Rodney McLeod

Rodney+McLeod

Andrew Newman, Staff Writer

Rodney McLeod is a NFL superstar that has played the safety position during pro football for 10 years, and right now he plays for the Indianapolis Colts. He was born on June 23, 1990 in Clinton, Maryland. For high school, McLeod went to DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland playing football, running track, and he also played basketball his freshman year. McLeod ran the 100m and the 200m dash. Wendy Norris- one of DeMatha’s trainers said that “He was a nice and very hard working person. He was always on time and he never missed any treatments, and if you ever needed any help from him, you could just ask.”

After high school he attended the University of Virginia to continue his high football career. He didn’t start when he first got there, but with hard work and dedication he finished his college career with 190 tackles, 6 interceptions, a sack, 17 pass deflections, and 3 forced fumbles.

Then in 2012, after he went undrafted, he signed with the St. Louis Rams. He showed the coaches what he could do at training camp and got moved up the depth chart and became the backup free safety going into his game debut. In 2013, he started for the first time in the NFL and he was playing well and he kept his starting spot. Unfortunately in 2016 he became a free agent and was then signed to the Philadelphia Eagles, which is where he won his first Super Bowl in 2017. Recently on April 14th, McLeod signed with the Indianapolis Colts and is in his 10th season of the NFL. That is a very big deal since the average NFL career is two years. 

He has also done plenty of community service, as in this past summer he had his 8th annual football camp at DeMatha. It is from ages 8-14 and they do a lot of football drills and other things that help prepare them for high school.