Desmond Bryant

Desmond J. Bryant (born December 15, 1985) is an American football defensive end for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League. He was signed by the Oakland Raiders as an undrafted free agent in 2009. He played college football at Harvard.

Early life and college career
Bryant was born in Shorewood, Illinois to Alton and Lillian Bryant. He graduated from East Bladen High School at Elizabethtown, North Carolina in 2004. In his senior season, Bryant helped his high school football team to a 13-1 record. That was his only year playing high school football in North Carolina; Bryant played football and basketball for three years while attending high school in Middletown, Delaware and played for the East Bladen basketball team for two seasons. With a weighted 4.2 grade point average and 1230 SAT score, Bryant chose Harvard despite offers by Duke, Florida A&M, and Towson State. As Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships, Bryant received an academic scholarship. Harvard coach Tim Murphy thought that Bryant could be a four-year starter and potentially a professional player and compared Bryant to a Southeastern Conference player. At Harvard, Bryant majored in economics and played 32 games in four seasons. In his senior season, Bryant was named second team All-Ivy League after leading Harvard with eight quarterback hurries and 4.5 tackles leading to losses.

Reflecting on his college years, Bryant told the Los Angeles Times: "The Ivy League's not really my type of environment. I had some really good teammates and friends, but outside of the football world I didn't interact much with the other kids."

Oakland Raiders
Bryant is the 29th Harvard Crimson football player to play in the NFL. In April 2009, Bryant signed a free agent contract with the Oakland Raiders. Bryant played all 16 games of his rookie season and had 24 solo and 8 assisted tackles. The next season, Bryant made 2.5 sacks.

Cleveland Browns
Bryant signed with the Cleveland Browns on March 12, 2013 as an unrestricted free agent for a five year $34 million dollar contract, with $15 million guaranteed.