Steve Watson (born April 9, 1982) is a former

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

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 ...

who last played for the

Dallas Vigilantes The Dallas Vigilantes were an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Dallas, Texas. Like its AFL predecessor, the Dallas Desperados, the Vigilantes played at the American Airlines Center. The Vigilantes and the Jacksonville Sharks began pla ...

of 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 ...

. Prior to this, he played for the

Tulsa Talons Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa ...

(one year) and 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 ...

(two years). He won an

ArenaBowl The ArenaBowl was the championship game of the Arena Football League (AFL). Originally hosted at Pittsburgh's Civic Arena based on home attendance during the inaugural 1987 season, save four years (2005–2008) the game was hosted by the team w ...

with the SaberCats in 2007. Watson played football at

Missouri State University Missouri State University (MSU or MO State), formerly Southwest Missouri State University, is a public university in Springfield, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1905 as the Fourth District Normal School, it is the state's second-largest u ...

(then Southwest Missouri State University) from 2001 to 2004. He was a starter during his final two years at the school; at the end of his collegiate career, he had tallied some 238 tackles and 11 sacks. Following the

NFL draft The NFL draft, officially known as the Annual Player Selection Meeting, is an annual event which serves as the most common source of player recruitment in the National Football League. Each team is given a position in the drafting order in reve ...

, where he was not selected, Watson opted to join the San Jose SaberCats of the

. Waston proved an instant success with the SaberCats; as a rookie, he tallied 64 tackles (46 solo) as the SaberCats cruised to

ArenaBowl XXI ArenaBowl XXI was the 2007 championship game of the Arena Football League and was played at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana on Sunday, July 29, 2007. It was the third-ever neutral site title game in league's history and the first ...

(where they defeated the

Columbus Destroyers The Columbus Destroyers were an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Columbus, Ohio, with home games in Nationwide Arena. The team was founded in as the Buffalo Destroyers, based in Buffalo, New York, and relocated to Columbus in . They fo ...

for their third AFL championship). Watson emerged as one of the league's best linebackers in his second season; he was a First Team All-Arena selection at the end of the season. Watson's career was interrupted by the league's 2009 suspension of operations. When the AFL resumed play one season later, Watson signed with the

. Watson equaled his fantastic play from 2008; at the end of the 2010 season, he was again a First Team All-Arena selection. Watson signed with the

in early 2011; he played in Dallas for one year. He has not appeared in any games since.

References

External links

Missouri State Bears bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Steve 1982 births Living people American football linebackers Missouri State Bears football players San Jose SaberCats players Tulsa Talons players Dallas Vigilantes players Players of American football from Missouri Sportspeople from St. Charles, Missouri