Top 20 NFL Sooners, No. 10: Curtis Lofton

One of OU's best linebackers ever was an unanswered phone away from being an Oklahoma State Cowboy

In the past 20 years, the Oklahoma Sooners have experienced arguably their most productive era ever in the NFL Draft.

From the 2000 to 2019 drafts — the entirety of the Bob Stoops and Lincoln Riley years — OU has had 95 players drafted.

Using today’s 7-round comparison, that’s more than any other two-decade era in school history. In the 1970s and ‘80s, OU had 131 players drafted, but only 88 were selected in the first seven rounds.

In the last 20 years, the Sooners have produced some historically good players. Every day leading up to this year’s NFL Draft (April 23-25), SI Sooners presents the Top 20 NFL Sooners of the last 20 years.

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Curtis Lofton in Atlanta

Curtis Lofton grew up in Kingfisher an Oklahoma State fan. Went to OSU games. Had weak knees the first time Les Miles shook his hand. Had a lot of orange clothes in his closet.

Even after he gave a verbal commitment to Oklahoma — a statewide-televised ordeal for the third-ranked linebacker in the nation, per Rivals — Lofton attended that year’s Bedlam game adorned in crimson OU gear over an OSU T-shirt. Big Kenyatta Wright fan, you know.

He tells the story of his decision to commit to the Cowboys, receiving a scholarship offer that weekend, then calling the OSU football offices from school.

There was no answer. He called back three times, and three times, nobody answered.

Then, back in class, a little despondent, one of Lofton’s coaches knocked on the door. Brent Venables was on the phone, and he was offering a scholarship.

That’s how close one of the best linebackers in Oklahoma history came to being a Cowboy.

Lofton became a first-team All-American at OU, a game-changing defender, a hitter so fierce his grandmother asked him once why he hit those poor boys so hard.

Lofton played primarily special teams as a true freshman in 2005, and backed up Zach Latimer as a sophomore in 2006. But his junior year, he elevated himself and the Sooner defense with multiple game-saving takeaways and thunderous hits.

• Iowa State was trying to forge a 14-14 tie and had driven to the OU goal line when Lofton tipped a pass over the middle. D.J. Wolfe intercepted it in the end zone and OU drove for a Garrett Hartley field goal and a 17-7 victory.
• Against Missouri, with the Tigers having just taken a 29-24 lead, Lofton scooped up a fumbled handoff from Chase Daniel and scooted 12 yards for a touchdown and a 35-24 lead.
• In the Cotton Bowl, Jamaal Charles was heading into the end zone for what would have been a 21-14 Texas lead early in the third quarter, but Lofton chopped the football out of Charles' hands (Venables used to say Lofton hit ballcarriers with his “meat cleavers”) and Gerald McCoy recovered the fumble at the goal line. Two drives later, DeMarco Murray leaped and sprinted 65 yards for a touchdown.
• Lofton also sacked Daniel, roughed him up on a scramble and intercepted him to set up a Sooner touchdown in the Big 12 Championship Game in San Antonio.

Without every one of those plays, Oklahoma might not have won the Big 12 title that season.

Lofton finished his junior season with 157 tackles, 10 1/2 for loss and three interceptions. He was a consensus first-team All-American and might have been a key figure on OU’s 2008 run to the national championship game.

Curtis Lofton in New Orleans

Instead, he declared for the NFL Draft, became a second-round draft pick and played eight NFL seasons — four in Atlanta, three in New Orleans and one in Oakland.

Lofton was a tackle machine in the NFL, collecting 948 career stops, including 133, 118, 147, 123, 125 and 144 in his peak seasons.

He started all 16 games for six consecutive years and finished with 42 tackles for loss, eight quarterback sacks, three interceptions, 11 forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries.

Curtis Lofton in Oakland

Lofton somehow never made the Pro Bowl, but for six years, he was one of the league’s steadiest and hardest-hitting linebackers.

Who knows? Among his Sooners and Falcons and Saints and Raiders gear, maybe Lofton still has an old OSU T-shirt tucked in the bottom of a drawer somewhere.

Perhaps Lofton still wonders how his football career would have gone if someone in Stillwater had answered that phone.

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Our Top 20 list was chosen by five voters: SI Sooners publisher John Hoover, deputy editor Parker Thune, long-time OU fan and amateur Sooner historian Anthony Jumper, OU school of journalism student Caroline Grace, and OU history and stats expert Steven Smith (aka Blinkin Riley).

The criteria was simple: former Sooners who played at OU during the last 20 years and went on to an NFL career. The rest, i.e, their NFL career, was purely subjective. Players received 20 points for a first-place vote, 19 for second, etc., down to 1 point for 20th. A total of 28 players received votes.

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