National Football Foundation

Safety
Public Policy – 3.31 GPA
Head Coach: David Shaw
Athletics Director: Bernard Muir

Stanford Cardinal captain Jordan Richards ranks among the nation’s premier scholar-athletes with a 3.31 GPA and a laundry list of accolades to his name. Richards joins a fabled list of Stanford greats in becoming the university’s 12th NFF National Scholar-Athlete.

Richards, a public policy major, was a 2013 CoSIDA Second-Team Academic All-American and a two-time Academic All-District selection. The dominant safety is a two-time First-Team Academic All-Pac-12 selection, and NFL.com recently named him as one of the 2014 “Smartest Players in College Football.” After graduation he plans to pursue a master’s in public policy or government.

A leader among his teammates, Richards led Stanford to back-to-back Pac-12 titles in 2012 and 2013 and three consecutive BCS bowl games, including a 2013 Rose Bowl victory against Wisconsin. Richards is a two-time Honorable Mention All-Pac-12 performer, and he was the recipient of Stanford’s Outstanding Sophomore Award in 2012. The strong safety has recorded 235 tackles, 13.5 tackles for loss, seven interceptions and 25 pass breakups in his standout career.

A native of Folsom, Calif., Richards spends a great deal of his time mentoring other students. Last summer, he worked as a student teacher in math and college reading for the Tri-District Summer Math Institute, and he previously tutored a class at the East Palo Alto Academy, a school located in a low-income city near the Stanford campus. Richards also volunteers for the Sequoia Union High School district, Read Across America and the Ronald McDonald House. The team captain regularly serves as the face of the Cardinal squad at press conferences and other media functions.

Richards was selected in the second round (64th overall) of the 2015 NFL Draft by the New England Patriots.