Reidel Clarence Anthony (born October 20, 1976) 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

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

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) from 1997 to 2001. 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 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 received consensus

All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...

honors in 1996. Anthony was a first-round pick in the 1997 NFL draft, and played professionally for the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (colloquially known as the Bucs) are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC S ...

of the NFL.

Early life

Anthony was born in Pahokee, Florida, in 1976. 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 ...

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 ...

,databaseFootball.com, Players, . Retrieved September 15, 2012. and he was a stand-out high school football player for the Glades Central Raiders. He is the son of former South Bay, Florida mayor Clarence E. Anthony.

College career

Anthony 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 was a

and a key target in head 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

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

.
2012 Florida Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 69–71, 77, 84, 88, 90, 92, 95, 98–100, 104, 121, 142–143, 150–154, 156, 157, 160, 165, 176, 189 (2012). Retrieved September 15, 2012. Anthony showed his stuff as a freshman in Spurrier's "fun 'n' gun" offense in 1994, when he caught an 87-yard

touchdown 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 ...

pass from Gators

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

Eric Kresser against the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. As a junior in 1996, he played an instrumental role in the Gators' 12–1 national championship season, catching seventy-two passes to lead the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

(SEC) with 1,293 yards (an average of 18.0 yards per reception), and setting the SEC regular season record with eighteen touchdown catches. Both Anthony and his fellow Gator wideout, Ike Hilliard, were first-team All-SEC selections and earned consensus first-team

honors. During his three college seasons, the Gators won three consecutive

SEC Championship Game The SEC Championship Game is an annual American football game that has determined the Southeastern Conference's season champion since 1992. For its first 32 seasons, the championship game pitted the Eastern Division regular season champion again ...

s in

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 ...

, and

. In the aftermath of his All-American junior season and the Gators'

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 victory over 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 ...

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 ...

, Anthony decided to forgo his final season of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

eligibility and enter the NFL Draft. He finished his college career with 126 receptions for 2,274 yards and twenty-six touchdowns (a career average of 18.0 yards per reception). His eighteen receiving touchdowns in 1996 remains the Gators' team record and was the SEC record until it was surpassed by Ja'Marr Chase and DeVonta Smith in 2019 and 2020 respectively. The scores are tied for third with Justin Jefferson. In a 2006 series written for ''The Gainesville Sun'', Anthony was recognized as No. 17 among the 100 all-time greatest Gators of the first 100 years of Florida football. He was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2009.

Professional career

His home state Tampa Bay Buccaneers chose Anthony in the first round (sixteenth pick overall) of the 1997 NFL Draft. He played for the Buccaneers for five seasons from to .National Football League, Historical Players
Reidel Anthony
Retrieved September 15, 2012. In , Anthony recorded thirty-five receptions for 448 yards and four touchdowns. In his fourth game, Anthony became (and still remains) the second youngest NFL player ever to record a touchdown reception (20 years, 336 days). In , he set career highs with fifty-one receptions for 708 yards and seven touchdowns. In perhaps his finest game as a Buccaneer, Anthony recorded 126 receiving yards with two touchdowns against the

Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team ...

on November 15, 1998. During the year, he also finished eighth in the NFL in all-purpose yards, totaling 1,869 yards. In , Anthony had thirty receptions for 296 yards, and scored one touchdown. In , Anthony had fifteen receptions for 232 yards and four touchdowns. In his final NFL season in , he recorded thirteen receptions for 162 yards. Anthony finished his five-year NFL career with 144 receptions for 1,846 yards and sixteen touchdowns.

NFL statistics

Receiving Stats Kickoff Return Stats

Life after the NFL

Anthony currently is the offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Glades Central High School in Belle Glade, Florida. He was formerly the receivers coach for the Celtics football team of Trinity Catholic High School in

Ocala, Florida Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Florida, United States. Located in North Central Florida, the city's population was 63,591 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, up from 56,315 at the 2010 census and making ...

. He is also a contributing writer to the

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

-affiliated fan site GatorCountry.com as its official offensive analyst. Scot and Reidel ready for the snap
" GatorCountry.com (July 19, 2010). Retrieved September 15, 2012.

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:Anthony, Reidel 1976 births Living people Players of American football from Pahokee, Florida American football wide receivers Florida Gators football players All-American college football players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Coaches of American football from Florida High school football coaches in Florida