FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 9/13/19 http://twitter.com/NFL345

CITY OF MIAMI, STATE OF FLORIDA, SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS HIGH SCHOOL PRODUCE MOST NFL PLAYERS ON KICKOFF WEEKEND ROSTERS

The NFL is heading to Miami for Super Bowl LIV, but Miami has been heading to the NFL for decades.

With 27 players, Miami again leads the league in hometowns with the most players on 2019 NFL Kickoff Weekend rosters, the league announced today. Nearby Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has produced 14, tied for third among cities with the most players. Three of the top five cities with regard to producing NFL players are in Florida, including Tampa (13).

HOMETOWNS WITH MOST NFL PLAYERS

Hometown NFL Players Hometown NFL Players Miami 27 Cleveland 12 Houston 21 Birmingham, AL 11 Fort Lauderdale, FL 14 Jacksonville, FL 11 New Orleans 14 Atlanta 10 Tampa, FL 13 Louisville, KY 10 Cincinnati 12 Philadelphia 10

Fort Lauderdale’s Saint Thomas Aquinas High School, with 13 players, again tops the list of high schools with the most NFL players. The school has led the nation in players on NFL Kickoff rosters for seven of the past eight seasons (2012, 2014-19). It tied for the lead in 2013.

Cincinnati running back GIOVANI BERNARD and two of his Bengals teammates, defensive tackle GENO ATKINS and tackle BOBBY HART, are products of the school, tutored by head coach George Smith. So, what’s in the culture at Saint Thomas Aquinas?

“Professionalism,” Bernard said. “Taking accountability for everything you do, your actions. We learned very early my freshman year that if you’re going to miss a workout, there’s going to be discipline. I always hold myself very accountable, and that’s something I feel that all the players coming out of Saint Thomas have learned. They’re all players who are very accountable to their teammates, and they get their jobs done.”

Like Bernard, Patriots wide receiver PHILLIP DORSETT also has a fellow Saint Thomas Aquinas NFL teammate, JAMES WHITE.

“We were lucky enough to play for Coach Smith,” Dorsett said. “He taught us how to carry ourselves like men before we even got to college. So, we knew the discipline, and how it was going to be when we got to college, not even knowing we were going to make it to the NFL. There’s a certain way to carry yourself when you make it to the next level, and he definitely taught us how to carry ourselves.”

Overall, NFL players hail from 1,296 high schools in 46 states and the District of Columbia, 10 countries and a U.S. territory (American Samoa). The totals are based on the 1,695 players on Kickoff Weekend rosters.

HIGH SCHOOLS WITH THE MOST NFL PLAYERS

High School, City, State Number NFL Players Saint Thomas Aquinas High School; 13 Geno Atkins, CIN; Giovani Bernard, CIN; Joey Bosa, LAC; Nick Ft. Lauderdale, FL Bosa, SF; James Crawford, MIA; Phillip Dorsett, NE; Marcus Gilbert, ARI; Bobby Hart, CIN; Lamarcus Joyner, OAK; Brandon Linder, JAX; Michael Palardy, CAR; Jordan Scarlett, CAR; James White, NE Lakewood High School; St. Petersburg, FL 7 Dante Fowler, LAR; Shaquem Griffin, SEA; Shaquill Griffin, SEA; Austin Reiter, KC; Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, WAS; Marquez Valdes-Scantling, GB; Isaiah Wynn, NE Long Beach Polytechnic High School; 6 Jayon Brown, TEN; Jurrell Casey, TEN; DeSean Jackson, PHI; Long Beach, CA Marcedes Lewis, GB; Jamize Olawale, DAL; JuJu Smith- Schuster, PIT Serra High School; San Diego 5 Matt Dickerson, TEN; Rasheem Green, SEA; Marquise Lee, JAX; Dante Pettis, SF; Paul Richardson, WAS Allen High School; Allen, TX 5 Bobby Evans, LAR; Greg Little, CAR; Kyler Murray, ARI; Cedric Ogbuehi, JAX; Jonathan Williams, IND Tucker High School; Tucker, GA 5 A.J. Bouye, JAX; Jonathan Ledbetter, MIA; Dwayne Harris, OAK; Duke Shelley, CHI; Neiko Thorpe, SEA Northwestern High School; Miami, FL 5 DeAndre Baker, NYG; Teddy Bridgewater, NO; Artie Burns, PIT; Amari Cooper, DAL; Lavonte David, TB

Ten high schools have four players each in the NFL this year:

High School; City, State NFL Players High School; City, State NFL Players Central High School; Miami 4 Peachtree Ridge High School; Suwanee, GA 4 Glenville High School; Cleveland 4 Saint Louis High School; Honolulu 4 Immokalee High School; Immokalee, FL 4 Stephenson High School; Stone Mountain, GA 4 Norland High School; Miami 4 Westlake High School; Austin, TX 4 North Shore High School; Houston 4 West Monroe High School; Monroe, LA 4

HOME STATES: Florida tops the list of states with the most NFL players (212), followed by California (177) and Texas (173): STATES WITH MOST NFL PLAYERS

State NFL Players State NFL Players Florida 212 Louisiana 57 California 177 North Carolina 56 Texas 173 Pennsylvania 54 Georgia 119 Illinois 52 Ohio 72 Virginia 49 Alabama 64 South Carolina 44 New Jersey 59 Mississippi 35

NFL PLAYERS PER CAPITA: Alabama, with one NFL player for every 74,683 residents, leads the list of NFL players per capita. The District of Columbia (one in 75,215) and Louisiana (one in 79,533) round out the top three. The national average is one NFL player per 184,436 U.S. residents.

STATES WITH MOST NFL PLAYERS PER CAPITA

State Population * NFL Players NFL Players Per Capita Alabama 4,779,736 64 1 NFL player per 74,683 people District of Columbia 601,723 8 1 NFL player per 75,215 people Louisiana 4,533,372 57 1 NFL player per 79,533 people Georgia 9,687,653 119 1 NFL player per 81,409 people Mississippi 2,967,297 35 1 NFL player per 84,780 people Florida 18,801,310 212 1 NFL player per 88,685 people South Carolina 4,625,364 44 1 NFL player per 105,122 people Delaware 897,934 8 1 NFL player per 112,242 people Texas 25,145,561 173 1 NFL player per 145,350 people New Jersey 8,791,894 59 1 NFL player per 149,015 people Hawaii 1,360,301 9 1 NFL player per 151,145 people United States 308,745,538 1,674 1 NFL player per 184,436 people

*Based on most recent published U.S. Census Data (2010)

NOTE: To obtain a complete list of NFL players’ high schools, states and hometowns, click here.