Antonio Freeman
Freeman in 2010
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| No. 86 | |||||||||
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| Position: | Wide receiver | ||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||
| Date of birth: | May 27, 1972 | ||||||||
| Place of birth: | Baltimore, Maryland | ||||||||
| Career information | |||||||||
| College: | Virginia Tech | ||||||||
| NFL Draft: | 1995 / Round: 3 / Pick: 90 | ||||||||
| Career history | |||||||||
| * Offseason and/or practice squad member only | |||||||||
| Career highlights and awards | |||||||||
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| Career NFL statistics | |||||||||
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| Receptions: | 477 |
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| Receiving yards: | 7,251 |
| Touchdowns: | 61 |
| Player stats at NFL.com | |
Antonio Michael Freeman (born May 27, 1972) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL), most notably for the Green Bay Packers. He attended the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Virginia Tech.
Freeman played college football at Virginia Tech, where he caught 93 passes for 1,534 yards and 16 touchdowns in three seasons. He also returned 63 punts for 651 yards and another touchdown, and rushed for 37 yards.
Freeman was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 1995 NFL Draft. In his rookie season he returned a punt 76 yds for a touchdown during a playoff win over Atlanta. He went on to lead the Packers in receiving in four seasons from 1996–1999, and led the NFL in receiving in 1998.
The peak of Freeman's career occurred during his first tenure with the Green Bay Packers including a victory in Super Bowl XXXI in 1997 over the New England Patriots. During that Super Bowl Freeman caught a Super Bowl record-length touchdown pass of 81 yards from Brett Favre, since eclipsed. That play would give the Packers the lead for good as they went on to win 35–21. Freeman finished the game with three receptions for 105 yards. The following year, Freeman gained over 1,200 receiving yards as Green Bay advanced to their second consecutive Super Bowl, where he caught 9 passes for 126 yards and 2 touchdowns in the 31-24 loss to the Denver Broncos. His 230 all-purpose yards in the game was the third highest total in Super Bowl history
In 1998, Freeman had his best NFL season, catching 84 passes for a league leading 1,424 receiving yards and earning the right to his only Pro Bowl appearance.
During overtime of a Monday night game on November 6, 2000 despite bad weather conditions, Freeman caught what initially appeared to be an incomplete pass while lying on his back—after almost being intercepted by Chris Dishman, the ball actually bounced off multiple parts of Freeman's body without hitting the ground. Untouched by the defender, Freeman jumped to his feet and ran the ball in for the winning touchdown over the rival Minnesota Vikings. The touchdown prompted ABC play-by-play announcer Al Michaels, who was obviously stunned by the play, to famously shout, "He did WHAT?!" In 2005 ESPN labeled the catch as the greatest play in the history of Monday Night Football. Freeman has said it was the second best catch of his career (claiming his best to be an 81-yard catch in Super Bowl XXXI).
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