Richard Alexander Fain is a former American college and professional 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...

 player who was a cornerback

Cornerback

A cornerback is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in American and Canadian football. Cornerbacks cover receivers, to defend against pass offenses and make tackles. Other members of the defensive backfield include the safeties and occasionally linebackers. The cornerback position...

 in the National Football League

National Football League

The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

 (NFL) for two season in the early 1990s. Fain 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...

 for the University of Florida

University of Florida

The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...

, and thereafter, he played professionally for the Cincinnati Bengals

Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional football team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the AFC's North Division in the National Football League . The Bengals began play in 1968 as an expansion team in the American Football League , and joined the NFL in 1970 in the AFL-NFL...

, Phoenix Cardinals

Arizona Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

 and Chicago Bears

Chicago Bears

The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...

 of the NFL.

Early years

Fain was born in North Fort Myers, Florida

North Fort Myers, Florida

North Fort Myers is a census-designated place in Lee County, Florida, United States. The population was 40,214 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Cape Coral–Fort Myers Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

. He attended Fort Myers High School

Fort Myers Senior High School

Fort Myers Senior High School is a public school in Fort Myers, Florida. It was opened October 19, 1911, making it one of the oldest schools in the state of Florida, and the oldest in Lee County. It is managed by the Lee County School District...

 in Fort Myers, Florida

Fort Myers, Florida

Fort Myers is the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. Its population was 62,298 in the 2010 census, a 29.23 percent increase over the 2000 figure....

, and was a standout high school football

High school football

High school football, in North America, refers to the game of football as it is played in the United States and Canada. It ranks among the most popular interscholastic sports in both of these nations....

 player for the Fort Myers Green Wave.

College career

Fain received an athletic scholarship

Athletic scholarship

An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport...

 to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida

Gainesville, Florida

Gainesville is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Alachua County, Florida, United States as well as the principal city of the Gainesville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area . The preliminary 2010 Census population count for Gainesville is 124,354. Gainesville is home to the sixth...

, where he played for coach Galen Hall

Galen Hall

Galen Samuel Hall is an American college and professional football coach and former player. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and an alumnus of Penn State University, where he played college football...

 and coach Steve Spurrier

Steve Spurrier

Stephen Orr Spurrier is an American college football coach and player. Spurrier is the current head coach of the University of South Carolina's Gamecocks football team. He is also a former professional player and coach...

's Florida Gators football

Florida Gators football

The Florida Gators football team represents the University of Florida in the sport of American football. The Florida Gators compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletics Association and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference...

 teams from 1987 to 1990. He had ten interceptions in four seasons, and received first-team All-Southeastern Conference

Southeastern Conference

The Southeastern Conference is an American college athletic conference that operates in the southeastern part of the United States. It is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama...

 (SEC) honors in 1989 and 1990, and was also a second-team All-American in 1989 and 1990. Memorably, in 1990, he recovered a punt blocked by Jimmy Spencer

Jimmy Spencer (American football)

James Arthur "Jimmy" Spencer, Jr. is a former American college and professional football player who was a cornerback during the National Football League for twelve seasons in the 1990s and early 2000s...

, and returned it twenty-five yards for a touchdown—the margin of victory in the Gators' 17–13 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide

1992 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

The 1992 Alabama Crimson Tide football team represented the University of Alabama in the 1992 college football season. This was the team's third season under head coach Gene Stallings. They played their home games at both Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Legion Field in Birmingham,...

.

Fain graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 in exercise and sport sciences in 1990.

Professional career

The Cincinnati Bengals selected Fain in the sixth round (157th pick overall) of the 1991 NFL Draft

1991 NFL Draft

The 1991 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 21–22, 1991 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Manhattan, New York...

, and he played for the Bengals and Phoenix Cardinals during the season. He played his second and final year in the NFL for the Chicago Bears in . In Fain's two-season NFL career, he played in twenty-four regular season games.

See also

• Florida Gators
  Florida Gators
  The Florida Gators are the intercollegiate sports teams that represent the University of Florida located in Gainesville, Florida. The "Lady Gators" is an alternative nickname sometimes used by the Gators women's teams...
  
  
• Florida Gators football, 1980–1989
• Florida Gators football, 1990–1999
• List of Chicago Bears players
• List of Florida Gators football players
• List of University of Florida alumni