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Eric Hicks (American football)

player of American football

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ5386725 ↗
Source-derived summary

Eric David Hicks (born June 17, 1976) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL). He was signed by the Kansas City Chiefs as an undrafted free agent in 1998. He played college football for the Maryland Terrapins.

Hicks was also a member of the New York Jets and the Detroit Lions.

Early life

Hicks attended Mercyhurst Preparatory School in Erie, Pennsylvania from 1991 to 1994 after transferring there before his sophomore year. As a senior, he posted 6.0 sacks, and 68 tackles. He was also named First-team All-Metro. In 2006, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award.

College career

Hicks attended the University of Maryland, College Park, majoring in criminology and criminal justice, where he finished his career with 9.5 sacks, 147 tackles (26 for losses), three forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries, and three pass deflections.

Professional career

Kansas City Chiefs

Hicks was an undrafted free agent in 1998 when he made the Kansas City Chiefs opening day roster, the only rookie free agent to make the club's opening day roster that year.

Editorial summary

“Eric Hicks (American football)” enters the record as player of American football. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Eric, Hicks and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1976, 1998, 1991, 1994—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1976-06-17. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Eric, Hicks and American.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Eric Hicks (American football)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Eric, Hicks and American provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5386725. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1976, 1998, 1991 and 1994.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Eric Hicks (American football)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Eric Hicks (American football) primary sources, Eric Hicks (American football) archive and Eric research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Eric Hicks (American football)”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Eric Hicks (American football)” 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.