Mo Collins

Damon Jamal "Mo" Collins (September 22, 1976 – October 26, 2014), was an American professional football player who was an offensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons during the 1990s and early 2000s. Collins played college football for the University of Florida, and was a member of a national championship team. The Oakland Raiders selected him in the first round of the 1998 NFL draft, and he played his entire professional career for the Raiders.

Early life

Collins was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1976. He attended West Charlotte High School in Charlotte, and he played high school football for the West Charlotte Lions. Collins was a key member of the Lions' North Carolina 4A state championship team in 1993. The Charlotte Observer ranked him as one of the top five high school football players in the state of North Carolina in 1993.

College career

Collins 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 1995 to 1997. As a true freshman in 1994, Collins suffered a foot injury and was redshirted by the Gators coaching staff, but became a full-time starter the following season. He played for the Raiders from to . In his six NFL seasons, Collins appeared in seventy-one regular season games and started in sixty-four of them. Collins died Sunday, October 26, 2014; he had been receiving dialysis treatment after suffering kidney failure.