Scot Eugene Brantley (born February 24, 1958) is an American radio and television sports broadcaster and former college and professional football player who was a

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, pl ...

in the

National Football League 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 ma ...

(NFL) for eight seasons during the 1980s. Brantley played college football for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, and thereafter, he played professionally for the

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 ...

of the NFL.

Early years

Brantley was born in

Chester, South Carolina Chester is a small rural city in Chester County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 5,607 at the 2010 census, down from 6,476 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Chester County. History While being transported to Richmond, ...

in 1958.Pro-Football-Reference.com, Players
Scot Brantley
Retrieved August 26, 2011. He attended Forest High School in

Ocala, Florida Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida. Home t ...

,databaseFootball.com, Players
Scot Brantley
. Retrieved August 26, 2011. where he played high school football for the Forest Wildcats. Brantley was a starting linebacker on the Wildcats varsity as a freshman, and as a junior and senior, he was a member of the Wildcats' 1974 and 1975 Florida Class 3A high school state championship teams. Brantley was twice named a high school All-American by ''

Parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of s ...

'' magazine, and was one of the mostly highly sought-after college recruits in the country in 1975. He was also a standout

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

for the Wildcats

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

team, and was drafted by the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major leagu ...

despite having already signed with the

Florida Gators The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Florida, located in Gainesville. The University of Florida, its athletic program, its alumni and its sports fans are often collectively referred to as th ...

to play college football. In 2007, thirty-one years after he graduated from high school, the

Florida High School Athletic Association The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) is an organization whose purpose is to organize sports competition for high schools in Florida. It is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Florida uses ...

(FHSAA) recognized Brantley as one of the "100 Greatest Players of the First 100 Years" of Florida high school football. FHSAA unveils '100 Greatest Players of First 100 Years' as part of centennial football celebration
" Florida High School Athletic Association (December 4, 2007). Retrieved August 26, 2011.

College career

Brantley accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach

Doug Dickey Douglas Adair Dickey (born June 24, 1932) is an American former college football player and coach and college athletics administrator. Dickey is a South Dakota native who was raised in Florida and graduated from the University of Florida, wher ...

and coach

Charley Pell Charles Byron Pell (February 17, 1941 – May 29, 2001) was an American college football player and coach. Pell was an Alabama native and an alumnus of the University of Alabama, where he played college football. He is most notably remembere ...

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

teams from

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phil ...

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

.
2012 Florida Football Media Guide
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 76, 87, 95, 101, 106, 144, 158, 176 (2012). Retrieved September 15, 2012. Brantley was a first-team All-

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is an American college athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central and Southeastern United States. Its fourteen members include the flagship public universities o ...

(SEC) selection in

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrati ...

and

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd government). * January 6 – ...

and received honorable mention All-American honors in 1977 and 1978. His senior season in 1979 was cut short by a brain injury after he was knocked unconscious in the Gators' first home game, which was a severe blow to a team in the first year of a coaching transition. Brantley led the Gators in

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 during the 1976 and 1978 seasons, and his career total of 467 tackles still ranks second on the Gators' all-time records list. Brantley was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 1990, and the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame in 2010. In a 2006 article series, the sports editors of ''The Gainesville Sun'' recognized him as No. 25 among the top 100 Gators from the first 100 Florida football seasons.

Professional career

After his college career, the

selected Brantley in the third round (seventy-sixth pick overall) of the

1980 NFL Draft The 1980 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 29–30, 1980, at the New York ...

, and he played linebacker for the Buccaneers for his entire eight-year NFL career from to .National Football League, Historical Players
Scot Brantley
Retrieved August 26, 2011. Brantley became a regular starter in his third season in , played in 114 games, started in seventy-one of them, and had eight

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 in his career.

Life after the NFL

Following his professional football career, Brantley pursued a career in sports broadcasting. He has served on the Gator Radio Network as both a color analyst during games and an analyst during pre-game, half-time and post-game shows. Brantley also spent ten seasons as the broadcast partner of Gene Deckerhoff on the Buccaneers Radio Network. He now hosts a daily radio show on WHBO in

Tampa, Florida Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...

every weekday afternoon.Sharon Ginn,
Local radio brings aboard well-known voices
" ''St Petersburg Times'', p. 8C (June 23, 2006). Retrieved August 26, 2011. Brantley's broadcasting career has had ups and downs. The Gators and Buccaneers both unexpectedly dropped him from their broadcast booths after the 2004 and 2005 seasons, respectively, after he had spent seven years in each of those positions.Antonya English,
McGriff replaces Brantley as UF color analyst
" ''St. Petersburg Times'' (February 26, 2004). Retrieved August 26, 2011.Joanne Korth,
Nickerson rejoins Bucs as color analyst
" ''St. Petersburg Times'' (May 17, 2006). Retrieved August 26, 2011. Hardy Nickerson replaced him for the Buccaneers broadcasts, while Lee McGriff took his spot when he returned to the Gators broadcasts after spending several years alongside Mick Hubert in the 1980s and 1990s. Brantley's previous radio show on WQYK was also canceled due to format changes with the station. Brantley suffered two small strokes in 2008, and lost most of his sight in his left eye as a result.Alan Schwarz,
Ex-Gator's Concussion Sheds Light on Tebow's
" ''The New York Times'' (October 8, 2009). Retrieved August 26, 2011. He was forced to take a leave of absence from his radio broadcasting responsibilities while recovering from the strokes and subsequent heart surgery. In 2013, Brantley began co-hosting an afternoon drive-time show, "Sports Time!", heard on WMOP & WGGG weekdays from 4-6 p.m. His co-hosts are Steve Woodard and Mark McLeod. The stations are owned/operated by Florida Sports Talk and carry NBC Sports Radio. In May 2018 it was revealed that Scot was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He was featured on an episode of

Real Sports ''Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' is a monthly sports news magazine on HBO. Since its debut on April 2, 1995, the program has been presented by television journalist and sportscaster Bryant Gumbel. Overview Format Each episode consists of fo ...

on HBO titled "Unsettled" concerning disabled NFL players unable to receive payments from the NFL concussion settlement.Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel 254
HBO.com. Retrieved June 2, 2018.

Gator football family

Brantley's nephew, John Brantley, IV, was the Florida Gators' starting

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 ...

for the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and 2011 seasons.Jon Mahoney,
Gator genes: John Brantley will continue a great tradition at Florida
" ''Sports Illustrated'' (January 25, 2007). Retrieved August 26, 2011. His brother, John Brantley, III, was the Gators' starting quarterback in 1978.

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:Brantley, Scot 1958 births Living people People from Chester, South Carolina Sportspeople from Ocala, Florida Players of American football from South Carolina American football linebackers Ocala High School alumni Florida Gators football players Tampa Bay Buccaneers players Baseball players from South Carolina Florida Gators baseball players American sports radio personalities National Football League announcers Tampa Bay Buccaneers announcers