Name Jason Odom Positions Tackle College: Florida Education University of Florida | High school: Bartow (FL) Weight 139 kg Height: 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) Role American football player | |
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Date of birth: (1974-03-31) March 31, 1974 (age 41) NFL draft: 1996 / Round: 4 / Pick: 96 | ||
Place of birth: Winter Haven, Florida | ||
Jason Brian Odom (born March 31, 1974) is an American former college and professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for four seasons during the 1990s. Odom played college football for the University of Florida, and received unanimous All-American honors. Thereafter, he played professionally for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
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Early years
Odom was born in Winter Haven, Florida in 1974. He attended Bartow High School in Bartow, Florida, and played high school football for the Bartow Yellow Jackets.
College career
Odom accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was an offensive lineman for coach Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators football team from 1992 to 1995. Odom was a four-year starter, a senior team captain in 1995, a first-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in 1994 and 1995, and a unanimous first-team All-American in 1995. In his four years as a Gator, the team won three consecutive SEC championships (1993, 1994, 1995), and played for a Bowl Alliance national championship in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl. He was also the recipient of the SEC's Jacobs Blocking Trophy, recognizing the best blocker in the SEC, in 1994 and 1995.
Odom graduated from Florida with a bachelor's degree in exercise and sports science in 1996. In one of a series of articles written for The Gainesville Sun in 2006, the newspaper's sports editors selected him as No. 28 of the top 100 Gators from the first 100 years of Florida football. He was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2010.
Professional career
Odom was chosen in the fourth round (ninety-sixth pick overall) of the 1996 NFL Draft by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and played offensive tackle for the Buccaneers for four seasons from 1996 to 1999. He started forty-one of the forty-six Buccaneers games in which he played.
Life after football
Odom has served as a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Deputy in Tampa, Florida since 2008.