Lawrence Wright

Lawrence D. Wright, III (born September 6, 1973) is an American former professional football player who was a safety for two seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL) during the 1990s. Wright played college football for the Florida Gators, winning a national championship in 1997. Thereafter, he played in the NFL for the Bengals.

Early life

Wright was born in Miami, Florida in 1973. He attended North Miami High School and Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania.

College career

Wright accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators football team from 1993 to 1996. He led the Gators with 109 tackles as a junior in 1995. That same year, he also won the Jim Thorpe Award, recognizing the best defensive back in college football, and was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in 1995 and 1996.

Gators fans also remember Wright for leading the cheer "If you ain't a Gator, you must be Gator bait!" during a large celebration at Florida Field following Florida's 1996 national championship. As an alumnus, he returned to Gainesville to lead the same cheer during celebrations after the Gators' national championships in 2006 and 2008

Professional career

Wright was undrafted in the 1997 NFL draft, but was signed by the Cincinnati Bengals as a free agent. He played in eighteen regular season games for the Bengals during the and seasons, He appeared in four regular season games as a rookie and fourteen games in 1999, but was released by the Bengals before the beginning of the season.

Life after football

After retiring from professional football, Wright formed a construction and real estate development company, Wright & Partners, in South Florida.