Ahmad Rashad

Early life

Born Robert Earl Moore in Portland, Oregon, he played high school football in Tacoma, Washington. Rashād graduated from Mount Tahoma High School and accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Oregon in Eugene. He played football for the Ducks under head coach Jerry Frei, was a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, and majored in elementary education at Oregon.

During his junior year in college, Rashād had legal issues in Portland, and was charged with felony theft in November 1970. He pleaded guilty to a reduced charge, a misdemeanor, in early 1971.

Football career

At Oregon, Rashād played wide receiver and wingback as a sophomore in 1969 and made the all-conference team. He moved to running back, where he was an All-American in 1971 — in the same backfield with quarterback Dan Fouts. Rashād was named to the College Football Hall of Fame on May 9, 2007.

Rashād was the fourth player selected in the 1972 NFL Draft, taken by the St. Louis Cardinals. He made the UPI all-rookie team in 1972, but second-year head coach Bob Hollway was fired after a 4-9-1 season. Don Coryell was the new head coach in 1973, and Rashād was traded after that season to the Buffalo Bills for backup quarterback Dennis Shaw. In Buffalo, he roomed on the road with O.J. Simpson in 1974, but missed the 1975 season after a knee injury in the final pre-season game.

Rashād was in the training camp of the expansion Seattle Seahawks, after signing as a free agent, then was traded days before the start of the 1976 regular season, sent to the Minnesota Vikings for a future draft pick. He originally failed the Vikings' physical, but was kept on the team due to the actions of quarterback Fran Tarkenton. The Vikings made it back to the Super Bowl that season, their last appearance through 2016.

During his professional football career, Rashād caught 495 passes for 6,831 yards and 44 Touchdowns, while also rushing for 52 yards. The standout catch of his career came in a December 1980 game against the Cleveland Browns. Vikings quarterback Tommy Kramer threw a Hail Mary pass to Rashād that resulted in a come-from-behind 28-23 victory and a Central Division title for the Vikings. This became known as "The Miracle at the Met", or, alternatively, "The Miracle Catch". Rashād also has the distinction of the longest play from scrimmage that didn't score a touchdown: 98 yards in a 1972 game against the Rams.

Rashād replaced the same receiver, John Gilliam, in both St. Louis and Minnesota.

Broadcasting and television career

After his football career, he covered NFL, NBA, and MLB televised contests as a studio anchor and game reporter for NBC and ABC, as well as hosting NBA Inside Stuff for 16 seasons. He also has hosted the video-clip show Real TV in 2000, the reality show Celebrity Mole, the game show Caesars Challenge along with co-host Dan Doherty, and NBA Access with Ahmad Rashad on the ABC network. He starred in an episode of Monsters. Rashād has also guest starred on several TV shows, mainly ones that starred his then-wife Phylicia. In 1988 he pinch hit for Robb Weller on the weekend edition of Entertainment Tonight (then known as Entertainment This Week). He used to interview long-time friend Michael Jordan frequently while he was at NBC. In early 2013, he became a panelist on the daily talk show Morning Drive on the Golf Channel, but left that summer.

Personal life

In 1972, Rashād converted from Pentecostalism to a small sect, United Submitters International which has unorthodox Islamic views. He legally adopted his current name, which means "admirable one led to truth" in Arabic, a year later. The name change was not well received by many Cardinals fans. His last name comes from his former mentor, Rashad Khalifa, founder of the Submitters, who was assassinated in 1990.

Rashād has been married five times and divorced four. In 1969, he married his first wife Deidre Waters. They had a daughter, Keva, born in 1970. He also has a son, Sean, born in 1970. In 1976, he married his second wife, Matilda Johnson. They had two children, daughter Maiyisha (born in 1976) and son Ahmad Jr. (born in 1978). They divorced in 1979.

In 1985, Rashād married Cosby Show actress Phylicia Ayers-Allen, to whom he proposed on national television during the pregame show of NBC's broadcast of the Thanksgiving Day football game between the Detroit Lions and the New York Jets. It was the third marriage for both. Unlike many actresses, she adopted her husband's surname, and has kept the name "Phylicia Rashād" as her professional one. Out of this marriage, he gained a stepson Billy Bowles (born 1973). After a year of marriage, they had a daughter, Condola Phylea Rashād, named after his mother. In 2001, after nearly sixteen years of marriage, they divorced.

In 2007, Rashād wed his fourth wife, Sale Johnson (ex-wife of Woody Johnson, Johnson & Johnson billionaire heir and New York Jets owner). He gained three stepdaughters from this marriage: Casey Johnson (1977–2010), Jamie Johnson (b. 1982), and Daisy Johnson (b. 1987). They adopted Sale Johnson's granddaughter, Ava-Monroe (born August 14, 2006), then divorced in 2013.

In 2016, he married Ana Luz Rodriguez-Paz, a psychologist in South Florida.