Antonio Alfano

Antonio Alfano (born November 10, 2000) is an American-Canadian gridiron football defensive tackle for the Edmonton Elks of the Canadian Football League (CFL).

High school career
Alfano was born on November 10, 2000, in Livingston, New Jersey. Raised in Rahway, New Jersey, Alfano attended the local public schools through eighth grade before enrolling at Bergen Catholic High School. He transferred to Rahway High School in his hometown, before moving from Rahway to the Avenel section of Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, and transferring to Colonia High School in New Jersey. As a senior, Alfano was a 5-star recruit and the fifth-ranked overall player in the class of 2019, and was named to the All-American team by MaxPreps. He received scholarship offers from Alabama, Notre Dame, Florida State, Florida, LSU, USC, Miami, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers and others.

College career
As a freshman at Alabama, Alfano was absent from class and practices in September for unspecified reasons, though Alfano's father tweeted that his absence may have stemmed from Alfano's grandmother, who had been in ill-health at the time. Alfano entered the NCAA transfer portal on September 13, 2019, and Colorado Buffaloes head coach (and former Alabama Crimson Tide defensive backs coach) Mel Tucker announced that Alfano had transferred to Colorado on November 4, 2019. Alabama head coach Nick Saban addressed Alfano's time with the team by saying Alfano, "basically quit." He did not play any games for the Crimson Tide.

Buffaloes head coach Mel Tucker had previously recruited Alfano to Georgia, where Tucker was the Defensive Coordinator at the time. One month after Alfano officially enrolled at Colorado, Buffaloes head coach Mel Tucker left the program to take the same position at Michigan State University, while Alfano's position coach at Colorado, Jimmy Brumbaugh, also left the program the same week to take a coaching job at the University of Tennessee. On May 29, 2020, it was reported that Alfano was no longer enrolled at Colorado and no longer a member of the football team. As of August 19, 2020, Alfano was reinstated to the football team.

Without playing a game at Colorado, Alfano transferred to Independence Community College, but also never saw game action. After a year out of football, Alfano joined Lackawanna College in Pennsylvania where he played in five games, recording 14 tackles, eight tackles for loss, four sacks, one pass knockdown and one forced fumble.

Edmonton Elks
The Edmonton Elks drafted Alfano in the 2024 CFL supplemental draft. He obtained Canadian citizenship via his mother who is from Toronto but wasn't able to formally acquire it in time to be eligible for the 2024 CFL draft.