Mario Raymond Celotto is a retired 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...

.

Football career

Born in Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles, California

Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 and raised in Rancho Palos Verdes, California

Rancho Palos Verdes, California

Rancho Palos Verdes is a city in Los Angeles County, California that was incorporated on September 7, 1973. The population was 41,643 at the 2010 census...

 to Ray and Cecilia E. Celotto, owners of Dreamland Bedding Corporation, Celotto graduated from St. Bernard High School

St. Bernard High School (Los Angeles, California)

St. Bernard High School is a four-year coeducational Catholic high school located in Playa Del Rey, California, which is in the West Los Angeles area...

 and 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 the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 from 1974 to 1977. During the game against rival Notre Dame

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football

Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team is the football team of the University of Notre Dame. The team is currently coached by Brian Kelly.Notre Dame competes as an Independent at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision level, and is a founding member of the Bowl Championship Series coalition. It is an...

 in his 1977 senior season, Celotto once recovered a fumble by Terry Eurick of Notre Dame at the Notre Dame 5-yard line and scored a touchdown. He was drafted in the 7th round (171st overall) of the 1978 NFL Draft

1978 NFL Draft

The 1978 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 May 2–3, 1978...

 by the Buffalo Bills

Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

. He played for the Oakland Raiders

Oakland Raiders

The Oakland Raiders are a professional American football team based in Oakland, California. They currently play in the Western Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

 for the 1980 season, when the Raiders won Super Bowl XV

Super Bowl XV

Super Bowl XV was an American football game played on January 25, 1981 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana to decide the National Football League champion following the 1980 regular season...

; the next season, he played for the Raiders, Los Angeles Rams, and Baltimore Colts. After 1981, Celotto left the NFL due to a knee injury.

After football

After retiring from football, Celotto founded Humboldt Brewing Company in 1987. In 1997, Humboldt Brewing merged with Mendocino Brewing.

Personal life

Mario Celotto met Julia Lendl, who played track and volleyball at USC, and married her after she graduated with a degree in physical education. They had two sons. His younger son, Tonio Dante Celotto, played college football at the University of Oregon

University of Oregon

-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...

 in the 2007 and 2008 seasons and graduated from Piedmont High School in 2007. After divorcing Julia, Celotto married Deirdre Taylor Haizlip, group account director at Carol H. Williams Advertising. Their wedding took place on May 21, 2005 at Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands

Charlotte Amalie, United States Virgin Islands

-Education:St. Thomas-St. John School District serves the community. and Charlotte Amalie High School serve the area.-Gallery:-See also:* Anna's Retreat* Cruz Bay* Saint Thomas* Water Island-External links:* *...

 and officiated by The Rev. Skip Sikora from San Francisco. In 2009, Tonio Celotto left the team and said that he was interested in joining the Los Angeles Police Department

Los Angeles Police Department

The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...

.

On February 4, 2011, arranged by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation, Celotto visited a physics class in Yerba Buena High School

Yerba Buena High School

Yerba Buena High School is a public comprehensive four-year high school located in the East San Jose area of San Jose, California, USA. It has been the safest school in the East Side Union High School District for three consecutive years and its athletic teams are well-known...

 in San Jose, California

San Jose, California

San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...

 to demonstrate how Newton's laws of motion

Newton's laws of motion

Newton's laws of motion are three physical laws that form the basis for classical mechanics. They describe the relationship between the forces acting on a body and its motion due to those forces...

apply to football.