Ben Terrence Coates is a former
American footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
tight endThe tight end is a position in American football on the offense. The tight end is often seen as a hybrid position with the characteristics and roles of both an offensive lineman and a wide receiver. Like offensive linemen, they are usually lined up on the offensive line and are large enough to be...
in the
National Football LeagueThe National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
and former
CIAAThe Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association is a college athletic conference, mostly consisting of historically black colleges and universities. Recent addition Chowan University is the first non-HBCU to play in the conference. Conference teams participate in the NCAA's Division II...
footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
coachIn sports, a coach is an individual involved in the direction, instruction and training of the operations of a sports team or of individual sportspeople.-Staff:...
and former NFL tight ends coach. Coates didn't play
footballHigh school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....
until his senior year of high school, and was a multi-sport player at
Livingstone CollegeLivingstone College is a private, historically black, four-year college in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church...
located in
Salisbury, North CarolinaSalisbury is a city in Rowan County in North Carolina, a state of the United States of America. The population was 33,663 in the 2010 Census . It is the county seat of Rowan County...
. As a
gridironGridiron football , sometimes known as North American football, is an umbrella term for related codes of football primarily played in the United States and Canada. The predominant forms of gridiron football are American football and Canadian football...
player at Livingstone, he broke nearly all meaningful records at the school, but due to his split-sport performances, against weak competition, for a non-notable school, he received little notice outside of the CIAA.
Considered an out-of-nowhere prospect, Coates was picked in the fifth round of the
1991 NFL DraftThe 1991 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 21–22, 1991 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Manhattan, New York...
by the
New England PatriotsThe New England Patriots, commonly called the "Pats", are a professional football team based in the Greater Boston area, playing their home games in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts at Gillette Stadium. The team is part of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National...
. His first two years with the Patriots were fairly uneventful; in his rookie year he had ten catches for 95 yards and a two-yard touchdown against the
Indianapolis ColtsThe Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. They are currently members of the South Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League ....
that forced overtime in a 23-17 Patriots win. In his second season he had twenty catches for 171 yards and three touchdowns.
His career changed with the 1993 arrival of
quarterbackQuarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
Drew BledsoeDrew McQueen Bledsoe is a former football quarterback in the National Football League, best known as the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots from 1993-2001. During the 1990s, he was considered the face of the Patriots franchise...
and legendary
head coachA head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches...
Bill ParcellsDuane Charles "Bill" Parcells is a former American football head coach, most recently with the Dallas Cowboys from 2003 to 2006...
to the Patriots franchise. Parcells, known for his reliance on tight ends, frequently used then-
rookieRookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of their sport or has little or no professional experience. The term also has the more general meaning of anyone new to a profession, training or activity Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of...
quarterback Bledsoe on passes to Coates, and the tight end led the Patriots in receptions in 1993 with 53 catches for 629 yards and eight scores, two of them in New England's season-ending overtime win over
MiamiThe 1993 Miami Dolphins' season was the 28th for the franchise and 24th in the NFL. The season was marked by Don Shula becoming the winningest coach in NFL history, passing George Halas against the Philadelphia Eagles...
.
In 1994, his breakout year, he caught 96 passes, the most ever for a tight end to that point (the record was broken by Tony Gonzalez in 2004), for 1,174 yards receiving (The only time in his career he would gain 1,000 yards in a receiving season) and seven touchdowns. He appeared in his first
Pro BowlIn professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League . Since the merger with the rival American Football League in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference against those...
and would appear in the next four as well.
In 1996 Coates had 62 catches for 682 yards and nine touchdowns; the most dramatic was against the
New York GiantsThe New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
in the final game of the regular season as he caught a twelve-yard pass and bulled through Giants defenders for the game-winning score of a 23-22 New England win. His efforts helped New England to a championship appearance in
Super Bowl XXXISuper Bowl XXXI was an American football game played on January 26, 1997, at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1996 regular season. The National Football Conference champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American...
. His team lost the game 35-21, but he had a good performance in it, leading the Patriots in receiving with 6 catches for 66 yards and a touchdown. From 1995 to 1998, he caught 84, 62, 66, and 67 passes, respectively, in those 4 seasons.
After the 1999 season, Coates was released by the Patriots, and afterwards played for the
Baltimore RavensThe Baltimore Ravens are a professional football franchise based in Baltimore, Maryland.The Baltimore Ravens are officially a quasi-expansion franchise, having originated in 1995 with the Cleveland Browns relocation controversy after Art Modell, then owner of the Cleveland Browns, announced his...
, where he climbed the all-time receiving charts, winning
Super Bowl XXXVSuper Bowl XXXV was played on January 28, 2001 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida to decide the National Football League champion following the 2000 regular season. The American Football Conference champion Baltimore Ravens defeated the National Football Conference champion New York...
in the process. When Coates was released by the Ravens in the following year, he decided to retire, having become the fourth all-time leading receiver at tight end in NFL history, behind
Ozzie NewsomeOzzie Newsome Jr. and a 1974 graduate of Colbert County High School in Leighton, Alabama, is a former American football tight end for the Cleveland Browns, an inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and the current General Manager of the Baltimore Ravens.-College career:Before his NFL career,...
, former teammate
Shannon SharpeShannon Sharpe is a former American Football tight end who played for the Denver Broncos and Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. Sharpe is known for his creative commentary and trash talking. He was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and inducted on August 6, 2011...
, and
Kellen WinslowKellen Boswell Winslow is a former American football tight end with the Missouri Tigers and the San Diego Chargers. He is widely recognized as one of the greatest tight ends in the history of the game. He is currently the athletic director at Central State University.Winslow did not play high...
. Coates played in 158 games with 499 receptions for 5,555 yards and 50 touchdowns.
After retiring, Coates returned to Livingstone College, where he was head coach, and also coached in
NFL EuropeNFL Europe was an American football league which operated in Europe from 1991 until 2007. Backed by the National Football League , the largest professional American football league in the United States, it was founded as the World League of American Football to serve as a type of spring league...
. In 2004 he served an internship with the
Dallas CowboysThe Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
as an assistant for the tight ends under head coach Bill Parcells. In March 2005, Coates was named the tight ends coach for the
Cleveland BrownsThe Cleveland Browns are a professional football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
, replacing
Rob ChudzinskiRobert A. Chudzinski is an American football coach. He is currently the Offensive Coordinator for the Carolina Panthers. He was the offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns, having been named to that position on January 20, 2007...
, under head coach
Romeo CrennelRomeo Crennel is the former head coach of the Cleveland Browns and current defensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. Before becoming the head coach of the Browns, Crennel won three Super Bowls in four seasons as the defensive coordinator of the New England...
who was the former
defensive coordinatorA defensive coordinator typically refers to a coach on a gridiron football team who is in charge of the defense. Generally, along with his offensive counterpart, he represents the second level of command structure after the head coach...
of Coates' former team, the New England Patriots.
It was announced on July 7, 2008, that Coates would be inducted into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame.
External links