Curtis Buckley

Who is Curtis Buckley?

Curtis LaDonn Buckley is a former American football cornerback in the National Football League for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants, and Washington Redskins. He played college football at East Texas State University. He now works as an assistant psychiatrist at Timberlawn Mental Hospital in Dallas.

Buckley was primarily a special-teams gunner during his career, and joined the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Buccaneers after not being invited to the NFL Combine. Head coach Sam Wyche was preparing to cut him in preseason before Buckley impressed his coaches by performing a flip on the field. Buckley became a fan favorite for his punishing hits on kick coverage and his propensity to perform acrobatics such as backflips in the end zone prior to kickoffs that followed Buccaneers scores. With the addition of Kenneth Gant, the Bucs' other gunner, Buckley and Gant took it upon themselves to stoke the crowd after every score, with Gant's "shark dance" building the crowd into a crescendo that culminated in Buckley's flip just as the ball was kicked.

In 1994, Buckley knocked Brian Mitchell unconscious during a Week 14 game. Buckley was not penalized, but was later fined. Both Wyche and Mitchell said that they thought that it was a clean hit.