Larry Donnell (born November 1, 1988) 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 ...

tight end The tight end (TE) is an offense (sports), offensive position in American football, arena football, and Canadian football. It is a hybrid that combines the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a receiver (football), receiv ...

. 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 ...

for Grambling State and was signed by 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 ...

as an

undrafted free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager 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 a contract at present ...

in 2012.

Early life

Donnell attended

Carroll High School Carroll High School can refer to: In the United States *Carroll High School (Alabama), Ozark, Alabama *Carroll High School (Flora, Indiana), Flora, Indiana *Carroll High School (Fort Wayne, Indiana), Fort Wayne, Indiana *Carroll High School (Iowa) ...

Ozark, Alabama Ozark is a city in and the county seat of Dale County, Alabama. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 14,907. Ozark is the principal city of the Ozark Micropolitan Statistical Area, as well as a part of the Dothan-Ozark Co ...

, where he played football,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

College career

Donnell played football for four seasons at

Grambling State University Grambling State University (GSU, Grambling, or Grambling State) is a public historically black university in Grambling, Louisiana, United States. Grambling State is home of the Eddie G. Robinson Museum and is listed on the Louisiana African ...

. He switched from quarterback to tight end during his freshman year. He finished his college career with 38 receptions for 432 yards and 11

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

. After his senior season at Grambling State, Donnell was not invited to the

NFL Scouting Combine The NFL Scouting Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February at Lucas Oil Stadium (and formerly at the RCA Dome until 2008) in Indianapolis, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of National Foot ...

Professional career

New York Giants

Donnell, who was not drafted during the

2011 NFL draft The 2011 NFL draft was the 76th installment of the annual National Football League draft, NFL draft, where the franchises of the National Football League select newly eligible football players. Like the 2010 draft, the 2011 draft was held at Rad ...

, sat out the 2011 season. He signed with the Giants as an

on March 13, 2012. He was waived by the Giants on August 31, 2012, and signed to the Giants practice squad on September 1, 2012. He was signed to a reserve/future contract by the Giants on September 2, 2013. He played on special teams for the entire regular season and started one game as a tight end. He finished the season with 3 receptions for 31 yards. On September 25, 2014, in a nationally televised game on

Thursday Night Football ''Thursday Night Football'' (often abbreviated as ''TNF'') is the branding used for broadcasts of National Football League (NFL) games that broadcast primarily on Thursday nights. Most of the games kick off at 8:15 Eastern Time (8:20 prior to ...

, Donnell scored 3 touchdowns on 7 receptions for 54 yards. Donnell was the first Giant tight end to accomplish the feat of scoring three touchdowns in the same game since Joe Walton in 1962. Donnell ironically lost Fantasy football that week when he benched himself for

Vernon Davis Vernon Leonard Davis (born January 31, 1984) is an American former professional football player who was a tight end in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Maryland Terrapins, earning first-team All-American h ...

, who suffered a back injury after only eight yards in two receptions against the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The team plays its ...

three days later. On March 4, 2015, the Giants tendered Donnell, which yielded him the three-year veteran minimum salary of $585,000 over one-year. The next day, Donnell was aboard

Delta Air Lines Flight 1086 Delta Air Lines Flight 1086 was a scheduled Delta Air Lines domestic passenger flight between Atlanta and New York's LaGuardia Airport. On March 5, 2015, the McDonnell Douglas MD-88 aircraft veered off the runway shortly after landing at LaG ...

when it crashed upon landing. Donnell was not among the injured or hospitalized passengers, and posted pictures and video he took of the incident to his

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

account. On October 11, 2015, Donnell caught a 12-yard game-winning touchdown pass from

Eli Manning Elisha Nelson Manning (born January 3, 1981) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons with the New York Giants. A member of the Manning family, he is the youngest ...

in a week 5 game against the

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 ...

. On December 8, 2015, Donnell was placed on season-ending injured reserve due to a neck injury he suffered after trying to do a somersault over a defender on November 1 in a game against 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 ...

. Prior to being placed on injured reserve, Donnell had missed the previous four games. Donnell became a restricted free-agent after the 2015 season. On March 3, 2016, the Giants tendered Donnell with the original-round tender of $1.671 million. On April 19, 2016, Donnell signed his one-year restricted free-agent tender after getting clearance from team doctors. On February 13, 2017, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com reported that Donnell would not be re-signed.

Baltimore Ravens

On July 30, 2017, Donnell signed with the

Baltimore Ravens The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its home g ...

. On September 1, 2017, he was released by the Ravens during final roster cuts.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Donnell, Larry 1988 births Living people People from Ozark, Alabama Players of American football from Alabama American football tight ends American football quarterbacks Grambling State Tigers football players New York Giants players Baltimore Ravens players 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen