Michael LaVern Fanning 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...

 player. He 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 Notre Dame

University of Notre Dame

The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...

. He was a defensive tackle for ten seasons 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...

. He started in Super Bowl XIV

Super Bowl XIV

Super Bowl XIV was an American football game played on January 20, 1980 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California to decide the National Football League champion following the 1979 regular season...

 for the Los Angeles Rams

St. Louis Rams

The St. Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St. Louis, Missouri. They are currently members of the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Rams have won three NFL Championships .The Rams began playing in 1936 in Cleveland,...

.

College

A rough competitor who puts out the kind of pursuit that upsets running backs and terrorizes quarterbacks. At Notre Dame, Fanning accounted for 164 tackles. Fanning was a starter at defensive tackle in 1973 and 1974. He was an 1974 All-America

1974 College Football All-America Team

The 1974 College Football All-America team is composed of various organizations that choose College All-America teams that season. The organizations that chose the teams were Associated Press, United Press International, Newspaper Enterprise Association, Football Writers Association of America,...

 selection by the Walter Camp Foundation, The Sporting News

The Sporting News

Sporting News is an American-based sports magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball — so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball"...

, NEA, Time and was a Second-team All-America selection by the AP

Associated Press

The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...

. In his years at Notre Dame he shared the practice field with Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger whose saga was made into a Hollywood film, "Rudy

Rudy (film)

Rudy is a 1993 American sports film directed by David Anspaugh. It is an account of the life of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, who harbored dreams of playing football at the University of Notre Dame despite significant obstacles...

."

Notre Dame ranked 2nd in the nation in total defense in 1973 and the Irish claimed the National Championship with a 11-0 record. In 1974 the defense ranked first in the nation, allowing only 195.2 yards per game and were ranked 6th in the nation in the final AP poll.

NFL

Fanning was drafted on the First round (9th selection) of the 1975 NFL Draft

1975 NFL Draft

The 1975 National Football League Draft was held on January 28–29, 1975.-Player selections:-Round one:-Round two:-Round three:-Round four:-Round five:-Round six:-Round seven:-Round eight:-Round nine:-Round ten:...

 by the Los Angeles Rams. He was touted to be the successor of Merlin Olsen

Merlin Olsen

Merlin Jay Olsen was an American football player in the National Football League, NFL commentator, and actor. He played his entire 15-year career with the Los Angeles Rams and was elected to the Pro Bowl in 14 of those seasons, a current record shared with Bruce Matthews...

 who was entering his 14th season in 1975. In 1976, in spot duty for Olsen, Fanning recorded 4 sacks.

Fanning took over as the starter at left tackle in 1979 after an injury to Cody Jones. Fanning had 8 sacks in 1979 and 10 sacks in 1980. He led the Rams in sacks in the strike-shortened 1982 season with 5.

Prior to the 1983 season Fanning was traded to the Detroit Lions

Detroit Lions

The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and...

. He played one season with the Lions and was signed as a free agent by the Seattle Seahawks

Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team joined the NFL in 1976 as an expansion team...

in 1984. He had 7 sacks in 1984 as a pass-rush specialist for the Seahawks.