Sam Garnes is a former NFL player and coach who has subsequently become known as a sports analyst for radio and as the founder of the Sam Garnes Foundation, a non-profit organisation that works to provide leadership to aspiring young athletes in high school and college. Born in the Bronx, he is about as New York as it can get, having spent his playing career with the Giants and the Jets and currently living in New Jersey. His coaching career, however, took him all over the United States and included spells with the Denver Broncos, Chicago Bears, Carolina Panthers, and many more.
Garnes played as a defensive back and was selected by the New York Giants in the 1997 NFL Draft. His playing career lasted for six years, four of which were spent with the Giants and two with their local rivals, the New York Jets. He played 106 games during his career before moving into coaching, first with Emerson High School in Bergen County, New Jersey, as a defensive coordinator. He then spent time in Germany, coaching the defensive backs of the short-lived Cologne Centurions before returning to the States and another outfit that didn’t last long, the Las Vegas Locomotives. He found more secure work as a special teams assistant for the Carolina Panthers before becoming secondary assistant coach for major team, the Denver Broncos between 2011 and 2014. He then spent two years in the same position for the Chicago Bears before retiring from coaching.
Nowadays, most of Garnes’ time is spent running his own trucking business in New Jersey, but he is still passionate about football and developing young talent, and his Foundation still sees him visit local schools, helping to train and encourage the next generation of pro footballers.