Sport: Football
Born: November 17, 1996
Town: Old Bridge, New Jersey
Minkah Annan Fitzpatrick Jr. was born November 17, 1996 in Old Bridge, NJ. From an early age, Minkah demonstrated great speed, anticipation and aggressiveness in youth-league sports. He enrolled at St. Peter’s Prep for high school, which was an hour away, in Jersey City. He car-pooled with football coach Rich Hansen, who developed him into a shutdown defensive back. At the beginning of Minkah’s freshman year, Hurricane Irene blew through Old Bridge and badly damaged the Fitzpatricks’ home. Minkah worked with his father each evening after football practice to repair and restore the house. Coach Hansen gave his young star the keys to his own home so he’d have a safe place to do his schoolwork.
As a senior in 2014, Minkah’s work on defense helped St. Peter’s win a state championship. He also contributed 1,111 receiving yards and a dozen touchdowns on offense, earning All-America recognition from USA Today. By then, he had already set his sights on a gridiron career and achieved his first goal when he earned a scholarship to the University of Alabama in 2015. Minkah cracked the starting lineup as a first-year cornerback and was named a Freshman All-American. The Crimson Tide defense was superb, beating a half-dozen Top 20 teams on its way to a national championship showdown with #1 Clemson. The Tide rolled to a 45–40 win in a thrilling see-saw battle.
Alabama did not lose its next game until a year later, when Clemson exacted revenge in another barnburner, 35–31. But what a year it was for Minkah and his defensive mates. They allowed just 11.8 points per game, the best mark in Division–I. Minkah contributed six interceptions and 62 tackles to the cause, broke up seven passes and had a sack and a forced fumble. Three of his picks came in an October shootout with #16 Arkansas, including one he returned for a 100-yard touchdown. He also intercepted passes against Florida in the SEC Championship and Washington in the national championship semifinal. Minkah finished the year as a consensus All-American.
As a junior in 2017, Minkah was one of four team captains for the Tide. He learned a new position, safety, and he played it well. He was a unanimous All-American again and scooped up a ton of hardware, including the Bednarik and Thorpe Awards. Alabama made its third straight trip to the National Championship game and won for the second time, beating Georgia 26–23 in overtime. That would be Minkah’s final appearance on a college football field. At 6’1” and 200 pounds he possessed the size and speed to play either safety or cornerback in the NFL. His championship pedigree made him a certain first-round pick. Sure enough, he went #11 in the 2018 draft to the Miami Dolphins.
Minkah took to the pros right away, earning a starting job in the season’s first month. He could stay with the fleetest wideouts but could also hold his own with more physical tight ends and slot receivers. He was credited with 80 tackles and picked off passes against two top quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Kirk Cousins, returning Cousins’s for a 50-yard touchdown. The Dolphins had hoped to rebuild its defense around Minkah, but for every step forward Miami seemed to take two steps back. In 2019, Minkah became vocal about this lack of progress and lobbied for a trade. The Dolphins accommodated him with a Week 3 deal that brought back three draft picks from the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In-season trades of top players are relatively rare, and they rarely work as well as the receiving team hopes. In this case, the Steelers got all they hoped for and more. Pittsburgh loved to disguise its coverages and Minkah proved to be a young master in this scheme at free safety. An elbow injury to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was all that kept the team out of the playoffs, as they came up a win short. For his part, Minkah was named a first-team All-Pro in just his second NFL season. He had five interceptions, 68 tackles, forced two fumbles and recovered three more.
With Big Ben back in the huddle for the 2020 season, Pittsburgh seemed almost unstoppable. In an October win over the Browns, Minkah intercepted a Baker Mayfield pass and ran it back for a 37-yard touchdown, giving him a pick-six in each of his first three NFL seasons. A week later he broke up Lamar Jackson’s would-be game-winning pass in the end zone in a victory over the Ravens. Minkah had a pair of interceptions in a 27–3 shellacking of the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Steelers’ record stood at 10–0 at that point and dreams of a Super Bowl trip danced in the heads of Pittsburgh fans. That would not come to pass, as the team ran out of gas down the stretch and fell to the Browns in the playoffs. For his part, Minkah finished 2020 with four interceptions and 60 solo tackles, earning first-team All-Pro honors once again.
Minkah upped his tackle total to 124 in 2021, including 84 solo tackles. He also picked off a pair of passes. The Steelers went 9–7–1 and made the playoffs in Roethlisberger’s farewell season. The fun run ended in the Wild Card game when they were overwhelmed by the Chiefs, 42–21.
Minkah entered the 2022 campaign as the highest-paid safety in the league at over $18 million a year. He earned his money immediately, returning a Joe Burrow pass for a touchdown in the Steelers’ opening game against the Bengals—and later blocking the potential game-winning extra point, which enabled Pittsburgh to win in overtime, 23–20. Minkah finished the year with 96 tackles and six interceptions and was named First-Team All-Pro for the third time in four seasons.
In 2023, Minkah struggled with injuries for the first time in his pro career. He took the field in only 10 of the Steelers’ 17 games, but was good when he did, earning a Pro Bowl pick. After sitting out the team’s final three games, he was able to play in their playoff meeting with the Bills. Minkah recorded five solo tackles and five assists in a 31–17 loss.