Sport: Football
Born: February 9, 1988
Town: Burlington, New Jersey
Rod William Streater was born February 9, 1988 in Burlington, NJ. Rod and his older brother, Kevin, were superb all-around athletes with great speed and coordination. They were also strategic thinkers; both learned to play chess as boys and, in college and the NFL, Rod was always looking for a game. Rod played receiver and defensive back for Burlington Township High School under coach Tom Maderia. He and Kashif Moore—who went on to play for UConn and later in the NFL—were the stars of the Falcons. Rod earned all-conference honors at defensive back as a senior.
Rod spent two years at Alfred State College in upstate New York, where he also starred from the track team. He was an All-American in the high jump. In 2010, Rod accepted a football scholarship from Temple University. In two years with the Owls, whose offense was run-oriented, he caught 49 passes. Those numbers were not enough to merit the attention of NFL draft experts, however Rod was invited to try out of the Raiders in the summer of 2012 and he made the club.
Rod caught a touchdown pass from Carson Palmer in an Opening Day loss to the Chargers and saw sporadic playing time all season behind receivers Denarius Moore and Darius Heyward-Bey. Rod had his first 100-yard receiving game in a December meeting with the Broncos. He finished his rookie year with 39 catches for 584 yards and 3 touchdowns. The Raiders finished 4–12.
In 2013, Rod became Oakland’s #1 receiver. He caught 60 passes for 888 yards and 4 touchdowns. Two of those scoring catches came in wins over the Chargers and Texans. His most productive day was a 130-yard 1-touchdown effort in a loss to the Jets. Once again, however, the Raiders finished 4–12.
In 2014, Rod was joined in the Oakland receiving corps by veteran James Jones, who signed with the Raiders after seven productive seasons with the Green Bay Packers. What could have been an awesome one-two punch failed to materialize when, early in the year, Rod fractured his foot. The silver lining in this dark cloud was that he was able to spend time with his mother, who passed away from breast cancer in October. The 2015 season saw Rod struggle to earn playing time. He was a healthy scratch most of the year, and caught just one pass. In 2016, Rod was dealt across the bay to the San Francsico 49ers. He played in all 16 games, but was rarely the first read for Colin Kapernick or Blaine Gabbert, who split the quarterback job in a dreadful 2–14 season. Rod caught only 18 passes and scored twice. One of those TDs came with 31 seconds left against the Rams to make the score 21–20. Kapernick ran the 2-point conversion into the end zone for a 22–21 win.
Rod’s final NFL season was 2018, with the Cleveland Browns. A broken neck suffered in Week 6 against the Chargers ended his playing career, but the Browns retained Rod and added him to their scouting staff.