Steve LeRoi Papin (born February 28, 1972) 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 ...

offensive specialist In arena football, a specialist was a player, other than a quarterback or placekicker, who was exempt from the league's one-platoon system ("Iron Man"). Under the original Arena football system, six of the eight players on each team were required t ...

who played seven seasons in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

(AFL) with the

San Jose SaberCats The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...

and

New York Dragons The New York Dragons were a professional arena football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Dragons participated in the Arena Football League's (AFL) National Conference as a member of the Eastern Division (AFL), Eastern Division. ...

. He first enrolled at

West Valley College West Valley College is a public community college in Saratoga, California. It is part of the California Community College system. History The college was founded as West Valley Junior College in 1963. It was to serve the footprint of the Campb ...

before transferring to

Portland State University Portland State University (PSU) is a public research university in Portland, Oregon, United States. It was founded in 1946 as a post-secondary educational institution for World War II veterans. It evolved into a four-year college over the next ...

. Papin was also a member of the

Scottish Claymores The Scottish Claymores, were an American football team based in Scotland. The franchise played in the World League of American Football (later renamed NFL Europe) between 1995 and 2004, initially playing all home games at Murrayfield Stadium, ...

and

San Diego Riptide The San Diego Riptide were a professional arena football team based in San Diego, California, that competed in the AF2. The team played its home games at the San Diego Sports Arena. The team was officially announced to the media on January 15, 2 ...

Early life

Papin attended Piedmont Hills High School in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

College career

Papin played for the

Portland State Vikings Portland State Vikings is the nickname of the NCAA-affiliated, intercollegiate athletic teams representing Portland State University of Portland, Oregon. The Vikings compete at the NCAA Division I level in basketball, soccer, volleyball, golf, t ...

, finishing third in voting for the

Harlon Hill Trophy The Harlon Hill Trophy is an award in American college football given to the individual selected as the most valuable player in NCAA Division II. The award is named for former University of North Alabama and National Football League player Harl ...

his senior year in 1995 after recording 2,397 all-purpose yards.

Professional career

Papin played for the

of the

World League of American Football NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of the Nati ...

in 1997. He played for the AFL's

from 1997 to 2001, earning Second Team

All-Arena An All-Arena Team, an all-star team consisting of the best players of their position was selected every season in the Arena Football League (AFL). Teams * 1987 All-Arena Team, 1987 * 1988 All-Arena Team, 1988 * 1989 All-Arena Team, 1989 * 1990 Al ...

and Don't Blink! Player of the Year honors twice each. He was released by the SaberCats on December 19, 2001. Papin signed with the

of the AFL on January 10, 2002. He was released by the Dragons on March 4, 2003. He finished his AFL career with 15,413 all-purpose yards for 152 touchdowns and an average of 14.7 yards per touch. Papin also averaged 200.4 all-purpose yards per game. He was a finalist for the

Arena Football Hall of Fame The Arena Football Hall of Fame is the official Hall of Fame of the Arena Football League (AFL). The inaugural class was announced in 1998 and the Hall was not formally organized until 2011. Prior to 2011, there were four classes: 1998–200 ...

in 2013 and 2014. He played in five games for the

of the

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football r ...

in 2003 before suffering a knee injury.

Coaching career

Papin was

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator (DC) is a coach responsible for a gridiron football team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's coaching structure, wit ...

for the San Diego Riptide in 2005. He served as defensive coordinator of the

Central Valley Coyotes The Central Valley Coyotes were a professional arena football team and were a charter member of the AF2. As the newly forming AF2 set aside its plans for a two tier league and began focusing only on bigger markets, Central Valley stepped down a ...

of the af2 in 2006. He was

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator (OC) is a Coach (sport), coach responsible for a gridiron football team's offense (American football), offense. Generally, the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second ...

of the af2's

Everett Hawks The Everett Hawks were a professional minor league arena football team based in Everett, Washington. The team was in existence for five years (2002–07) in three leagues, the Northwest Football League (NWFL), the National Indoor Football League ...

in 2007. Papin served as offensive coordinator of the

Tri-Cities Fever The Tri-Cities Fever was a professional indoor American football, indoor football franchise based in Kennewick, Washington. The Fever joined National Indoor Football League (NIFL) in 2005 as an expansion team. The Fever were owned by Teri Carr. ...

of the af2 in 2008. He was offensive coordinator for San Jose Wolves of the

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) is a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

in 2010. He was wide receivers coach of the San Jose SaberCats in 2011. Papin served as

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

of the Gunderson High School Grizzlies of San Jose, California from 2011 to 2013. He stepped down as the Grizzlies coach in April 2014. He became head coach of the Independence High School 76ers in 2014. He left Independence to take the job at

Menlo-Atherton High School Menlo-Atherton High School (known as M-A to locals) is a four-year public high school secondary school located in Atherton, California. Menlo-Atherton is part of the Sequoia Union High School District.

for the 2019 season, but his contract was not renewed and he returned to Independence in 2020. Following the 2020 season, which had been postponed to the spring of 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Papin became the new head coach at

Santa Teresa High School Santa Teresa High School (also referred to as STHS) is a public high school located in the suburban Santa Teresa neighborhood of southern San Jose, California. The school is a member of the East Side Union High School District and serves stude ...

Broadcasting career

In 2015, Papin was hired by

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

as a sideline analyst for its coverage of the AFL.

References

External links

Stats Crew profile

WLAF stats
{{DEFAULTSORT:Papin, Steve Living people 1972 births American football return specialists American football running backs American football wide receivers New York Dragons players Portland State Vikings football players San Diego Riptide players San Jose SaberCats coaches San Jose SaberCats players Scottish Claymores players West Valley Vikings football players High school football coaches in California Players of American football from San Jose, California African-American coaches of American football 21st-century African-American sportsmen 20th-century African-American sportsmen American expatriate sportspeople in Scotland American expatriate players of American football