Josh Bullocks (born February 28, 1983) is an

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 ...

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly di ...

. He was drafted by 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 league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

in the second round of the

2005 NFL Draft The 2005 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 23–24, 2005. The league also hel ...

. He is the

identical twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...

of fellow NFL safety

Daniel Bullocks Daniel Bullocks (born February 28, 1983) is an American football coach and former player. He played football professionally as safety in the National Football League (NFL) with the Detroit Lions from 2006 to 2010. He was drafted by the Lions in ...

. He played college football at

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the so ...

. Bullocks has also been a member of 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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine ...

and

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

. In January 2015, he joined the

Omaha Beef The Omaha Beef is an indoor football team and a charter member of the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league. Based in Omaha, Nebraska, the Beef play their home games at Liberty First Credit Union Arena in nearby Ralston. History First 13 seas ...

Champions Indoor Football Champions Indoor Football (CIF) is a professional indoor American football minor league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) and Lone Star Football League (LSFL), plus one team fro ...

as an assistant coach.

Early years

Bullocks attended

Hixson High School Hixson High School is a public high school in the Hamilton County Schools system located in the Chattanooga, Tennessee, suburb of Hixson, with grades 9–12. History Hixson High School was founded in 1909. Its current site opened in 1966. It ...

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, it also extends into Marion County, Tennessee, Marion County on its west ...

, along with his brother Daniel from 1997 to 2001. Josh and Daniel were both multi-sport standouts participating in

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

, as well as excelling in football. Josh played

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. The ...

throughout his high school career while Daniel played

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

. The Bullocks brothers led the Hixson Wildcats to four consecutive

TSSAA The Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA), along with the affiliated Tennessee Middle School Athletic Association (TMSAA), is an organization which administers junior and senior high school sporting events in Tennessee. The TSSAA ...

football playoff appearances. Josh and Daniel were heavily recruited by several NCAA Division I schools including the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state ...

before deciding to attend the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Univer ...

. They graduated in 2001.

College career

Bullocks played college football at Nebraska, where he

started "Started" is a song recorded by Australian rapper Iggy Azalea for her second studio album ''In My Defense''. The song was written by Azalea alongside Ronny Wright and produced by American record producer J. White Did It. It was released by Ba ...

28 games in three seasons. He had ten

interception In ball-playing competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for a player of the same team ...

s and 49

tackle Tackle may refer to: * In football: ** Tackle (football move), a play in various forms of football ** Tackle (gridiron football position), a position in American football and Canadian football ** Dump tackle, a forceful move in rugby of picking ...

s in 2003, when he was a finalist to win the

Jim Thorpe Award The Jim Thorpe Award, named in memory of multi-sport athlete Jim Thorpe, has been awarded to the top defensive back in college football since 1986. It is voted on by the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame. In 2017, the award became sponsored by Payc ...

Professional career

New Orleans Saints

Bullocks was drafted by the

and played four seasons with the team. During that time, he appeared in 62 games (49 starts) and recorded 256 tackles, one sack, six interceptions and 24 pass deflections.

Chicago Bears

unrestricted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

in the 2009 offseason, Bullocks signed a one-year contract with the

that included $525,000 in guaranteed money. The move put Bullocks in the same division as his twin brother, Daniel, who played for 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) North Division. The team play their home games at For ...

before being released in the 2010 offseason.

Oakland Raiders

The Raiders signed Bullocks on August 15, 2011, after

Hiram Eugene Hiram Eugene (born November 24, 1980) is a former American football safety in the National Football League (NFL). He was originally signed by the Oakland Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2005 and played for the team for six seasons. He playe ...

suffered a serious hip injury in the pre-season opener. He was waived on August 30.

NFL statistics

Personal

Josh Bullocks is the

brother of

, also a safety at the University of Nebraska, who was also drafted 40th overall when the

selected him in the

2006 NFL Draft The 2006 National Football League Draft, the 71st in league history, took place in New York City, New York, at Radio City Music Hall on April 29 and April 30, 2006. For the 27th consecutive year, the draft was telecast on ESPN and ESPN2, with ad ...

. The two are cousins of U.S. Olympic gold medalist

Evelyn Ashford Evelyn Ashford (born April 15, 1957) is an American retired track and field athlete, the 1984 Olympic champion in the 100-meter dash. She ran under the 11-second barrier over 30 times and was the first to run under 11 seconds in an Olympic Game ...

. Beginning in 2007, Bullocks and his brother have awarded a $5,000 scholarship to a Hixson High senior athlete. In order to be eligible the student must attend Hixson, be a senior, be an athlete, and write an essay.

References

External links

Nebraska Cornhuskers profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bullocks, Josh 1983 births Living people American football safeties Chicago Bears players Nebraska Cornhuskers football players New Orleans Saints players Oakland Raiders players Identical twins Sportspeople from Chattanooga, Tennessee Players of American football from Tennessee American twins Twin sportspeople