Jameel Dumas
Encyclopedia
Jameel Dumas is a former American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 linebacker
Linebacker
A linebacker is a position in American football that was invented by football coach Fielding H. Yost of the University of Michigan. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up approximately three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage, behind the defensive linemen...

. He played for Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

 from 2000 to 2003, where he made 179 tackles and earned All-American honors. After suffering a knee injury in the first game of his fifth-year senior season, Dumas missed the remainder of the year. After recovering from knee surgery, he played with the Albany Conquest
Albany Conquest
The Albany Firebirds are a professional arena football team of the af2 based in Albany, New York. Albany was granted an expansion team in 2002 and began play as the Albany Conquest. The Firebirds play their home games at the Times Union Center...

 in 2005 as a two-way player. He also played in the NFL Europa with the Rhein Fire
Rhein Fire
The Rhein Fire was a professional American football team in NFL Europe, formerly the World League of American Football. Established in Germany in 1995, the franchise resurrected the name of the former Birmingham Fire team which was active during the 1991-1992 WLAF seasons.-History:The team was...

 in 2006 and Berlin Thunder
Berlin Thunder
The Berlin Thunder were a professional American football team in NFL Europe, which was a springtime American football league serving primarily as a developmental league for the National Football League. Most of the players were young American professional players assigned by NFL teams to receive...

 in 2007.

Early years

Dumas attended Abraham Clark High School
Abraham Clark High School
Abraham Clark High School is a four-year public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grade from the borough of Roselle, in Union County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Roselle Public Schools. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association...

 in Roselle, New Jersey
Roselle, New Jersey
Roselle is a Borough located in Union County in the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 21,085....

, where he was a star linebacker for the football team and hurdler for the track team. His high school coach Lou Grasso praised Dumas for his talent: "He's one of the outstanding players in this area. He's one of the hardest hitters I've had in a long time. He's definitely a Division I player." He played both fullback and linebacker in his senior year and was selected as a first-team all-state player as a senior. In his final year of prep football, Dumas had 120 tackles, 650 rushing yards and 16 touchdowns, and helped Abraham Clark advance to the North Jersey Group II state semifinals. In July 2003, he played in the Governor's Bowl, an all-star game matching the best players from New York and New Jersey. Dumas was singled out as one of "the defensive heroes" of the game for New Jersey.

Recruiting

Dumas was a highly-touted recruit in his senior year of high school. He was 6 feet, 3 inches tall, weighed 215 pounds, and had excellent speed. He received scholarship offers from Rutgers, Ole Miss, West Virginia, North Carolina State, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Minnesota, but he chose Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

. He orally committed to Syracuse in August 1998, and signed a national letter of intent with Syracuse in February 1999. Dumas explained his choice of Syracuse, "I came to Syracuse because I'm a Jersey guy, and it's kind of close. I came up and visited the campus, liked what I saw, liked the coaching staff."

Syracuse University

Dumas played college football
College football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...

 at Syracuse from 2000 to 2003. In his first start as a weak-side linebacker, Dumas helped lead Syracuse to a victory over Temple when he intercepted a pass in the second quarter and returned it to the Temple 16-yard line to set up the go-ahead touchdown. Dumas recalled looking down as he bobbled the ball and prayed, "Lord, don't let me drop this ball." He also tallied seven tackles, including two tackles for loss, broke up a pass, and was awarded the game ball. In its reporting on the game, the Syracuse Herald American
Syracuse Herald-Journal
The Syracuse Herald-Journal was an evening newspaper in Syracuse, New York, with roots going back to 1839 when it was named the Western State Journal. The final issue — volume 124, number 37,500 — was published on September 29, 2001...

noted: "Encouraged by the interception, Dumas began to fly around the field making hits." His performance against Temple won Dumas a role as a starter.

As a sophomore in 2001, Dumas played in all 13 games, made 67 tackles and helped Syracuse to a 10-3 record.

As a junior in 2002, Dumas suffered a badly sprained ankle early in the season and injured his groin when he continued to play with the injury. Despite the injuries, Dumas recorded 92 tackles in 2002, as he developed into one of the better linebackers in the Big East Conference
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...

.

In January 2003, Dumas announced that he was leaving school for undisclosed reasons to return home to Roselle, New Jersey
Roselle, New Jersey
Roselle is a Borough located in Union County in the state of New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 21,085....

. Before he left, Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni
Paul Pasqualoni
Paul Pasqualoni is the current head coach of the University of Connecticut football team. On January 13, 2011, Pasqualoni was named to lead the Huskies, two weeks after former coach Randy Edsall left for the University of Maryland....

 told Dumas the door was open should he decide to return. In the summer of 2003, Dumas opted to return as fifth-year senior. At the time, he told the press, "Mentally, I was totally discombobulated. It was a big, total period of confusion. I knew I wasn't feeling good because I wasn't here with my brothers." In a feature story about Dumas, The Post-Standard covered his comeback.

As a senior in 2003, Dumas suffered a knee injury in the season opener against the University of North Carolina
University of North Carolina
Chartered in 1789, the University of North Carolina was one of the first public universities in the United States and the only one to graduate students in the eighteenth century...

. The injury kept him out of the line-up for his entire senior year. In November 2003, sports writer Donnie Webb wrote a feature story on Dumas' hard-luck story. Webb wrote, "He is frustrated. He is exasperated. He is resigned to waiting out the storm. This is a four-year starter with aspirations and abilities to play in the NFL. His final audition is being played on the sidelines." Asked about being kept out of the line-up, Dumas said, "It's killing me." However, he insisted that he would not give up on his football career: "It's all about the love of the game. If you've got a strong love for something, it's always going to prevail. I went through too much stuff. The game keeps calling me."

In December 2003, Dumas petitioned the NCAA for a sixth year of eligibility after missing most of the 2003 season. Syracuse coach Paul Pasqualoni noted at the time, "He played only a very short period of time in the North Carolina game. So you'd say the NCAA would be sympathetic towards a sixth year. There is no precedents set for someone in Jameel's circumstances being granted. We're going to explore it. We're going to do everything we can do. The likelihood is, we'd be blazing new territory if we got it, and the likelihood of that happening is probably very slim." Dumas' request for an extra year of eligibility was denied.

Dumas finished his college football career at Syracuse with 179 tackles and earned All-America honors.

Professional football

In 2005, Dumas played for the Albany Conquest
Albany Conquest
The Albany Firebirds are a professional arena football team of the af2 based in Albany, New York. Albany was granted an expansion team in 2002 and began play as the Albany Conquest. The Firebirds play their home games at the Times Union Center...

 in the AF2
AF2
AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...

 arena football league. He had success as a two-way player for Albany playing at fullback on offense and linebacker on defense. Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...

pointed to Dumas as one of the AF2
AF2
AF2 was the name of the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football rules and style of play. League seasons ran from April through July with the postseason and ArenaCup...

 players who "can recite a saga that purports to explain why he's playing in this quirky indoor league that's at least a Hail Mary from the NFL." The magazine noted that Dumas "was a star at Syracuse before blowing out his left knee." An earlier account on Dumas noted: "His speed is his greatest asset, and the injuries robbed him of it." In 2006, he was signed by the Rhein Fire
Rhein Fire
The Rhein Fire was a professional American football team in NFL Europe, formerly the World League of American Football. Established in Germany in 1995, the franchise resurrected the name of the former Birmingham Fire team which was active during the 1991-1992 WLAF seasons.-History:The team was...

 of the NFL Europa. He played for the Rhein Fire in 2006 and for the Berlin Thunder
Berlin Thunder
The Berlin Thunder were a professional American football team in NFL Europe, which was a springtime American football league serving primarily as a developmental league for the National Football League. Most of the players were young American professional players assigned by NFL teams to receive...

in 2007.
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