Dwayne Slay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dwayne Slay (born June 21, 1984 in Brunswick, Georgia) is an American football safety who plays for the Chicago Bears of the NFL.
Primarily a free safety, pundits believe he is also capable of playing strong safety as well. While only playing for one season as a starter at Texas Tech, Slay set a new Big 12 record with eight forced fumbles in a single season. This achievement, along with Slay being one of the top tacklers in the Big 12, contributed to him being named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year by the Associated Press in November, 2005. Slay was also named a 2005 First Team All-American by Sports Illustrated in December, 2005.
Arguably, Slay's most infamous game was Texas Tech's contest against the Kansas State University Wildcats on October 15, 2005. In the game, Slay had two hard tackles that were noted by national sports outlets. The first was a tackle on Kansas State wide receiver Davin Dennis that caused a fumble. But Slay later caused another fumble by laying an even harder hit on quarterback Allan Everidge on an up-the-middle draw play that forced Everidge to the turf for several minutes. Everidge was able to return to the game, but the Red Raiders won the game 59-20.
Towards the end of the season, ESPN's Mel Kiper Jr. had Slay as one of his top 25 NFL draft prospects and many believed Slay would, at the very least, go late in the first day of the draft. However, after a poor pro-day workout at the NFL combine, Slay's status dropped significantly.
Pundits predicted that Dwayne Slay would be drafted by a National Football League team in the seventh round of the 2006 NFL draft, but after going undrafted, Slay instead signed a free agent contract with the Bears. Slay has been released by the Bears due to injuring his hamstring. On November 15 the Bears resigned Slay and put him on the practice squad as a linebacker.
