Don McPherson

Who is Don McPherson?

Donald G. McPherson is a former National Football League and Canadian Football League quarterback. He spent seven seasons in the NFL and CFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Oilers, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and Ottawa Rough-Riders.

He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1988 after a college career at Syracuse University during which he won the Maxwell Award, the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback Award and finished second in the 1987 Heisman Trophy voting. He also played for the Houston Oilers, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Ottawa Rough-Riders. His accomplishments during his tenure at Syracuse propelled him to be inducted into the NCAA College Football Hall of Fame announced on May 1, 2008.

After retiring from football in 1994, McPherson joined the staff of Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society, before becoming the first executive director of the Sports Leadership Institute at Adelphi University. As a feminist and social activist he has founded several outreach and mentoring programs, and regularly speaks at college campuses as a critic of gender roles, stating that the standard constructions of masculinity and femininity both limit men's emotions and overall well-being as well as contribute to "gendered violence" such as domestic violence, stalking, and rape. In this capacity he has testified before hearings of the United States House of Representatives.