09/24/2016
RAIDER OF THE DAY: Desmond Bryant DE
Desmond Bryant graduated from East Bladen High School at Elizabethtown, North Carolina in 2004. In his senior season, Bryant helped his high school football team to a 13-1 record. That was his only year playing high school football in North Carolina; Bryant played football and basketball for three years while attending high school in Middletown, Delaware and played for the East Bladen basketball team for two seasons. With a weighted 4.2 grade point average and 1230 SAT score, Bryant chose Harvard despite offers by Duke, Florida A&M, and Towson State.
As Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships, Bryant received an academic scholarship. Harvard coach Tim Murphy thought that Bryant could be a four-year starter and potentially a professional player and compared Bryant to a Southeastern Conference player. At Harvard, Bryant majored in economics and played 32 games in four seasons. In his senior season, Bryant was named second team All-Ivy League after leading Harvard with eight quarterback hurries and 4.5 tackles leading to losses.
Reflecting on his college years, Bryant told the Los Angeles Times: "The Ivy League's not really my type of environment. I had some really good teammates and friends, but outside of the football world I didn't interact much with the other kids."
Bryant is the 29th Harvard Crimson football player to play in the NFL. In April 2009, Bryant signed a free agent contract with the Oakland Raiders. Bryant played all 16 games of his rookie season and had 24 solo and 8 assisted tackles. The next season, Bryant made 2.5 sacks. In 3 seasons with the Raiders, Bryant has recorded 88 tackles, 7.5 sacks and 2 forced fumbles.