Jon Ritchie

Jon David Ritchie (born September 4, 1974) is a former professional American football fullback in the National Football League with the Philadelphia Eagles and Oakland Raiders.

Early years
Ritchie attended Cumberland Valley High School from 1989 to 1993. He led his high school football team to the state championship in 1992.

College career
Upon graduation, Ritchie attended the University of Michigan as a freshman and sophomore. At Michigan, he played as a true freshman. During his career at Michigan, he rushed for 120 yards and caught two passes for 13 yards. Then in 1995 he transferred to Stanford University where he played as a junior and senior. At Stanford, he first started as an inside linebacker, but switched to fullback. He rushed 17 times for 95 yards and received nine passes for 80 yards and two touchdowns. He is a member of Delta Tau Delta International Fraternity.

Professional career
Ritchie was drafted in the third round (63rd overall) of the 1998 NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders. Upon his arrival to the NFL, he started for the Raiders for five seasons. His final season with the Raiders he started in Super Bowl XXXVII where Oakland lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In 2003 Ritchie left the Raiders and signed to play for the Philadelphia Eagles. He suffered a knee injury early in the 2004 season and was released from the team after the injury never allowed him to play at the same level in 2005.

After football
Ritchie retired from the NFL in 2006, and became an announcer for NFL Europa games. He has also done analyst work with CN8 for college games. And, he does NFL commentary for the local ABC station, WHTM-TV. He has moved back to his hometown of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania where he helps coach the varsity football team for which he played, the Cumberland Valley Eagles. In the high school's large auditorium, he spoke at the baccalaureate for the class of 2005 and the class of 2008. Ritchie appears regularly on "ESPN First Take" and worked on "Outside the Lines" as an analyst during the 2009-2010 NFL season.

In September 2010, he started hosting a college football Saturday edition of SportsNation with Michelle Beadle. He also is an analyst for College Football Overdrive for ESPNews.

Video game appearances

 * In the game NFL Street 2, Ritchie often appears as the starting running back for the Eagles instead of Brian Westbrook due to a high blocking rating.
 * He was featured in Madden NFL 1998-2005, where he was consistently one of the top ranked fullbacks in the game.