August 28, 2001. He signed again with the Giants on January 9, 2002, and was allocated to the Frankfurt Galaxy of

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of the Nati ...

on February 9. With the Galaxy, Littleton played in 10 games at weak side linebacker with five starts, making nine tackles and two passes defended. The Giants waived Littleton on August 27, 2002, prior to the regular season. On October 16, 2002, Littleton signed with the

. In his first NFL career action, Littleton played in two games with the Bears at long snapper in 2002 before being waived on October 29. He signed with the

practice squad on December 19, 2002; while signed with the Lions, Littleton had his second allocation with the Frankfurt Galaxy on January 30, 2003. Playing in 10 games with six starts at linebacker, Littleton made 12 tackles for the Galaxy and was part of a Galaxy team that won

World Bowl XI World Bowl XI was NFL Europe's 2003 championship game. It was played at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland on June 14, 2003. The crowd were entertained pre-match by Scottish rock legend Fish performing a rousing rendition of “Caledonia”. Half ...

. The Lions waived Littleton on September 1 but brought him back to the team on December 11, 2003. Littleton played in the final three games of the 2003 season with the Lions in place of injured long snapper Bradford Banta, making one special teams tackle. In the 2004 season with the Lions, Littleton played in eight games again at linebacker. He made one special teams tackle. The Lions waived Littleton on August 23, 2005, prior to the regular season. He was briefly signed again with the Lions from October 25 to November 1, 2005. On November 28, 2005, Littleton signed with the

. Playing primarily at long snapper, Littleton played in five games with five special teams tackles in his final pro football season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Littleton, Jody 1974 births Living people Players of American football from Denver American football long snappers Baylor Bears football players Chicago Bears players Detroit Lions players Cleveland Browns players People from Brighton, Colorado Sportspeople from Adams County, Colorado