Johnny Boykins Rutledge, III (born January 4, 1977) 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

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 ...

for five 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 2000s. Rutledge 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 was a member of a national championship team. A second round pick in the

1999 NFL draft The 1999 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 17–18, 1999, at the Theater at M ...

, he played professionally for the

Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC West, West division. The ...

and the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...

of the NFL.

Early life

Rutledge was born in

Belle Glade, Florida Belle Glade is a city in south-central Florida and it is the far western part of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, on the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. According to th ...

in 1977.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Johnny Rutledge
Retrieved July 16, 2010. He attended

Glades Central High School Glades Central Community High School is a high school in Belle Glade, Florida. In the 2014–15 school year, its enrollment numbered 992 students. The school was a football powerhouse. In 2001, the ''New York Times'' reported that Glades Central h ...

in Belle Glade,databaseFootball.com, Players, . Retrieved July 16, 2010. where he played high school football for the Glades Central Raiders.

College career

Rutledge 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, 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 ...

Florida Gators football The Florida Gators football program represents the University of Florida (UF) in American football, American college football. Florida competes in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the ...

team from

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

.
2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 79, 97, 99, 101, 153–154, 185 (2011). Retrieved August 31, 2011. He was a member of the 1996 Gators' team that defeated 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 ...

52–20 in the

Sugar Bowl The Sugar Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in New Orleans, Louisiana. Played annually since January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Orange Bowl and Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in the country, surpassed only ...

for the

Bowl Alliance The Bowl Alliance was an agreement among college football bowl games (specifically the Sugar, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls) for the purpose of trying to match the top two teams in a national championship game and to provide quality bowl game match ...

national championship. He was a second-team

All-Southeastern Conference The All-SEC football team is an annual Southeastern Conference (SEC) honor bestowed on the best players in the conference following every college football season. Seasons

Following is a list of all-conference teams in the history of the SEC: ...

(SEC) selection as a junior in 1997, and a first-team selection as a senior in 1998. Rutledge later returned to Gainesville after his NFL career was over, and graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in health and human performance in 2007.

Professional career

The Arizona Cardinals selected Rutledge in the second round (fifty-first overall pick) in the

. He played for the Cardinals from to .National Football League, Historical Players
Johnny Rutledge
Retrieved July 16, 2010. He played his final season with the Denver Broncos in . In his five-season NFL career, Rutledge appeared in forty-six regular season games.

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:Rutledge, Johnny 1977 births Living people Players of American football from Belle Glade, Florida American football linebackers Florida Gators football players Arizona Cardinals players Denver Broncos players 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen

Early life

College career

Professional career

See also

References

Bibliography