Mike Merriweather
No. 57 | |||||||||
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Position: | Linebacker | ||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||
Date of birth: | November 26, 1960 | ||||||||
Place of birth: | Albany, New York | ||||||||
Career information | |||||||||
College: | University of the Pacific | ||||||||
NFL draft: | 1982 / Round: 3 / Pick: 70 | ||||||||
Career history | |||||||||
Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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Mike Merriweather (born November 26, 1960) is a former American football linebacker in the National Football League. He played professionally for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Minnesota Vikings, New York Jets and the Green Bay Packers during the 1980s and 1990s.
Early life
Merriweather was born in Albans, New York and attended Vallejo High School,[1] where he played football, baseball and basketball. He graduated from University of the Pacific, where he played college football. Merriweather is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.[2]
Professional career
Merriweather was drafted in the 3rd round (70th pick overall) of the 1982 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers.[3] His first professional season was 1982 with the Steelers and he was elected to the Pro Bowl in three consecutive seasons: 1984, 1985, and 1986.[4] In 1984 he was 5th in the NFL with 15 sacks (Mark Gastineau led the league with 22), and was named first-team all-NFL that year.[5] He was named Pittsburgh Steelers' Most Valuable Player in 1987.[6]
After a salary dispute which saw him sit out the entire 1988 season, he was traded to the Minnesota Vikings for a first-round pick.[7] In 1989, his first season at Minnesota, he became the first player in NFL history to score the winning points in an overtime game with a safety[8] when he blocked a punt out of the end zone in a game against the Los Angeles Rams for a final score of 23-21, the same game in which the Vikings' Rich Karlis had scored a then-record 7 field goals to get the 21 points that sent the game into overtime.[9]
His last year at Minnesota was the 1992 season; he played his final season in 1993 for the New York Jets and Green Bay Packers.[10][11]
In 1993, Merriweather was inducted into the Pacific Athletics Hall of Fame.[12] He was inducted into the Vallejo Sports Hall of Fame in 2004,[13] and was inducted into the Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2012.[14]
Life after the NFL
After leaving the NFL, Merriweather worked as an insurance broker in Sacramento, California.[15] In 2013, he became the athletic director at Vacaville Christian High School.[16] He and his wife Sandra live in Stockton, California.
References
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External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to [[commons:Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).|Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 506: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).]]. |
- Career Stats at Pro Football Reference.
- Article on his induction to the Vallejo Sports Hall of fame.
- NFL player using deprecated currentteam parameter
- NFL player with pastcoaching parameter
- NFL player with pastexecutive parameter
- Infobox NFL player with debut/final parameters
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- 1960 births
- Living people
- American football linebackers
- Pittsburgh Steelers players
- Minnesota Vikings players
- New York Jets players
- Green Bay Packers players
- American Conference Pro Bowl players
- Pacific Tigers football players
- University of the Pacific (United States) alumni
- African-American players of American football