James Vaughters
James Alan Vaughters (born June 27, 1993) is an American football linebacker for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at Stanford. Vaughters was signed by the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent in 2015. He has also been a member of the New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers, Chicago Bears, and Atlanta Falcons. Early life Vaughters was born to Jonathan and Vanessa Vaughters in Chicago, Illinois. He is the third of four children: Jahnisa Tate, Jonathan Vaughters, and younger sister Ryan Vaughters. After moving to Ohio in 1996, James and family moved to Stone Mountain, Georgia where he lived the rest of his childhood from 1999-2011. At Tucker High School in Tucker, Georgia, Vaughters accumulated accolades as a student, as a community mentor, and as an athlete. He graduated in the top 10% of his class with a 4.0 GPA, including a curriculum consisting of several AP classes. He helped Tucker to their first State Championship and two semi-final appearances. He was a top-recruited linebacker according to all the national recruiting platforms including ESPN, Scout, Rivals, MaxPreps, and PrepStar. As a senior, Vaughters had 95 tackles, 18 tackles for loss, four interceptions (one for touchdown), four sacks, and one fumble recovery (for a touchdown). He earned honors as an Under Armour All-American, 2010 Georgia Class 4A Defensive Player of the Year, DeKalb County All-Class Defensive Player of the Year, two-time Georgia Merit Scholar, two-time President's Education Award recipient, National Beta Club, National Honors Society, and a Franklin D. Watkins Award finalist for the nation’s top African-American scholar-athlete. He also appeared in several national publications including The Wall Street Journal. College career At Stanford University, Vaughters earned a degree in political science and played football. He started at outside linebacker for his junior and senior seasons, after contributing as both an inside and outside linebacker for his freshman and sophomore seasons. As a senior, Vaughters had 51 tackles, 11.0 tackles for loss, and 6.5 sacks in 13 games. He was the Defensive MVP of his final college football game in the 2014 Foster Farms Bowl. He played in the 2015 East-West Shrine Game, an annual college football all-star game held by Shriner's Hospital for Children. Vaughters is also a member of Omega Psi Phi and was involved in other student organizations including Men Against Abuse Now (MAAN) and the Stanford PACS (Philanthropy and Civil Society) Community Grants Program. Professional career Green Bay Packers After going undrafted in the 2015 NFL Draft, Vaughters signed with the Green Bay Packers on May 8, 2015. On September 5, 2015, he was released by the Packers during final team cuts. Vaughters was signed to the Packers' practice squad two days later. The team placed him on the practice squad injured list after suffering a torn left distal bicep tendon on September 30, 2015. He was released by the Packers with an injury settlement on October 3, 2015. New England Patriots On January 21, 2016, Vaughters signed