David Galloway (American football)


David Lawrence Galloway is an American former college and professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League for ten seasons during the 1980s and early 1990s. Galloway played college football for the University of Florida, and earned All-American honors. A second-round pick in the 1982 NFL Draft, he played professionally for the St. Louis and Phoenix Cardinals and the Denver Broncos of the NFL.

Early life

Galloway was born in Tampa, Florida in 1959. Both of Galloway's parents died before he was 10 years old, and he was cared for by his two older sisters. He attended Brandon High School in Brandon, Florida, where he was a standout high school football player for the Brandon Eagles. Galloway was six feet, three inches tall and weighed 225 pounds in high school; he was a dominating athlete in basketball, football and track. As a senior for the Eagles in 1977, he was an all-state, prep All-American defensive lineman in football, led Hillsborough County in basketball dunks, and helped the Brandon Eagles to an 18–2 conference basketball title, and threw the shot and discus for the track team.

College career

Galloway accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played defensive end and defensive tackle for coach Doug Dickey and coach Charley Pell's Florida Gators football teams from 1978 to 1981. During Galloway's junior season in 1980, he was a member of the Gators team that posted the biggest one-year turnaround in the history of NCAA Division I football—from 0–10–1 in 1979 to an 8–4 bowl team in 1980.
He was recognized as a second-team All-Southeastern Conference selection and an honorable mention All-American in 1980. As a senior team captain in 1981, Galloway was a first-team All-SEC selection, and a Football Writers Association of America first-team All-American. He was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great." In one of a series of articles written for The Gainesville Sun in 2006, the newspaper's sports editors rated him as No. 48 among the top 100 players of the Florida Gators' first 100 seasons.

Professional career

The St. Louis Cardinals selected Galloway in the second round of the 1982 NFL Draft, and he played eight seasons for the Cardinals from to, and one final season for the Denver Broncos in. He played in ninety-nine games, started seventy-six of them, and recorded thirty-eight quarterback sacks and five recovered fumbles in his ten-season NFL career.

Life after football

Galloway is married, and he and his wife Josie have led a marriage ministry together for seven years. They have three sons. Galloway currently works as a licensed real estate agent in Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Florida area.