Mark Cotney (born June 26, 1952, in Altus, Oklahoma), is a former professional

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 ...

player who played in 10

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

seasons from 1975 to 1984 for the

Houston Oilers The Houston Oilers were a professional American football team that played in Houston from its founding in 1960 to 1996 before relocating to Memphis, and later Nashville, Tennessee becoming the Tennessee Titans. The Oilers began play in 1960 a ...

and

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

. Selected by the Buccaneers in the 1976 NFL Expansion Draft, he was a member of the original winless 1976 team and the 1979 team that played in the 1979 NFC Championship game. He retired in 1986 on advice from his doctors, after suffering two cracked vertebrae in his neck while tackling

Gerald Riggs Gerald Antonio Riggs (born November 6, 1960) is a former American football running back in the National Football League (NFL) for the Atlanta Falcons from 1982 to 1988 and the Washington Redskins from 1989 to 1991. Before his NFL career, he at ...

in a 1985 preseason game.Zier, Patrick. "Another Original Buccaneer is Gone". The Ledger. 9 Jan 1986 He continues to live in the Tampa area.

References

1952 births Living people People from Altus, Oklahoma American football safeties Houston Oilers players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaches Cameron Aggies football players {{defensiveback-1950s-stub