Antonio Michael Freeman (born May 27, 1972 in Baltimore, Maryland) is a former American football wide receiver in the National Football League, most notably for the Green Bay Packers. He attended the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, dominating his high school conference. Freeman played college football at Virginia Tech. He was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the 1995 NFL Draft and in his rookie season returned a punt for a touchdown during a playoff win over Atlanta.
The peak of Freeman's career occurred during his first tenure with the Green Bay Packers including a victory in Super Bowl XXXI in 1997 over the New England Patriots. During that Super Bowl Freeman caught a Super Bowl record-length touchdown pass of 81 yards from Brett Favre, since eclipsed. That play would give the Packers the lead for good as they went on to win 35-21. In the course of that Super Bowl season, Freeman made several acrobatic catches for touchdowns from QB Brett Favre, several of them jaw-dropping, while also gaining another 104 yards on 6 kickoff returns, giving him 230 total yards, the third highest total in Super Bowl history.
In 1998, Freeman had his best NFL season, catching 84 passes for a league leading 1,424 receiving yards and making his first, (and only), trip to the NFL Pro Bowl.
Wearing uniform #86 in his career, he made what ESPN in 2005 labeled as the greatest play in the history of Monday Night Football. During the game on November 6, 2000, he caught a presumed incomplete pass in bad conditions from Brett Favre on his back against the Green Bay Packers rival the Minnesota Vikings. He then quickly and alertly got up and waltzed into the end zone for the winning score in overtime. The touchdown prompted ABC play-by-play announcer Al Michaels, who was obviously stunned by the play, to famously say, "He did WHAT???"
Antonio Freeman played for the Green Bay Packers from 1995 through the 2001 NFL season. After feuding with Packers Head Coach Mike Sherman in 2001, Freeman signed with the Philadelphia Eagles. His final game in his first Packers tenure was against the St. Louis Rams during the 2001 NFL playoffs. He then went on to play a year for the Eagles in 2002 before coming back to Green Bay for the 2003 season and a second tenure with the club. His final catch with the Packers occurred on the road in December 2003 during the 4th quarter of Brett Favre's phenomenal performance against the Oakland Raiders on ABC's Monday Night Football, following the death of Favre's father. He played his final game with Green Bay in the infamous "4th and 26" debacle in the NFL playoffs against the Philadelphia Eagles in January 2004. Freeman last played in the NFL with the Miami Dolphins during 2004 training camp.
In his 10 NFL seasons, Freeman caught 477 passes for 7,251 yards, gained 1,007 yards returning kickoffs and punts, and scored 64 touchdowns. His teams made the playoffs in seven of his NFL seasons. He appeared in four NFC Championship Games and two Super Bowls. He ranks 5th all-time on the Green Bay Packers receivers list with 6,651 yards on 431 catches. Antonio Freeman had three 1,000 yard receiving seasons in his career, 1997-1999. Nicknamed "Free", in 2006 Freeman won a Pop Warner Award for his work with youth. He played in the Pro Bowl in 1999 and participated in the NFL Alumni skills competition at the February 2007 Pro Bowl.
On June 16, 2007, Freeman re-signed with the Packers. In the eight years that he played with the Packers he had 431 catches, which is the 5th most number of catches in Packer history. Sources say that he re-signed to the team with intentions of retiring as a Packer.
