Barry Word
American football player
Barry Quentin Word (born January 17, 1964), nicknamed "the Last Word", is an American former professional football player who was a running back in the National Football League (NFL).
Early life
Barry Quentin Word was born on January 17, 1964, in Long Island, Virginia. He attended Halifax County High School in South Boston, Virginia.
College career
Word played college football at the University of Virginia. In 1985, he ran for 1224 yards, which is currently the fifth most rushing yards total put up by a Virginia Cavaliers running back. Also in 1985, Word was the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year.
Professional career
Barry Word was selected in the third round, 62nd overall, by the New Orleans Saints in the 1986 NFL draft. Shortly after being drafted, he and two other Virginia athletes were indicted on cocaine distribution charges. The Saints did not offer a contract to Word after his indictment but retained his football rights. Word pleaded guilty, but his willingness to cooperate and his limited involvement in the case meant he only received 5 months in prison.
“Barry Word” enters the record as american football player. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Barry, Word and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Barry Word” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Barry, Word and American provides the most credible route into that argument.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4864912. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1964, 1985, 1224 and 1986.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “Barry Word” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.