Daniel James Amendola ( ah-mən-DOH-lə; born November 2, 1985) is an American former professional football player who was a wide receiver in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Texas Tech Red Raiders and was signed by the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent in 2008.
After spending his entire rookie season on the Cowboys' practice squad, Amendola then spent part of the 2009 season on the practice squad of the Philadelphia Eagles before being signed by the St. Louis Rams. With the Rams, he began his career as an active player over four seasons. Amendola then spent the next five seasons with the New England Patriots where he appeared in three Super Bowls, winning two. He then had stints with the Miami Dolphins, Detroit Lions, and Houston Texans over the final four seasons of his career. In 2023, Amendola began a coaching position as an assistant/returners coach for the Las Vegas Raiders.
Amendola attended The Woodlands High School in The Woodlands, Texas, playing football under coach Weldon Willig. He completed his high school career by leading his team to its first-ever Texas state championship game, where they lost to North Shore High School. Amendola finished his senior season with 1,045 receiving yards, 129 rushing yards, and eight touchdowns.
Amendola finished his college career at Texas Tech with 204 receptions for 2,246 yards and 15 touchdowns. He also returned 116 punts for 1,283 yards and a touchdown, giving him an average of 11.06 yards per return, which ranks Amendola third all-time in school history in punt returns and yardage, behind only Wes Welker and Tyrone Thurman. Amendola's best year was his senior year, when he recorded 109 catches for 1,245 yards and six touchdowns.
As a freshman in 2004, Amendola saw limited duty on offense but was Tech's leading punt returner. He was named to the All-Big 12 first-team as punt return specialist. Amendola also caught 13 passes during the season, including a touchdown pass during the 2004 game against the Baylor Bears.
During the 2005 season, Amendola made two memorable plays that led to Red Raider victories. The first was late in the 2005 game against the Oklahoma Sooners. Tech was trailing and on fourth down, a Cody Hodges pass attempt was tipped, and Amendola made a leaping catch in traffic. He was tackled immediately and appeared to have been stopped just short of a first down. However, the spot was reviewed by the replay officials and the final spot of the ball resulted in a first down. The drive was kept alive and resulted in yet another disputed call—Taurean Henderson's stretch over the goal line on the final play of regulation, which gave the Red Raiders the victory over the Sooners.
Another game-changing play came when Amendola recovered the fumble from an intercepted pass during the final drive of the 2005 game against the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Tech needed a touchdown to win. Tech quarterback Cody Hodges's pass was tipped and intercepted. Instead of taking a knee to seal the victory, the Nebraska defender decided to run with the ball and had it stripped. Amendola dove for the loose ball and recovered it. Tech retained possession, resulting in a game-winning touchdown pass from Hodges to Joel Filani on fourth down with under 30 seconds remaining.
As a junior in 2006, Amendola had 48 receptions for 487 yards and five touchdowns.
As a senior in 2007, Amendola had 109 receptions for 1,245 yards and six touchdowns.
Amendola majored in Communication Studies while at Texas Tech, but left early to train for the NFL Combine.
Amendola drew numerous comparisons to former Texas Tech receiver Wes Welker, whose NFL career included stints with the Miami Dolphins, the New England Patriots, and the Denver Broncos, as the two have similar builds (Welker is 5'9", 185 lb, while Amendola is 5'11", 183 lb), and played the same positions at Texas Tech (slot receiver and punt returner).
Amendola signed as an undrafted free agent with the Dallas Cowboys on April 27, 2008. His attempt to make it to the NFL was featured on the HBO special Hard Knocks. Amendola was cut by the Cowboys on August 30 and re-signed to the practice squad after clearing waivers. He spent the entire 2008 regular season on the team's practice squad, and never saw regular season action.
After his contract expired with the Cowboys, Amendola was signed to the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad on January 6, 2009. Following the season, Amendola was re-signed to a future contract on January 19, 2009. He was waived during final cuts on September 5, 2009. He was re-signed to their practice squad on September 6, 2009, but never played a down in the regular season.
Amendola was signed off the Eagles' practice squad by the St. Louis Rams on September 22, 2009. The Rams signed Amendola after hiring former Philadelphia Eagles' quarterbacks coach Pat Shurmur to be their offensive coordinator. In his first NFL regular season action in 2009, he caught 43 passes for 326 yards and one touchdown as a slot receiver. He also returned 66 kickoffs for 1,618 yards and 31 punts for 360 yards. He started in six games in 2010, an increase from his two starts in 2009. In 2010, Amendola led the NFL in all-purpose yards with 2,364, including 689 yards on 85 receptions, 81 yards on 7 rushing attempts, 1,142 yards on 50 kickoff returns, and 452 yards on 40 punt returns.
In 2011, Amendola sustained an upper-arm injury in the first game of the season that resulted in him missing the remaining 15 games of the season after he underwent season-ending triceps surgery to repair the damage.
On September 16, 2012, Amendola had 12 catches in the first half in a Week 2 game against the Washington Redskins that tied the record for most catches in a half set by Reggie Wayne in 2007. He finished the game with career-highs with 15 receptions for 160 yards to go along with a receiving touchdown.
On October 4, 2012, Amendola suffered a dislocated clavicle in the second quarter of the game versus the Arizona Cardinals. In a rare case, instead of popping out, the clavicle popped in and came millimeters from puncturing his trachea and aorta, which could have killed him. Rams' medical staff called around the league for information, but no teams reported ever having a player suffer a similar injury. Amendola was anesthetized before popping the clavicle back into place. Due to the unusual nature of the injury the Rams were not certain when Amendola would return, but he was able to recover after just three weeks and recorded 11 catches for 102 yards in a hard-fought tie with the San Francisco 49ers. He finished the season with 804 total yards, including 666 yards on 63 receptions and 122 yards on 17 punt returns.
Amendola joined Mark Chapman and Mike Carlson for the BBC's coverage of Super Bowl XLVI on February 5, 2012.