Early years

Richardson was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1968. He attended Lakeside High School in Atlanta, and played high school football for the Lakeside Vikings.

College career

Richardson accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played defensive end for coach Galen Hall and coach Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators football teams from 1987 to 1990. Richardson was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in 1989 and 1990 and a first-team All-American in 1990, and was selected as a senior team captain. At the end of his four years as a Gator, he totaled 26.5 quarterback sacks and 50.5 tackles for a loss, still third and fourth, respectively, on the Gators' all-time record lists.

Richardson was honored as an SEC Academic Honor Roll selection all four years, received an NCAA post-graduate scholarship, and graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1990. He was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2003.

Professional career

Richardson was the first round draft choice (fifteenth pick overall) of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1991 NFL Draft. Based on a conversation with the former Steelers director of scouting, Max McCartney, with three picks remaining before the Steelers picked at number 15, they had three players targeted that they would be willing to select: Tennessee Volunteers wide receiver Alvin Harper, Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Mike Pritchard and Arizona State Sun Devils running back Leonard Russell. When those three players were all selected with the three immediately preceding picks (by the Dallas Cowboys, Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots, respectively), the Pittsburgh draft managers were unprepared and were forced to make a selection before their fifteen-minute time limit expired, and they settled on Richardson.

Richardson played only five games with the Steelers in 1991, registering two tackles, plus another on special teams. Part of the problem was that the Steelers played a 3-4 defense, and Richardson didn't have the build to play defensive end in that scheme. The Steelers made him an inside linebacker, and he didn't make the adjustment very well. Following the 1991 season, long-time head coach Chuck Noll retired and was replaced by Bill Cowher, who tried to switch Richardson to outside linebacker (his position for the first three years of his collegiate career). When that didn't work, Cowher asked player development director Tom Donahoe if it was too soon to cut him. When Donahoe said he should keep the top forty-seven players regardless of their draft history, Richardson was traded to the Washington Redskins for a seventh round draft pick; if a trade had not been possible, Richardson would have simply been waived. After four uneventful games with the Redskins, he was released and signed with the New York Jets. At the end of the 1992 season, after seven games with the Jets, Richardson's short NFL career was over.

Life after football

Richardson returned to college and earned his master's degree in business administration from Emory University in Atlanta in 2000, and currently works as a financial analyst for Merrill Lynch in New York City. He was in the World Trade Center for a meeting on the morning of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. His meeting was scheduled to take place on an upper floor of the building, but he was delayed in the lobby before boarding the elevator, and was able to leave the World Trade Center safely after the first plane hit the building.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]