Mike Hammerstein
All-American college football player, professional football player, defensive lineman
Michael Scott Hammerstein (born March 3, 1963) is an American former professional football player who was a defensive lineman in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Michigan Wolverines, principally as a defensive tackle, from 1981 to 1985. He was selected as a consensus All-American in 1985. Hammerstein played in the NFL for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1986 to 1987 and 1989 to 1990. He appeared in 56 NFL games, two of them as a starter at defensive end.
Early life
Hammerstein was born in Kokomo, Indiana, in 1963. He was raised in Wapakoneta, Ohio, and attended Wapakoneta High School.
College career
Hammerstein enrolled at the University of Michigan in 1981 and played college football for head coach Bo Schembechler's Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1981 to 1985. As freshman in 1981, he played on the offensive line and started one game at the middle guard position. As a sophomore in 1982, Hammerstein was moved to the defense.
The public source identifies “Mike Hammerstein” as all-American college football player, professional football player, defensive lineman. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mike, Hammerstein and All-American.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Mike Hammerstein”, the useful work is to connect “all-American college football player, professional football player, defensive lineman” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
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 Jul 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6847122. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1963, 1981, 1985 and 1986.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. 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.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mike Hammerstein” 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.