Willie Frank Middlebrooks (born February 12, 1979 in Miami, Florida

Miami, Florida

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

) is a former defensive back

Defensive back

In American football and Canadian football, defensive backs are the players on the defensive team who take positions somewhat back from the line of scrimmage; they are distinguished from the defensive line players and linebackers, who take positions directly behind or close to the line of...

 for the Toronto Argonauts

Toronto Argonauts

The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta...

 of the Canadian Football League

Canadian Football League

The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....

 and former 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...

 free agent

Free agent

In professional sports, a free agent is a player whose contract with a team has expired and who is thus eligible to sign with another club or franchise....

 cornerback

Cornerback

A cornerback is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in American and Canadian football. Cornerbacks cover receivers, to defend against pass offenses and make tackles. Other members of the defensive backfield include the safeties and occasionally linebackers. The cornerback position...

. 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...

 for the Minnesota Golden Gophers

Minnesota Golden Gophers football

The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers are one of the oldest programs in college football history. They compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and the Big Ten Conference. The Golden Gophers have claimed six national championships and have an all time record of 646–481–44 as...

 and was the 24th overall pick of the 2001 NFL Draft

2001 NFL Draft

The 2001 NFL Draft took place on April 21–22, 2001 at the theater at Madison Square Garden, in New York City. This was the 66th National Football League draft in league history. The draft was broadcast on ESPN both days and eventually moved to ESPN2. No teams elected to claim any players in the...

. He began his career with the Broncos, then played for the San Francisco 49ers

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...

 before returning to Denver in 2006. The Broncos released him on August 30, 2006. Middlebrooks is considered to be a draft bust, playing only five seasons, and making just one start. Off the field problems tainted Middlebrooks brief career, and culminated with his arrest on New Year's Eve 2004 for domestic violence

Domestic violence

Domestic violence, also known as domestic abuse, spousal abuse, battering, family violence, and intimate partner violence , is broadly defined as a pattern of abusive behaviors by one or both partners in an intimate relationship such as marriage, dating, family, or cohabitation...

 after allegedly fighting his girlfriend.

He signed as a free agent with the Argonauts on April 28, 2008. He was named defensive player of Week One of the 2008 CFL season

2008 CFL season

The 2008 CFL season was the 55th season of modern Canadian professional football. Officially, it was the 51st season for the league. It was also the first CFL season in which all of the league's regular season and post-season games, including the Grey Cup game, were aired on TSN. This meant the CFL...

 with nine tackles and an interception of a long pass from Winnipeg's Kevin Glenn

Kevin Glenn

Kevin Glenn, Jr. is a professional Canadian football quarterback for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League. He was signed by the Saskatchewan Roughriders as an undrafted free agent in 2001...

near the end of the fourth quarter.

On Wednesday, June 1, 2011, Willie Middlebrooks announced his retirement after sustaining a serious neck injury he received nearing the end of the 2010 CFL season.