Nathaniel Donnell Abraham (born October 8, 1973) is an American football coach and former cornerback who is the current defensive coordinator for the St. Louis Battlehawks of the United Football League (UFL). He was selected in the third round of the 1996 NFL draft.[1] In his career, he played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1996–2001) and the New York Jets (2002–2004).
| St. Louis Battlehawks | |||||||||||||||
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| Position: | Defensive coordinator | ||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
| Born: | October 8, 1973 Orangeburg, South Carolina, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height: | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 192 lb (87 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||||||||
| High school: | Orangeburg (SC) Wilkinson | ||||||||||||||
| College: | East Tennessee State | ||||||||||||||
| NFL draft: | 1996 / round: 3 / pick: 71 | ||||||||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||||||||
| As a player: | |||||||||||||||
| As a coach: | |||||||||||||||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||||||||
| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||||||||
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Life after football
editAfter considering retirement since the 2004 season ended, he finally decided to do so on July 15, 2005.[2] Although he had two restaurant businesses going in South Carolina, Abrahams was searching for a post-playing occupation, and during his playing years he swore to himself that he would never become a coach. However, while on the sidelines of his oldest son's youth football practice, a local high school coach, whose son played on the same team as Abraham's, approached him about helping out his team. Before long, Abraham became the head coach at Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg.[3]
Abraham guided Gibbs to its first district title in 2009 but resigned after a 3–7 season in 2010. He was defensive backs coordinator (2011–2012) at Tampa Bay Storm and later (2012) at East Lake High School. In 2013, he was the head coach of the Clearwater High School football team and resigned in 2015.[4] He was (2015–2017) the defensive coordinator at IMG Academy, in Bradenton, Florida.[5] On February 15, 2017, he was named defensive assistant coach for the Illinois Fighting Illini football, joining Head Coach Lovie Smith's coaching team.[6][7] Abraham left the Illinois program in the summer of 2018.
In November 2018, Abraham joined Steve Spurrier's Orlando Apollos coaching staff as defensive backs coach.[8]
In June 2022, Abraham joined Anthony Becht's coaching staff as the Defensive Coordinator of St. Louis.[9]
Personal life
editAbraham's son, Micah, played college football at Marshall and was selected in the sixth round of the 2024 NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts.
References
edit- ^ "1996 NFL Draft Listing". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
- ^ "Jets CB Abraham decides to retire". National Football League. Hempstead, New York. July 15, 2005. Archived from the original on August 9, 2007. Retrieved July 16, 2011.
- ^ "Life After Football: Donnie Abraham". Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
- ^ "Coaches".
- ^ "Football Academy - Football Program | IMG Academy".
- ^ "NFL veteran Donnie Abraham joins Illinois' coaching staff". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ "Q&A with ex-Bucs CB Donnie Abraham, now coaching at Illinois". Tampa Bay Times. Archived from the original on August 10, 2017. Retrieved August 9, 2017.
- ^ Ruiz, Stephen (November 8, 2018). "Steve Spurrier's first staff with Apollos includes Super Bowl champions, former Gators". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved January 7, 2019.
- ^ "XFL Announces Key Football Hires and Coaching Staff for its Eight Teams". www.xfl.com. Retrieved July 28, 2022.
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