- published: 06 Mar 2016
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Roderick Kevin "Rod" Woodson (born March 10, 1965) is a former American football defensive back who played in the National Football League for seventeen seasons. He had a 10-year stint with the Pittsburgh Steelers and was a key member of the Baltimore Ravens' Super Bowl XXXV championship season. He also played for the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, wearing the jersey number 26 throughout his career. He holds the NFL records for career interception return yardage (1,483) and interception returns for touchdowns (12), and was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1993. His 71 career interceptions is the third-most in NFL history. He was an inductee of the Class of 2009 of the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio on August 8, 2009.
From his retirement in 2003 to February 2011, Woodson worked as an analyst for the NFL Network on NFL Total Access and Thursday Night Football, and as a color-commentator for the Big Ten Network. He spent the 2011 season as the Raiders' cornerbacks coach.
Antonio D. Gates (born June 18, 1980) is an American football tight end for the San Diego Chargers of the National Football League. He was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2003 after playing college basketball at Kent State University. He attended college at Kent State University his junior and senior years after brief stints at Michigan State University and Eastern Michigan University. He starred at Central High School (Detroit, Michigan) playing both basketball and football.
After his senior season of high school basketball, Gates was named runner-up for the Mr. Basketball of Michigan award to Dane Fife. Originally, Gates enrolled at Michigan State University wanting to play football under then-coach Nick Saban as well as basketball under coach Tom Izzo but upon enrolling Saban wanted him to play only football. Gates then chose to pursue playing basketball by transferring to Eastern Michigan University to play basketball. He played there part of a season, subsequently played at two junior colleges and eventually played two seasons at Kent State University in northeastern Ohio.