Scot Eugene Brantley (born February 24, 1958) is an American radio and television

sports broadcaster In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present tense. There are two main types of sports broadcast ...

and former college and 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

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

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) for eight seasons during the 1980s. Brantley 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

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 ...

, and thereafter, he 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

Brantley was born in Chester, South Carolina, 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, 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 ...

,databaseFootball.com, Players, . 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 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 ...

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 some variety ...

'' 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 catch ...

for the Wildcats

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 ...

team, and was drafted by the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...

despite having already signed with 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 ...

to play college football. In 2007, thirty-one years after he graduated from high school, the Florida High School Athletic Association (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 and coach Charley Pell's

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 ...

teams from

1976 Events January * January 2 – 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 18 – Full diplomatic ...

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 (SEC) selection in

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, 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 (no ...

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 Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd ...

and received honorable mention

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 tackles 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 Sh ...

, 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 game, ball-playing Competitive sport, 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 ...

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 WHBO (1040 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pinellas Park, Florida, and serving the Tampa Bay area. The station is currently owned by Genesis Communications and it airs a conservative talk radio format, branded as "News Talk 1040" ...

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa'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 t ...

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

stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...

s 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 NBC Sports Radio was a sports radio network that debuted on September 4, 2012. The network content was produced by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and distributed by Westwood One, which is the corporate successor to the remains of ...

. In May 2018 it was revealed that Scot was suffering from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

. He was featured on an episode of Real Sports on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

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 (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 ...

for the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

and

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

seasons.Jon Mahoney, "," ''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 Players of American football 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 Chester County, South Carolina Florida Gators baseball players American sports radio personalities NFL announcers Tampa Bay Buccaneers announcers 20th-century American sportsmen