Damien Anderson

Damien Anderson

No. 20, 22, 32
Running back
Personal information
Date of birth: July 17, 1979 (1979-07-17)
Place of birth: Chicago, Illinois
Height: 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)	Weight: 218 lb (99 kg)
Career information
College: Northwestern
Undrafted in 2002
Debuted in 2002 for the Arizona Cardinals
Last played in 2008 for the Edmonton Eskimos
Career history
Arizona Cardinals (2002–2005) Edmonton Eskimos (2007–2008)
Career highlights and awards
Consensus All-American (2000)
Stats at pro-football-reference.com

Damien Ramone Anderson (born July 17, 1979) is a former American college and professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL) and Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football for Northwestern University, and earned All-American honors. He was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL, and later played for the Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL.

College career

Anderson attended Northwestern University, and was a standout for the Northwestern Wildcats football team from 1997 to 2000. As a senior in 2000, he was recognized as a consensus first-team All-American after finishing second in the nation in total rushing yards behind LaDainian Tomlinson, and finishing fifth in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy.

Concluding his illustrious career as Northwestern's all-time leading rusher, Damien Anderson capped a record-setting season in 2000 by becoming just the fourth player in Big Ten history to run for 2,000 or more yards in a single season. He closed his four-year career with 4,485 rushing yards (the eighth-best figure in Big Ten history), 38 rushing touchdowns and 5,261 all-purpose yards—all school records.

In 2000, when he posted the 20th-best single-season rushing average in NCAA history (174.0 ypg for 11 regular-season games), Anderson finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting and he was tabbed a Doak Walker Award (nation's top running back) finalist. He was named to All-America teams by the Football Writers Association of America, Walter Camp, Football News, CNN/SI.com and Sporting News. Anderson also rushed for 1,549 yards in eight Big Ten games in 2000, which remains a conference single-season record. His running exploits in 2000 helped the Wildcats capture a share of the Big Ten title, their third conference crown in a six-year period.

In addition to his major career school marks for rushing, all-purpose yardage, rushing TD's and 200-yard rushing games (four), Anderson still holds five major single-season marks, all set in 2000: rushing yards (2,063), yards per game (171.9), all-purpose yards (2,195), rushing touchdowns (23) and points (138). He also scored at least one touchdown in 11 consecutive games, an NU record. Anderson, who played in 43 career games, started 32 consecutive times during his career and 40 overall.

Professional career

Anderson played four years with the NFL's Arizona Cardinals as well as two years with the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos.

IN 2004 he made an amazing recovery from injuries sustained in a car accident. Anderson spent 14 days in an intensive care unit and nearly three weeks in the hospital after undergoing surgery to remove his spleen and repair a fractured eye socket. He also suffered liver damage, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung in the rollover accident. Anderson was fully recovered in time for the Cardinals' June minicamp.

External links

• Arizona Cardinals - Bio
• PlanetGridiron - Radio Show Networking Site
• - The Fan AM 1060 in Phoenix, AZ